plans change...

Neuchatel Switzerland was a perfect relaxing day last wednesday after our hike through the alps. We had a nice dinner there too, a fisherman´s catch salad. Wow, that seems so long ago. We ended up in Zurich on Thursday and made a day trip out of it, as the plans to stay with Deb´s sister fell through. Zurich was...less receptive and warm than every where else we´d been. A big city mentality, a little snotty. I thoroughly enjoyed the Swiss National Museum though. We spent a good 4 hours there on our rainy day. And I won´t scoff at the delicious hot chocolate and truffles that we got at Sprugli. The Swiss know best. It really was the people that broke it for me. We figured it was a sign that our time in Switzerland was up. We had a nice evening with our hosts (we got them some nice tea and truffles from Zurich), and had plans to head to Munich in the morning. Scratch that, let´s go to the Black Forest first.

We get on the train to Freiburg, get off and head to the information booth in town only to find we need to take another train to Titisee. It was a lovely 20 minutes in Freiburg. In Titisee we picked up some fruit at a little market. Later we realized that we paid quite a bot for it. Oh right, we´re not working in Swiss Francs anymore. Oh well. haha. We rented bikes and entered the Black Forest and saw a lot of beautiful country side. We got caught in pouring rain of course. All we could do was laugh. It was a good three hours. Then we planned to go to Tribourg to see the cuckoo clocks. We were exhausted though and decided just to go to Munich. So we got off the train at some town (we dubbed it the D-place since it was a very long German word), had some soup, and got on the next train to Munich. Getting settled on board, we had planned to sleep. Then we met the bachelor party.

Who knew you could eat, drink, and be merry on the train so openly! The guys were from Switzerland, heading to Munich for the weekend, and welcomed us very quickly to stay seated with them. The bachelor was clad in leiderhosen (spelling??). It was a very entertaining train ride. Mr. Half´-Swiss Half-Italian sat beside me. I may or may not have been cornered into kissing him...the guys all encouraged it. It made for some laughs and embarassment...haha. But what did I have to lose? We would never see them again.

Getting off the train Catrina and I very soon found out that hostels were booked solid. A repeat of Switzerland?? Nope. We found a place. It´s called The Tent. It´s literally a big tent, with floor space for about 200 people. You get blankets and a foam pad, and find a spot! So that´s where we have been staying. We hung out there for the night around the campfire, talking to people (1.5 euro beer, half-liter size!).

The next day in Munich, we did some shopping on the way to the Residenz Museum, then went to Englischer Garten. This is a huge park, with a lake and people everywhere, a couple beer gardens...heaven maybe? We walked around for a while and then decided to have dinner at one of the beer gardens. Mmmm...bratwurst and potatoes. We decided against the liter-size beer and went for the half. Who do we see? The bachelor party. So we ended up drinking with them and hanging out with them some more. More laughs. We noticed another bachelor party nearby, as they had matching shirts with nicknames on the back. I snuck a photo.

Catrina and I headed back to The Tent to drop off some stuff in our locker, change, and go back out. It was the 850th anniversary of Munich after all! (We didn´t plan to be here for it...we had no idea! Gooooooood timing). We wandered the streets, stopped at a vendor for another beer (great souvenir cup) and looked for the action. Who do we hear calling after us? The second bachelor party with the matching shirts. They had seen us too at the beer gardens. Of all people...! This batch were from London and surrounding area. We went to an Irish pub with them. It was packed, and really awesome. Great music, great conversation, the works. I chatted with tall (about 6'2) blond Andy. (Oh...notice how we actually learned names this time.) He was cute. When the bar closed, they headed their way and Catrina and I headed with Eugene, or rather he headed with us (Catrina´s Irish crush). We went back to the beer garden because we had heard about some traditional dancing that was to take place between 2 and 6am. I was exhausted. We trekked, had a pretzel, but then just headed back. Waiting for the tram back to the tent, the sky started to lighten. Yup, we got back at 6am. Sleep was very welcome.

So today has been quite lazy. Sleep in, shower, in town just at a coffee shop, writing in my journal and catching you up! We head to Berlin tomorrow morning (we actually booked a hostel in advance this time!) and will be seeing Marc. I hope to check out the hot yoga studio in the area as I am feeling deprived.

I´ve decided to officially become a bachelor party crasher...although they always seem to find us first.

No pictures just yet. Thanks for being patient!! Miss you all. xoxox

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