MUNCHIN' IN MUNICH

Back at it again to finally finish my final Eurotrip post, and we're finally arrived at our last city, Munich, Germany.

To be honest I kinda don't remember how I get to this city, I can only remembered arriving at the Hauptbahnhof station around 7AM. First impression, this city was freakin cold, I think it was 10C when I'm arrived. We also saw a lot of Bayern Munchen supporters roaming around the station yelling their chant over and over again only wearing shorts in that cold weather.

Our hotel was located 5 mins walk from that central station so it is very easy for us to access anywhere. I also managed to find my favorite food in Munich which is pretzel with cheese filling and chunks of salt on top at Yorma's. SO GOOD!

Yorma's Cheese Pretzel

We first went for a stroll around Marienplatz. See these buildings and colors? Welcome to Hogwarts! JK, this is not England. I noticed the city has a lot of old Medieval style building. FYI, I hate movies and TV series that takes place in Medieval era. But still, it was cartoon-ey and aesthetically pleasing.

Marienplatz

DISCLAIMER: we basically went for palace/ castle -hopping during our visit here, and all of palaces we've visited prohibit cameras during the tour, so for sure there were not much pictures to show but all of these palaces are VERY OVER THE TOP. comparable to Versailles.

First, we went to Schloss Nymphenburg. This palace was used as summer residence by the rulers of Bavaria, also known as House of Wittlesbach. Too bad the weather always gloomy during our 3-day visit there. The architecture style in Bavaria castles are mostly done in Baroque style. Very intricate. The highlight was the marble hall, it was beautiful.

Entrance

Marble Hall

The only room we can take photos at

"Backyard"

And then we went to BMW museum! You cannot go to Germany without looking for their crazy architecture and technology. Although I cannot do any test-ride on these cars, i am happy to just to be able to sit in  the car and play around with the interior. 

By Henry Royce

Luigi and Guido?

The second day we went for 30 mins train ride to Schloss Herrenchiemsee. This palace is CRAZY! First of all, it was located in the middle of a lake. We need to switch for a 10 mins choo-choo train ride, and then switch to a boat to arrive at the small island. You think we've arrived? not yet. We still have to go through this small forest by foot to get to the palace. Was it worth it? YES. 

This castle was built by the crazy King Ludwig II. He is famous for his interest in technology and I think this also the reason why Germany always linked to technology. The king's bedroom features this blue crystal ball which I totally forgot what it was meant for but pretty sure it has something to do with the king's love for the sun and universe-thing. The rest, you can pretty much google about it and get fascinated by how lavish this palace was.

Source: pinterest

Pro-tip: pre-book tour tickets beforehand to avoid crowd.

Either Front/ Back Entrance

Those fountains represent greek mythical gods

How amazing!

Fountain overlooking the lake

On the last full day we're on Munich we decided to go to the Schloss Newscwanstein. To get here, we went for I think 1 hour train ride, followed by a bus ride for a cheaper option to get to the bottom  part of the castles/ hills. First stop, Schloss Hohenschwangau. This castle was built by King Ludwig II father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. Out of all other castle/ palace I've visited, this one is the most "basic" one, built in Medieval era. The view was absolutely amazing in here!

Medieval Style

Beautiful lake view

Sneak peek of the Neuschwanstein Castle

Next stop is the famous Schloss Neuschwanstein! Fun fact, this castle was the reference of Disney's Cinderella castle. It's real guys. To reach this castle we need to either hike for 20 mins or take a bus ride. We of course opted for the bus ride 😜

This is the craziest castle I've ever visited! It is basically King Ludwig's dream land. It features flushing toilet (imagine, in that era!), a telephone line, a theatre, an artificial cave and waterfall. Although this castle still remains unfinished, it was definitely worth visit!

Front Yard

So that's the recap of my visit to Munich, most of it was definitely unforgettable experience. We've encountered racism, walking on rain due to missing the choo-choo train schedule and getting that "such a cheapskate" look from a waitress because we shared a ginormous size of a chicken schnitzel. 

That freakin ginormous chicken schnitzel

SUNNY GREECE!

Yo! let's praise my own willingness to write another post about my 2016 Eurotrip in 2018! (such an  achievement right?) Jokes aside, I am writing this because i really wanted to just finish these posts and move on.

So let's talk about the country I am exited about after France; GREECE! and let's discuss the things that makes me wanted to visit this country so bad shall we?

1. I grew up playing this PC game called Zeus (anyone can relate?) and it's basically we play god and build a city. The game was set in ancient Greece where from this game I learned about building temples, understanding various gods, commodities and other fun stuff.

2. I just finished watching this VERY popular korean drama called "Descendant of the Sun" where there was a scene at the Navagio beach whereby a shipwreck stranded on the shore and it was very gorgeous, but too bad we did not actually visit anywhere outside Athens.

The first day we arrived, just like when we arrive in other countries, we would opted to go with train/subway for the cheapest transportation to the city but apparently that would be a wrong choice because I did not remembered exactly how much, i think it was around 60 EUR/person. So freakin expensive, so later we opted to go by bus which obviously takes a lot longer and we need to change a few lanes to get to our hostel. We've noticed that the city don't have any skyscraper buildings, it looks like Jakarta in 80's or 90's.

Somewhere downtown Athens

This is also the same

We bought our first Souvlaki which packed with meat and fries in a huge roll of pita bread. It was really cheap and FYI, out of all countries in Europe, bottled water in Greece is the cheapest! We used to be that cheapskate and always refill our bottle at the hotel before leaving but now we can buy water from the vending machine. We also tried Moussaka which looks like lasagna stuffed with eggplant, minced beef and tomato. My favorite dish would be Bougatsa because I've seen it a lot on TV but never across finding it in Jakarta. It's basically a dessert i would say, (similar to) pastry dough on the outside and a thick filling on the inside. It was very good! The weirdest food we've tried would be Saganaki which is literally "fried cheese".

Moussaka

Saganaki

Ok, onto the sightseeing. I mean what's the point of going to Greece without visiting the temples right? so we did went to the Acropolis. It was a huge area where on top of the hills you can finally see the temple ruins. We are awed by the fact that most of the area of the Acropolis are built with marbles. You need to be careful tho because it is a bit slippery.

Not to discourage you but to be honest I would not really recommend on going to the Acropolis area because it still being renovated after the war, so you can not really see it as a whole as it still has a lot of construction things on the temples, and the reason I get really disappointed is because the fact that you cannot see any of the gods statue there, AT ALL with a very pricey admission ticket. You need to go to this museum on the other side of the hill and pay another admission ticket and they did not even have the Athena statue there. They said it got ruined (i think most likely stolen) during the war with Romans. What a total disappointment.

View from halfway to the top

Another view halfway to the top

Erechtheum Temple

Behind me is the Parthenon Temple where Athena statue is nowhere to be found :(

Parthenon Temple

Notice that pictures above look like it was taken on a gloomy day? It was actually freakin hot outside and apparently there was a sandstorm somewhere and the dust are traveled and cover the whole sky of this city. As disappointed as I was with the fact that I cannot even find a single statue standing in this area, I was impressed on how rich and cultured this country was, everything were made out of marbles and there are still "something" left for people to see as a witness of how successful this country was.

To make that up, let me give you a 180 degrees pictures of the actual beauty of Greece here:

Fun fact: random ruins are scattered around the city

None of these photos are edited

These cute-colored houses are everywhere

How beautiful are these houses!

So that would be the highlight of my trip to Greece, to sum everything up I would say the Mediterranean breezy weather was really nice, every picture taken there looks stunning because it contrast with the blue sky. People here are also very nice and welcoming. Prices are fairly good and the food tasted amazing.