munich, part 1 (7/5/11)

Geez, I barely just finished writing about Brunnenburg in here, and now I'm already almost at Berlin?! Crazy. Let's try to knock out my thoughts on my brief time in Munich before my train arrives.
So I arrived in Munich on Sunday afternoon and was overwhelmed by the train station. It is giant, and it's much bigger (or at least it seems that way) than any other station I've been to in Europe yet. It has 30+ platforms! And right as you get off the train, there's two whole stories of restaurants staring at you. It wasn't very helpful, given my hunger level, but I wanted to get to my hostel first. After getting a three-day transportation pass, I ended up taking some time to look at a series of award-winning photos on display near the entrance. The categories ranged from nature to everyday life to horrific situations--mostly leaning toward the last category. I saw glimpses of disasters that I both knew and didn't know about, going on all over the world: Pakistan, Thailand, China, the U.S.., Africa, and the Middle East. The photos were excellent, but it was also heartbreaking and even sickening to think about the things people do to each other or to themselves. Jesus, our world is more broken now than ever before. Please come back soon.
As I took the tram to my hostel, I wasn't that impressed by what I saw of Munich on the ride there. It probably didn't help that the sky was gray and we weren't in the city center, but still. I guess it also wasn't very pedestrian (at least from what I saw), which isn't the case of most cities I've been in so far, and that's a minus in my book. Anyway, I got to the Tent, my hostel, and it literally is just three big tents with a ton of bunk beds and lockers inside, haha. But it's not too bad, especially for only 10 euro a night. Plus, I'm a low-maintenance girl anyway :)
After checking in, I was really hungry, so I made the mistake of eating a pasta dinner at the hostel. It was pretty cheap, and I appreciated the veggies in it, but it was so tasteless! Boo. However, the rest of my night turned out well--on one of the hostel workers' recommendations, I went to check out the Tollwood Festival at Olympic Park, and that was a lot of fun. It was like BISA Fest meets International Fest (and Renaissance Festival a bit, even?)--just a ton of market stalls selling either food or other products from different countries. The products ranged from jewelry to house decorations to other things. There were also a lot of bars and a few big tents with performers inside. In one of the tents, there was a BISA Fest-like thing going on--different ethnic youth groups performed cultural dances, with costumes and everything. There were even three judges giving feedback. I'm not sure if there was a winner, but it was enjoyable to watch. It made me realize also that America isn't the only melting pot out there. That's probably pretty ignorant of me, but I'd never seen proof of it, I guess (other than tourists, which doesn't quite count). It's also cool to see tha tregardless of where you are, people are still fascinated by and celebrate other cultures :) yay multiculturalism! I also had a spinach pancake to make up for my tasteless pasta, and it was so good--kinda like thousand-layer pancake. So worth 5 euro. I think the novelty of eating something also enhances my enjoyment of it, so if I really am set on eating something, work up the appetite, and eat it, I'm extremely content.
Overall, the festival was a lot of fun, even by myself. Sadly, it started to rain pretty hard and get chilly after a while, so I headed back (and received grace from strangers once again in finding my tram stop!). Once I got back, I opted to just go to bed (yep, at 11 p.m.). Three blankets for the win!