Munich, mass and Mozart

Step off the plane at Franz Josef Strauss Airport and be confronted by beer halls and, throughout the Christmas season, the terminal’s very own Christmas market. Good preparation for what’s to follow – and just the beginning. A short 45-minute train ride to Marienplatz and you’re in the city centre. Exit the U-bahn and stumble straight into one of the many beer halls.

Your first stop will most likely be Hofbräuhaus, located just five minutes from the centre. It’s the most famous of Munich’s beer-drinking establishments, and for a good reason. Having lived here for four months now, with the tourist fever now long gone, a visit to Hofbräu is always fun. Owned by the Bavarian State Government, this place knows how to brew beer.
They, like the five other ‘Big Six’ breweries in Munich, still conform to the 1516 purity laws which state that all beer brewed in Germany must only be produced from water, barley and hops. This deep-rooted respect for their beer really shows. The ‘Helles’ (light beer) goes down easily, a deceiving ‘Mass’ (1 litre glass of beer) taking the same amount of time to consume as your good old British pint.

Founded in 1589 by the Duke of Bavaria, it was originally a brewery to the Royal Residence. Mozart lived round the corner and, as the story goes, he wrote the opera Idomeneo after several visits to Hofbräuhaus fortified him for the task.
It was also one of the places the Nazi Party used to declare policies, with Hitler proclaiming the twenty-five theses of the National Socialist Party there one winter’s day in 1920. The place is steeped in history and has maintained its character to this day. No matter how many thousands of tourists flock through its doors, it is not crass or cheap in any way.

Although it is impossible to recreate the wonders of Oktoberfest, Hofbräu comes pretty close. The Oompah band set the scene, churning out old Bavarian classics that you soon get to know and love every night without fail. Long wooden tables line an open-plan hall in their hundreds. There is room for over 4,500 beer-drinkers and most nights it will reach somewhere near this figure. This is not the place for a quiet drink, that’s for sure. The long tables make for a sociable atmosphere.

If you can, try to make friends with some Americans. You’ll usually have a few drinks in it for you if you do. The Aussies are always a good laugh, too, but then there are the Bavarians. This place is most certainly not just for tourists, which is one of the brilliant things about it. It brings together a really wide array of people, young and old, German and non-German, all sitting together, ‘prosting’ (Prost is German for ‘cheers’) to a good ‘Gemütlichkeit’ (the best translation of this is “a cosy atmosphere”).

Feeling tipsy after a couple of Mass, it is easy to just stand around, maybe take a stroll, and just marvel at the beauty of the city. The year 1158 is cited as the formation date and, although the buildings don’t date back this far, the historical significance of the city is apparent wherever you walk, with 18th and 19th century grandiose buildings aplenty. The Frauenkirche near Marienplatz, Peterskirche and Residenz Palace Complex (begun in 1385) are must-sees for any sightseer. That said, it is equally fulfilling wandering around any number of streets within the old city centre or in the University district.

And what a place to study this is: the University was founded in 1472. Having studied at Warwick for two years, I must say I never realised how much the environment in which you study affects the amount you learn and even your mentality towards learning in general. The impressive, 200-year-old buildings, which were home to the White Rose anti–Nazi Youth movement in the 1940s, provide the ideal conditions for being in the right frame of mind for studying. Warwick is definitely lacking in this respect. Sometimes the bland grey buildings just can’t inspire the inner curious mind that is so crucial to productive university study.
But studying in a vibrant, cosmopolitan city such as Munich also brings with it many challenges. Firstly, there is the obvious language issue. To anyone wanting to get the most out of an Erasmus year, I would recommend trying to boost your language skills as much as possible before going, as it’s easy falling back on English once you get to your country of choice and then never fully integrating with locals.

When studying abroad it’s simple to get into the mindset of a tourist, which in a way we are (albeit for an entire year), justifying pretty much any lack of study by ‘cultural learning’ or exploring the city and surrounding areas. With so many historical landmarks of continuing importance on your doorstep, a colourful international mix of fellow students and a considerable Erasmus grant (cheers, British taxpayer) keeping you topped up, it’s sometimes hard to stay in to study when the alternative is so much more attractive.

Now, on to the real issues regarding living in the Fatherland: supermarkets. If you’re expecting a more environmentally-friendly, BIO version of M&S, think again. No ready meals on offer here. If you don’t feel capable of doing anything much more than turning an oven knob to 200 and slumming it out for the night, your choices are very much limited to the dough, cheese and tomato (maybe a bit of mushroom, too, if you’re lucky) creations of Dr. Oetker et. al. No Simply Cook range here or endless aisles packed full of Italian pasta dishes ready to go, salt and saturated fat RDA ticked off in one.
And then there’s the extremely infuriating opening hours. Every supermarket, without exception, is open no earlier than 7am and no later than 8pm. Obviously no opening whatsoever on Sundays.

Forget to do your shopping on the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend and it’s two days of ready meals, by which I mean pizza of course. The reason for this tight shopping regulation still remains a mystery to me. Anyhow, I will never take the 24-hour Canley Tesco for granted again.
The liberal, beer- fuelled good cheer is infectious. Combine this with one of the most historically and architecturally beautiful cities I have ever seen and you’re left with an impressive vision. Oh, and I forgot to mention – it’s only an hour away from the Alps. Enough said.