Germany: Munich
Munich was the 9th stop in #FLeuro2016, my backpacking trip across Europe. We actually didn’t get to explore much and spent most of our days relaxing at restaurants and cafes and watching Netflix. Why?
Because there was a shooting.
On the day we arrived to Munich, there was a mall shooting within a 30 minute walk from our airbnb. Even our airbnb host messaged us to see if everything was alright.
Fatima and I actually had no idea there was a shooting. We were at a local pub eating pork hock (amazing btw).
Pickpockets, shootings and terrorist attacks were all in my mom’s “Scary things that happen in this world” lecture when I first told her about my backpacking trip to Europe. This summer there had been multiple attacks that may or may not be linked together, but so far, nothing bad has happened to us on our trip – no pickpockets, no gypsies (they exist), no big trucks and strange men kidnapping us. We saw soldiers in many tourist locations, but I had always dismissed them as just an act to reassure the public, not because there really was a threat to public safety (who really knows I guess).
The mall shooting wasn’t linked to terrorism – just a crazy guy – but it did freak us out a little since we were planning on going to that mall the next day.
Fatima was against the idea of going to the mall the next day, but we ended up going because who would attack the same place 2 days in a row? I guess the news could have triggered or lead to a chain of similar events or encouraged some other crazy person to pull the same stunt. Some of the stores were closed the next day but for the most part, everything was normal except the area was quieter and emptier than expected.
The next day, we visited the English Garden, a gigantic park where all the young people of Munich hang out, apparently. The park was just too large to walk completely through. We stopped to watch some surfers surf in a river inside the park (kind of looked like sewage water) and there was another section down the river where we saw folks tubing down peacefully.
We wish we brought a picnic blanket or something to relax on, but we did stumble on a random beer garden party by the Angel of Peace. By this time, we were very familiar with our favourite German drink – radler, which is half beer and half lemonade in a big jug.
We spent the rest of our days in Munich sitting in on random outdoor music concerts in the park and drinking at the Augustiner Bräustuben, which is a giant beer hall (think of a church… but everyone loves beer).
I guess you can say we were pretty tired. Munich was our second-last stop. And we were running low on money.
Sincerely, Loewe