Sunday, August 15th -- Munich, Germany
I'm at "The Tent" in Munich. The hostel is so named because it consists of a big circus tent. They give you blankets and mats and you sleep on the floor. Not the most comfortable place in the world, but it's cheap. I got very little sleep on the night train from Vienna. I shared a compartment with two Germans that had biked down along the Danube to Vienna over 12 days. I got into Munich around 6:00 in the morning. The tourist office didn't open until 11:00, so I decided to just head to the tent. I bought a metro ticket because my guide said that the metro route from the train station to the tent was carefully checked. Good thing I did, because we got nailed by undercover ticket agents just after boarding the train. 
I met a guy from Canada and three guys from London on my way to the hostel.
When we got there, we found that we couldn't check in until 5:00 that night.
The guy from Canada (Todd) and I went into town with an Australian girl.
She took off to see some museum and we wandered around the center of town.
Not very exciting. We saw the Rathaus complete with a clock that had figures
that danced and horse riders that jousted every day at 11:00. We went to
the Englische Gartens and crashed out on the grass.
We went to the Hofbrauhaus, a famous beer hall, and had lunch and a beer. We then went back to the hostel. A bunch of cops arrived and started arguing with the hostel people. I never figured out what the problem was. I've come down with a nasty cold. It's no fun traveling when you are sick.
Tuesday, August 17th -- Munich, Germany
I
spent my second day in Munich with two guys both named Todd. We went to
Neuschwanstein, the castle that the Disneyland castle was modeled after.
It was a two hour train ride through the absolutely beautiful Bavarian
scenery. The castle itself was unbelievable -- it didn't seem real. I'm
told that it's never really ever been lived in. Upon returning to Munich,
we went to the Hofbrauhaus for a beer. Afterward, we went to Lowenbrau
but weren't impressed with their service. We finished off the evening at
MathaserBierstadt, the largest beer hall in the world. 
The beer steins are great! They are huge and you can hit them together
quite hard while toasting without worrying that they will break. The beer
hall had an oompah band going strong. We spent most of the evening with
a group of Aussies, Kiwis, and South Africans who were passing through
on a tour. The table next to us was packed with young Asian girls getting
rip-roaring drunk.
Assorted coasters 
The next morning we went to Dachou. We took a tour that was very interesting and walked through the museum. Again, it was pretty eerie being in such a place. My friends had told me about a nice place in Switzerland, so I'm on my way there. I just barely caught my train to Bern. I was in the station saying goodbye to one of the Todds when I realized that my trains was scheduled to leave that very minute! I hopped on just at the train began to move.
For more info on Munich, check out Munich Found, an english-language magazine about Munich.
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