Germany….The Promised Land

After the miserable, miserable, miserable, miserable, miserable train ride from Florence to Munich, Blake and I arrived in the Munich train station, which was comparable to a space station after the complete disorganization that was the Florence train station.  One step in, and we knew we had arrived in heaven.  It was about 15 degrees cooler than the sweltering heat of Italy and there were giant pretzels everywhere.  Being 6 in the morning, the station was relatively empty, so Blake and I (following my brother’s advice) waited in the slowest ticket line known to man to purchase our reservations for Berlin.  Our line was so slow, that after about 15 minutes of standing there, we separated, and I was able to actually get through my line in the time the slow ticket lady was still talking with one couple.  As soon as we made it through, we were advised that we didn’t need reservations to Berlin and our love for Germany increased (despite having purchased a Eurorail pass, it turns out you must also purchase reservations for destinations in France and Italy…This is an annoying expense.  Why can’t they just add that to the ticket cost?  Argh.  I guess its actually lucky though.  There were people who didn’t purchase reservations in advance on the sleeper train chilling in the hallway, sitting on their luggage the whole time.)

Exhausted, we quickly found our hostel – Euro Youth Hostel, where we were informed that we could not check in until 2:00 in the afternoon.  Considering that we had gotten a combined maybe 4 hours of sleep on the train, we stumbled around the main section of Munich and found the best market known to man.

Yum!

Note – if you find yourself waking up before 8:00 (or being forced to be awake before 8:00) in foreign countries, it is actually the best time to be awake in all these cities.  Being the summer, there are massive HERDS of people everywhere during the afternoon, but you can count on it being virtually empty at 7:00 AM.  The market was just opening, so we found someone crushing up fruit for juices and bought two tiny cups (I am making us have at least one fruit serving a day.  I don’t want us to get scurvy!) and something called a “Philadelphiaring” which awesomely turned out to be a bagel and cream cheese.  We debated joining a walking tour of the city or a walking tour of “Hitler’s Germany” at 10:00, but decided we were way to tired, and instead walked to the English Gardens, which was the best decision we have made on this entire trip.  I can’t even describe to you how intensely happy we were walking up to a shaded area of green grass we had decided to nap on.

Our approach to the glorious napping spot

We laid down, and thus began my favorite activity of the entire trip – the best 3 hour co-nap anyone has ever had.

We were asleep approximately 10 seconds after this picture was taken.

The view

After three great hours, we woke up and headed over the nearby beer garden, where Blake decided that Germany was the greatest country in the world (apparently he is moved by sites of giant beers, sausages, and pretzels).

The biggest smile Blake has had all week.

We ate and drank and headed back to the hostel to finally check in, shower, and figure out our next few days.  We wondered around the city using my buddy, Rick Steves, as a personal reference guide for the city’s sites.  Eventually, we found our way to the Hofbrauhaus, which while extremely touristy, was just one of those things we thought we had to do in Munich.  After 2 liters of beer a piece, ridiculing the table of teenage American tourists next to us acting like complete drunken idiots, a giant plate of gravy soaked pork and sausages, and about 4 pretzels, we stumbled back to the hostel for the night.

All in all – a great day.  We are now Germany fans for life.  Future plans include traveling to see some castles, Dachau, the glochenspeil (I have no idea if I spelled that right), and the Germany/Spain World Cup game.

Now, I must wake up Blake.  It’s 8:30!

BYE!