Easter Trip – Part 4: Erasmus Reunion in Munich

Englischer Garten (Courtesy of SEA)

They say that Erasmus is not just a year in your life – but your life in one year.

I completed mine in August of 2016, almost 3 years ago. It was an experience that truly changed my life, I see it one of the main reasons for me doing a master abroad right now. Okay, I won’t promote Erasmus more, at least not in this article. But you can guess how happy I was to go back to Munich after 3 years and have a reunion with my Erasmus best friends!

A tip for all those who will travel with Flixbus, if you are planning a connection after your bus ride, leave at least an hour in between. I took a bus from Naples to Rome, where I would take my bus to Munich, Flixbus again. Due to the traffic jam in Naples, we arrived with a delay of 40 minutes and I would have missed the Munich bus I didn’t have that hour.

Englischer Garten (Courtesy of SEA)

I arrived at the ZOB (central bus station) in the morning. It is such a nice feeling to see I still remember the stops on S-Bahn and even understand and speak German enough to get daily stuff done, without practising it at all after I left Munich. The whole weekend was filled with this feeling of familiarity, Munich welcomed me again like an old friend.

My Polish roommate stayed in Munich after her Erasmus and is still working there. As I came from Italy, the third member of our friend group came from the Netherlands: the perfect reunion. I always advocated for few but deep relations and these two defined the whole year for me and still are my best friends. I guess the takeaway from is that it is a perfect year to establish life-long friendships!

What did we do? Everything we used to do! We had a nice afternoon with a couple of weissbier at Englischer Garten, the giant park/forest in the middle of the city, similar to Central Park but a natural one with Isar river going through and people surfing!

We had lunch at the Biergarten under the Chinese Tower with radlers of Maß, huge beer glasses of 1 litre. We had a boat tour in Olympiapark, as the name suppose, the area used for Munich Olympic 1972 and later converted into a huge complex of student housing, park and sports facilities.

The most Munich view ever! (Courtesy of SEA)

We climbed the tower in Marienplatz, by far the most touristic spot of the city, to see the iconic Munich view. As nervous as I was to be on the tiny terrace on top of 15 floors, the view was worth it, we even saw the Alps.

As the old capital of Kingdom of Bavaria and the current capital of State of Bavaria, Munich has lots of historical spots as well as natural beauties, being a couple of hours of car ride away from Bavarian Alps or the renowned fairy castle of Neuschwanstein.

Even though I admit that I cannot be really objective, I strongly suggest you visit Munich and enjoy the blue sky which gave the colours of the Bavarian flag. You might recognize it in some pretty famous logos like BMW or FC Bayern Munich.

Have you been to Munich? How was your Erasmus re-union? Let me know in the comments!