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June 10, 2007
One of the guys in Mike’s class told us about a street festival in Munich, so we thought we would check it out. There was a lot of stuff going on, so we’re glad we went. The highlight was an event call Parcouring. There was a course set up with a path all outlined. All the runners had to follow the path and were timed and marked down for any steps off the line. Those guys were incredibly fast! Granted it was the World Championships, so they had to be good to get there, but still, it was amazing. They had to run up stairs, climb all over stuff, roll, run over balance beams, jump and climb walls, and even climb through a police van. It was really fun to watch.
There were also lots of food booths, beer booths, and eco-awareness booths. Lisa has a degree in environmental studies and works for a conservation program in Oregon, so she was quite interested in all the booths (not that we weren’t as well.) We had French crepes to sustain us for our wandering, and then explored the booths. There was tons of information on various topics. Green Peace was there in all their craziness. They had a girl dressed in a thick rubber like tree outfit, complete with hairy legs, collecting money. My first thought was: I highly doubt that costume is eco-friendly. We stayed away from the Green Peace booth though, so I didn’t ask. They might have beat me if I did. We did give organic beer another try. We had tried some in Scotland, and usually they are not tasty. This one actually was. Pretty impressive. Mike was excited to finally drink a beer while walking through the streets. The drinking laws here are all sorts of crazy. On my morning walks through the city, I see people drinking by 10:30am (and that’s with most of the beer gone), you can drink while walking through the streets, on the subway, really where ever you like. And while everything might be closed on a Sunday and a religious holiday, not the beer gardens. In fact, in most of them you cannot even get ½ liter beers on those days, only whole liters. Beer is very important here.
After the drinking in public thrill, we headed over to the Englischer Garten. The park is huge with all sorts of popular spots. We went to the Chinese Turm, where there is another beer garten (I swear they are every 500 feet!). There was a band playing up in the turm, which was really nice. They played quite the array of music too. This beer garten is right next to the naked part of the park. Even more naked people today… even naked male soccer! I can see sun bathing, many people don’t want the tan lines, but naked sports? That’s odd. In the park there is a museum called Haus der Kunst, which is an art museum that was built by a Nazi architect which has housed art since 1937. It started with propaganda art and then opened a display mocking modern art. Rather ironic as it now houses famous modern artists. I have no idea what any of it means, but supposedly the artists are quite famous. We decided to go because (1) its free on a Sunday, and (2) the history of the building was interesting. Alas, there was nothing regarding its start, but, needless to say, that period of time is still touchy over here. The first exhibit was a huge replica of The Last Supper all made out of Styrofoam. Then there was homemade movie clips and video images all over the room. I have no idea what it was supposed to be telling me at all.
The next exhibit was one on ‘Gilbert & George.’ They are apparently two modern artists from London, who I believe are a couple. Some of the work was interesting, but others were disturbing. I saw more of the male genitalia in that exhibit than I ever wanted to see. And people were bringing children there. One of there goals was to make modern art easier to understand by the general public, but I still didn’t get it.
One of the guys in Mike’s class told us about a street festival in Munich, so we thought we would check it out. There was a lot of stuff going on, so we’re glad we went. The highlight was an event call Parcouring. There was a course set up with a path all outlined. All the runners had to follow the path and were timed and marked down for any steps off the line. Those guys were incredibly fast! Granted it was the World Championships, so they had to be good to get there, but still, it was amazing. They had to run up stairs, climb all over stuff, roll, run over balance beams, jump and climb walls, and even climb through a police van. It was really fun to watch.
There were also lots of food booths, beer booths, and eco-awareness booths. Lisa has a degree in environmental studies and works for a conservation program in Oregon, so she was quite interested in all the booths (not that we weren’t as well.) We had French crepes to sustain us for our wandering, and then explored the booths. There was tons of information on various topics. Green Peace was there in all their craziness. They had a girl dressed in a thick rubber like tree outfit, complete with hairy legs, collecting money. My first thought was: I highly doubt that costume is eco-friendly. We stayed away from the Green Peace booth though, so I didn’t ask. They might have beat me if I did. We did give organic beer another try. We had tried some in Scotland, and usually they are not tasty. This one actually was. Pretty impressive. Mike was excited to finally drink a beer while walking through the streets. The drinking laws here are all sorts of crazy. On my morning walks through the city, I see people drinking by 10:30am (and that’s with most of the beer gone), you can drink while walking through the streets, on the subway, really where ever you like. And while everything might be closed on a Sunday and a religious holiday, not the beer gardens. In fact, in most of them you cannot even get ½ liter beers on those days, only whole liters. Beer is very important here.
After the drinking in public thrill, we headed over to the Englischer Garten. The park is huge with all sorts of popular spots. We went to the Chinese Turm, where there is another beer garten (I swear they are every 500 feet!). There was a band playing up in the turm, which was really nice. They played quite the array of music too. This beer garten is right next to the naked part of the park. Even more naked people today… even naked male soccer! I can see sun bathing, many people don’t want the tan lines, but naked sports? That’s odd. In the park there is a museum called Haus der Kunst, which is an art museum that was built by a Nazi architect which has housed art since 1937. It started with propaganda art and then opened a display mocking modern art. Rather ironic as it now houses famous modern artists. I have no idea what any of it means, but supposedly the artists are quite famous. We decided to go because (1) its free on a Sunday, and (2) the history of the building was interesting. Alas, there was nothing regarding its start, but, needless to say, that period of time is still touchy over here. The first exhibit was a huge replica of The Last Supper all made out of Styrofoam. Then there was homemade movie clips and video images all over the room. I have no idea what it was supposed to be telling me at all.
The next exhibit was one on ‘Gilbert & George.’ They are apparently two modern artists from London, who I believe are a couple. Some of the work was interesting, but others were disturbing. I saw more of the male genitalia in that exhibit than I ever wanted to see. And people were bringing children there. One of there goals was to make modern art easier to understand by the general public, but I still didn’t get it.
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