München Part One

For the first part of our trip down the Autobahn, you could have told me I was in Michigan, and I would have had no idea you were lying. Same trees, same clouds, same occasional field. But then we started seeing little mountains, and giant farms, rivers, villages, and we all shared this "holy crap... we're in Germany right now" moment. 

I rode in the family van. It was this little mini-van, and it felt very much like we were on a family vacation together. The trip took a little less than three hours, and we arrived in München(Munich) shortly after dark. It was almost 8:00pm and to our amazement, stores were still open, and there were actually people walking around!! I don't think we're in Horb anymore Toto. We parked the cars in a garage for the weekend, and headed to our Hostel. "Jaegers Hostel" (Jäger means "hunter" in German) We had made reservations, and we started checking in. The girl working made it sound like we had a room with fourteen beds, which was already a little awkward since there were fifteen of us, but hey who minds a little snuggling. 

However, what she meant to say, was that we had beds in a cavernous room in the basement with several other tenants. You had to have a key to get into the room, and directly to your left was the men's and women's bathrooms, then to the right there were four little alcoves lined with bunk beds, and a wall of lockers. We shared the space with maybe fifteen other people. At one point I whispered to someone in my group "This is so cool, that guy is probably straight out of Ireland" when this kid about our age walked past, with firey red hair. (We found out later he was from Texas) But there were enough beds for all, and lockers to keep our belongings safe.

(First impressions of the hostel)

Friday night wasn't particularly eventful to start out with. The Brazilians had brought a special type of schnapps with them, which we in America like to call "moonshine". I tried a sip and felt like the wolf from the old droopy dog cartoons. I wanted to immediately start pounding on the table with my foot, shout "OWOOOOOGA" and have my eyes spring from my face and explode like fireworks. It was pretty strong.

Then we decided to head out and see if we could find a bar to have a beer in. The Brazilians knew this kid who was working in München and had been there for about two months, so they called him. We waited for about 45 minutes for him, and he finally showed up. Then we headed out to find this bar that he knew of. After about an hour of walking we finally realized that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, or where he was taking us. In the end we found a bar, had some beer, and headed home around 1:00am or so.

Then at 7:00am, someone's (ahem, Cassie) phone went off, and it was virtually impossible for us to go back to sleep. There are few words that describe how I was feeling that early in the morning, but there is a picture that explains it pretty well.

We got up, had a little breakfast at the hostel and started to get ready for the day. Some of us chose to shower, while other's were a little more intelligent and just washed their faces. Thinking back, I'm not sure why I didn't take pictures of the bathroom. Oh wait. I remember, they were pretty disgusting. The first room had a few sinks and a washer and dryer, then further in was a room with a bench and then three shower stalls on the other side, the final compartment had a urinal and a toilet stall. 

I was one of the people who chose to shower, and it will probably haunt me forever. The way the shower worked, in order to conserve water, was that water only came out when you pushed this large metal button on the wall. So I set the faucet to what I figured would be a decent temperature and pushed the button. Then directly into my face came a torrent of the coldest water I have ever felt. It was as if they installed a fire-hose to the wall, to literally blast people clean. I fiddled with the faucet more, trying it both directions, trying to get it to a place where at least I was being assaulted by warm water. But alas, regardless of my efforts, the water just continued to get colder and colder, and it came out faster and harder, every time I pushed the button. Which finally convinced me that I never ever want to go to prison, because that's what I imagine the showers there to be like.

After my traumatizing shower, we headed to the lobby, because there was going to be a free walking tour of München. The tour guide (in German, literally the Führer) explained that we couldn't have a group larger than ten people, but that there would be tours later in the day also. I immediately volunteered to sit the tour out, and explore München on my own, and was quickly joined by Joe. One of my least favorite things, is a guided tour, so I had no problem with that decision.

Joe and I headed to the subway station where this German man with a speech impediment helped us buy an all-day ticket for five euro. At first we were a little weirded out by him, but then as we waited for our train to come, we noticed that he kept helping people who looked lost to find the right ticket, or train. Basically he's an everyday hero who just hangs out in the subway station helping lost people.

We headed to the city center, where we ran into the rest of our group who were getting ready to start their tour. With none other than the red-headed Texan (formerly 'straight out of Ireland')

(The misguided tour)

Then Joe and I headed out to see what München had to offer.

To be continued...