Munich!
As a die-hard Bayern Munich fan, I couldn’t give up the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see them play a Champions League game against PSG. And by a die-hard fan, I mean that I know exactly 1 player on the team and have never seen a game of theirs. My Korean friend Harry had snagged 2 official resale tickets on the first level (for under €100!) and I got the coveted plus-1 invite.
Skipping school like the bad boys we are, we hopped on a train from Zürich HB to München (it’s what they call it in German) on Wednesday morning. Traveling with a Korean, we obviously had to stop at Zitronengras Asia Bistro for lunch, and the spring rolls there really hit the spot. We took a quick trip to our Bookings.com accommodation to drop off our bags. Turns out the room we rented was the spare room of this sweet Baravian grandma who did not speak an ounce of English. After using our German A1.2 skills to piece together the check-in and check-out procedures, Harry and I hit the metro toward Old Town.
My expectations were blown away by the beauty and vibes of the Old Town area. We walked around Marienplatz, New Town Hall, and Victuals Market. The famous bakery (Karnoll) was closed, so we helped ourselves to a cheese crêpe at a nearby bakery while taking in the view. Given it was the day of the Champion’s League quarterfinal, the atmosphere was absolutely electric and nearly everyone was decked out in FC Bayern merchandise. The walking tour continued with visits to Residenz München, the Bavarian State Chancellory, and Theatinerkirche. We explored the first two from the outside and through the courtyards but had to go inside the beautiful church of Theatinerkirche, which was near Odeonsplatz. This site has some dark history as it was where Hitler attempted a coup against the Bavarian state in 1923 and represented the first flex of power by the newly-formed Nazi party. The church of St. Catejan was in the background of the massive stone lions where the Führer once spoke, and had a beautiful all-white interior. After seeing the exterior of St. Michael’s church and checking out the FC Bayern Münich fan store (the red-and-white striped scarf caught my eye), we headed back to the main square to visit Hofbräuhaus München, a really famous large beer hall. Along the way, we passed by a feminist protest and it was cool to see how it differed from the US feminist movement (although the only one I’ve been to was an abortion rally, which is not as big of an issue in Germany). The beer hall was packed tighter than a can of sardines, so we got a quick dinner of kebab and fries at Pommesfreunde, a German fast-food chain, and headed to the train station.
I thought it was so funny that everyone was buying beers at the station and drinking it at the station and on the train (and of course, we had to do the same). The train to Allianz Arena was full of tipsy Germans singing Bayern’s chants and songs, and it was a great time immersing ourselves in the vibe. The Arena itself was beautiful and was lit up bright red. I didn’t realize I had to check in my small backpack for a couple Euros (which caused some extra running around), but eventually, we made it inside. I bought the beautiful red-and-white striped FC Bayern scarf that had caught my eye earlier, but I couldn’t find the actual store to buy jerseys (which ended up being a blessing in disguise, stay tuned). We even got to see Messi, Mbappe, and Müller practice super up close!
For the first half, I took the standing-room-only ticket and my friend took the seated one. It was tough to see the opening ceremonies and lineup announcements as the standing room was packed to the point where I was barely in the bowl itself. Nevertheless, I could definitely feel the energy as the players got onto the field, and seeing Messi and Mbappe live was really cool. I eventually made my way into the bowl and got solid views of both teams, including a classic corner kick from Messi. The standing room area was quite rowdy, including a drunk dude being escorted out while throwing beer on people and a security guard refusing to help a British dad and son because he was “angry about Brexit”. I was a bit new to the sport, so I had to double-check the names and jersey numbers from time to time to figure out what was going on. PSG seemed to control the ball, but the first half remained scoreless. During extra time, I ducked out to use the restroom and grab a beer and pretzel from the concession stand. Before we knew it, the game had resumed, and Harry’s experience in the seated area gave him a master plan. Since everyone was standing the whole game anyway, there was extra room in the sitting area where one other person could squeeze in. So, by each of us showing our ticket (one in print, one on our phones) to the ushers, I could get to my seat and Harry could squeeze in next to me without having to move to the super-packed standing room area. A successful execution made the game so much more fun to watch since Harry was a dedicated fan who actually knew the players and details of the matchup. During this half, I had a much better view and got to see 2 goals: one from Choupo-Moting and one from Gnabry. The post-goal music, songs, and chants were super fun, and we even learned the chants and joined in (those German A1.1 and A1.2 courses paid off)! Celebrating with these drunk Germans and waving our scarves around was so much fun—I still can’t imagine we snagged such amazing seats. Messi and Mbappe played decent, but it was no World Cup-caliber performance and FC Bayern advanced by winning 3-0 in aggregate (as they won 1-0 in their previous matchup). As the match ended, we went to give our beer cups back to get back our 2€ deposit, but we were robbed! No biggie, though, since we just took some abandoned cups to snag our deposit back. Some people were walking up with 20+ cup towers in each hand, and I bet they paid off their ticket with that.
On the way back, we went the wrong direction for 1 stop (oops) but eventually made it back to our room around 1 AM. Our adventure continued around 9AM the next day when we got breakfast at a nearby cafe, which had some great pastries and service. Being in the Bavarian capital, we had to visit the Bavarian Motor Works showroom and museum. They had a cheap bag check (which we borrowed for the whole day and highly recommend since there are tons of attractions nearby), and we explored the museum first. I’m not too into cars, but it was cool to see their development into the brand they are today. I learned about their prominent motorcycle branch, their involvement in racing (including a really cool Jägermeister-branded car), and their concept cars and ideas for the future. Definitely gained a lot of respect and appreciation for BMW and the German auto industry, but I think they could have handled the section on their involvement in World War 2 a little bit better (it was a small section at the end and basically read like “yeah we messed up but so did every other car brand, anyways sorry”). After getting some really nice flicks, we went to the showroom and checked out some of their coolest cars and motorcycles. We learned that BMW owns both Mini Cooper and Rolls Royce, which led to some more amazing pictures. Starving, harry and I walked around a nearby park and got lunch at this döner place, Pera Heart (named Kapadokya Imbiss on Google maps for some reason). The portions were huge, the food was great, and the service was amazing. We even saw one guy come in and thank the owner for 3 months of amazing food and to say goodbye as he had finished school and was leaving for Israel. If that doesn’t paint a picture of the food for you, I don’t know what would!
To work off our lunch, we strolled around Olympic Park and made our way to the stadium where the Olympics were held in 1972. For a small fee, we could enter the famous track and field stadium, which looked incredibly modern for being 50+ years old. It felt really cool to be in a place with so much history, both positive (Olympians beating records) and negative (the Munich Massacre). The stroll continued as we saw the other Olympic stadiums (including the natatorium, which now functions as a regular swimming pool) and a duck pond. The ducks were super social and even came right up to our feet knowing we had no food.
I guess German birds are just more social and less apprehensive creatures. After grabbing our bags from the BMW museum and heading to Nymphenburg Palace, we ran into even more swans and ducks that would waddle right past us on the walking paths. The palace was absolutely gorgeous and a solid alternative to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle (the famous castle 2 hours outside of Munich that was the inspiration for the famous Disney Cinderella castle). The lake was gorgeous, and the gardens in the palatial courtyard were serene, especially at sunset. This day was designed to be a relaxing day with not much planned, but we had walked and explored so much that we were absolutely exhausted.
Finding a Bavarian dinner that had chicken options was difficult (I’m a flexitarian—vegetarian but also eat chicken and sometimes seafood), but we finally discovered Lindwurmstüberl. The restaurant was closer to the center of the city and near Old Town, and the city was clearly still buzzing after their 2-0 victory the night before. I got this interesting cheese mixture with some bread for an appetizer (can’t say I liked it too much) and a variation of chicken schnitzel with mashed potatoes and green sauce. Paired with a locally brewed beer, the food was great, and in fact a little too great as we spent way too long in the restaurant. In a race against time, we stopped by a local pharmacy to pick up some cheap toiletries (and some anti-histamine for me because I forgot mine at home), went to the main station to buy some quick souvenirs (my magnet collection expands!), and found the FlixBus stop.
We accidentally got onto a bus going to Belgrade, but luckily the driver told us that this was the wrong train (in a thick Serbian accent), and we got off to wait for our delayed bus to Lyon (via Zürich). After about a 20-minute delay, which included promising an Austrian girl who was late that she had not missed the bus, our bus finally arrived and we took the 5-hour trek back to Zürich. By this point, it was 2 AM and the public transport wasn’t running anymore, so I crashed at Harry’s apartment, which was luckily super close to the bus stop.
All in all, a super exciting trip to München which featured an authentic Champions League game (with Messi and Mbappe no less), amazing architecture, modern museums and parks, and an electric atmosphere all over the city.
Overview
- Munich (AKA München if you want to be a local) is a super cool city with a huge historic old town contrasted with modern museums and architecture
- Visiting a European city during a Champions League game makes the vibes 10000x better
- German food >>>>>>>>>>>> Swiss food in all aspects: price, quality, diversity, etc.
- Got to see another GOAT of sports (I saw Tom Brady in 2021) in Messi. Since I can’t see Jordan, LeBron is up next!
Rose-Bud-Thorn
Rose (what went well): Old Town was far cooler than I’d imagined and is probably the best one I’ve seen in Europe so far. Tons of well-preserved churches, palaces, courtyards, and so much more.
Bud (what was good but could be improved on): Should have figured out how to sneak into Harry’s section in the first half of the game, since I had really bad seats for the first half. Luckily, the first half was boring and scoreless and we figured it out just in time for the good parts!
Thorn (what did not go well): My singular qualm with this trip was that the Karnoll bakery was closed because I am a HUGE fan of Bavarian soft pretzels
Rohan Chhaya 