My 20th Birthday in Germany

So today I am celebrating my 20th Birthday in Germany. What a better way to do that by having to wake up at 6 am to be in line by 7:30 at this government building to register for a Munich residency permit. I got there and pulled ticket number 42 so I figured I would have to wait at least an hour but it was actually a really fast process so that was nice. You just go in and give her some paperwork and she gives you a signed paper back and you go out into this photo booth and put in 6 euros and take selfies of yourself until there is a picture you like. It then prints out 4 copies of the selfie. Well I currently have a little bit of facial hair that looks extremely prevalent on in front of cameras. So I look like I am applying for a residency permit because I just got done living on the streets, but whatever. We then stopped in a bakery for breakfast but I didn't get anything even though it all looked good and was a good price. We then went back to the JYM offices and gave them the paperwork we completed at the government building.

I took 2 pictures of the street that I have to walk down once I get off the subway to get to JYM.

When I get off the subway, the above picture is the street I have to walk down. It looks nice and cold school. The below picture is the rest of the street. The JYM office is all the way down this street and around the corner on the left.

Around 9:45 we left for a tour of the University. It was actually really cool because of the historical sights we saw. We saw the Alte Pinakothek which is an old art museum which was bomber during WW2 and you can see where it was damaged because they had to replace it with new bricks that aren't exactly the same color. We also passed an ice cream shop, so I will have to do that soon. At the university that my program is affiliated with (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich), we walked through the building that the White Rose group was caught placing anti-Nazi pamphlets during the Third Reich. A girl in the group went up to the top of the stairs by a balcony and emptied a briefcase of these pamphlets in the lobby of the building. She was seen doing it and her and the White Rose group were arrested and tried and beheaded. They are a really famous group in Munich, and the streets around my apartment complex are all named after them since they are martyrs. It was really cool to be in the lobby of and walk the staircase of where this all happened. The building itself is also really old but well kept and has a really cool feel to it. In the basement of this building is a museum dedicated to the White Rose, which is free of charge, so I will definitely look at that soon. The other thing they have is these stone pamphlets embedded in the cobblestone that is outside the building where it all happened. 

This is the main stone pamphlets that I am referring to. There are some more but I only took pictures of this one. It had the biographies of the key people of the White Rose on it. I had really wanted to see this because I knew it existed and had seen pictures so it was really cool that we just stumbled upon it by walking through Munich. It really speaks to the history of Munich. We also saw the wall of a building that had bullet holes and blast marks from bombs and bullets from the war. I love that about this city. We also passed the Siegestor (victory gate) that was built in the 1800's for victorious armies to walk through. So cool.

After that we ate in the cafeteria again and I had lo mein with salad and fresh fruits and that was good. We then went back to JYM for a briefing about traveling safely, safety in general, and safety at Oktoberfest. We left that and I went out shopping for some things (all of which were again cheaply priced) and went back to my room and completely organized my room and am officially all moved in. I have yet to find a comfy pillow to buy so I have to work on that. I also need to go buy some groceries. 

Tomorrow Oktoberfest begins. The opening ceremony is at 12:00 so I think that would be really cool to check out but I do not know where it actually is. There were telling us we probably should not go because so many people will be there it won't be worth it. But I have obviously never been to Oktoberfest before so I plan on going to the opening ceremonies. I did not buy Lederhosen so I might be shunned at Oktoberfest but we will see what happens. At 9 o clock some of us are meeting up to go to some restaurants and bars for the night. I will probably have my first German beer and probably will not like it but whatever. It will be nice to just chill/celebrate my birthday with some people. 

Until next time!