The day after Thanksgiving I flew out from NYC to Munich, Germany for work. My first time flying Lufthansa and first time to Munich as well, lots of first times this year! The day before my flight, I checked my itinerary and saw that I was landing in Germany at 7am in the morning. 7am! I was not shooting until the next day, which means I have one full day to myself! Time to be adventurous... So I booked a 5 hour tour starting at 10am of Dachau concentration camp (the first ever concentration camp during World War II). I've always been very fascinated with that period of history, so was super excited to join the tour.
Shortly after I landed, I decided to be double adventurous and took the metro straight to the tour meeting point instead of a taxi. It was a very smooth ride, but the ride into the city was pretty bleak. I remember the first 5-7 stops were super barren and grey. No sign of life, pretty dark to say the least! That's one thing I did notice about Munich, the days that I was there (winter), the sky was always very overcast and grey. You can see a lot of that hue in the photos I took above too.
The Dachau tour was very intense and educational. I enjoyed it, even though it was pretty hard to swallow all the depressing information. You can book the tour through Viator if you're in Munich and interested. The tour was super comprehensive, the tour guide brought us to the watchtowers where the Nazis patrolled the prisoners, gas chambers, the tiny cells were prisoners were held captive... It was quite an experience.
After the tour, I checked in to Achat Hotel. Special thanks to Achat for the accommodation. It was a nice, simple, and modern hotel with a great breakfast as well! After I checked in, the client I was working for invited the entire crew to meet up for dinner. Boy was this a pleasant surprise! Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me for this part of the trip :( We began by visiting one of Munich's signature and famous Christmas markets. The client purchased a round of 'glühwein' for everyone. I learned that glühwein is a warm wine that is extremely popular during wintertime in Germany. It was delicious! Afterwards, we traversed to a cabin-like restaurant where we met up with the rest of the crew. Everyone was so nice and inviting! Upon recommendation by the German crew, I ordered a classic wiener schnitzel meal, and it was absolutely BOMB. SO good. And as German tradition goes, after the main course, in came the alcohol! I had a few beers and a shot of something (I forget). Must've been a combination of jet lag and low tolerance (ha!), after those drinks I was ready for bed. Back to the hotel!
The next day, the shoot was awesome. One thing I loved about this shoot was a) they had a kitchen and even hired a chef to come cook custom, organic meals and snacks for us all (!!), and b) everyone sat down together for lunch (unlike at shoots in the States where everyone finds their own area and eats and checks their cell phone...) A true sense of family and unity! It was truly a refreshing experience. The entire crew was so cheerful, nice, and just overall awesome. What a great shoot it was! The next morning I grabbed some breakfast downstairs and made my way to the airport and back to NYC!