When in Munich .... Prost

Last I updated I was heading towards the black forest, I know this was only a few days ago but so much has happened since then. We have been pretty much living life by the hour instead of by the day. We are just going with whatever whims that we have. This has turn out great for us turning the last few days into a blur of random encounters and making new friends.

To start from the beginning, on Friday morning we woke up bright an early ready for a busy day. We hoped a train to Freiberg which we had been told is the gateway into the Black forest. We were interested in truely getting into the forest so when we arrived in Freiberg and it was a bit of a larger town we decided to hop a train to Titisee. Some days I wonder if I am on the "amazing race" because we arrived in Freiberg slowly wanered to the toursit office where they told us we had 10 minutes to catch a train to Titisee or we would have to wait another 30 mins. So what do we do??? We run. Catching trains alone are going to keep us in shape. We made our tain and spent an amazing afternoon biking through the Black forest. The vegetation is right out of Disney movies, I expected any minute for Prince Charming to come riding out from behind one of the trees. I was keeping my eyes peeled. The Black forest it famous for their fabrication of Cuckoo clocks which mainly taakes place in the town of Triberg. After a full day of biking we decided to catch a train to see the clocks. While sitting on this train ride, we both realized actually how tired we were. We noticed that multiple trains pass through D-town (this is what we called it because we were too tired to try and both with all the syllabols) so we last minute decided to get off the train in D-town and try and figure out a away to Munich from there. This decision was solely based on our sense of invincibility with a Eurorail pass in our hands. Luckily enough there was a around about way to get to Munich and this decision is what shaped the rest of our time here in Munich. It was fate.

** parents feel free to stop reading now, if you don´t want to lose sleep***

Little did Leah and I know that when we boarded the train that it was a party train and that we would be the main attraction. Our intention was to sleep away this train ride but we were instantly swarmed but a bachelor party. Their drunken state was clear from their greeting of "OOOOO.... ladies...." as they processed to sit with us and take more photos then i would have ever imagined. Once the train got going we learned that the Bachelor was the man jumping around in a Leiderhosen. We were very suprised to find out that they were actually Swiss. Switzerland was just not ready to let us go just yet. We made nicknames for them because we forgot to ask them names, and we figured this would be a one time encounter. The party was soo entertaining as everyone proceeded to drink on the train. This is also when Leah started to teach me the skill of wedding ring spotting. I ended up chating with "Attractive Married Guy" for most of the ride since his english was great, but alas he was married (hence his name). We parted ways upon arriving in Munich with the plan to meet back up later once Leah and I found a place to stay (they definitely had offered but we are not that stupid). Let again our luck ran low and all the hostels were booked up so we made our way to "The tent".

Entering the Tent is like steping out of Germany and into this safe haven for broke backpackers. It only cost €7.50 a night and they give you blankets and floor space. It is a free for all, 200 people sleeping in a huge tent. We ended up bailing on going back into town becaue the beer at the tent was only €1.50 for a half L (CRAZY!!). We sat around a campfire and meet fellow backpackers. It was a nice night, but we were determined that the next night we would truely experience Munich nightlife even if it was at the expense of our Sunday. With this attitude we headed out Saturday morning for a full day in the city. This next bit of the store is going to make Munich sound like a small town, but it´s not so keep in mind that it has a population of almost 2 million. It also turned out that this weekend is the 850th anniversary of Bavaria, so the full city is partying. We did go to the palace and see the crown jewels, but it was far from the highlight of the day as it was kinda dissapointing since most of the building had to be reconstructed after WWII.

Since it was a perfect day outside we decided to walk in the Englischer Garten, which is a inner city park that is as large as Central park in NY. Amoung other things such as lakes and beachs it holds numerous beer gardens where the standard beer mug is 1L!!! After wandering the park we stop into one of the beer gartens for dinner and 1 drink. We instantly here cheering, it was fate, the Swiss Bachelor party was there. The beer gartens were so much fun, there were actually a bunch of other bachelor parties there was well. At one point I was caught eyeing another party who had funny T-shirts (Brits). 2L of beer and 4 hours later, weare ready to head back to teh Tent to get change for the evening. We say our goodbyies to the Swiss and happily buzzed so get ready. By the time we are heading back into town it is raining and you might say we are not appropriately dressed. We start wandering around the festivities with beer in hand (people evn drink on the bus here!).

Next thing we know the British Bachelor party which I had been eyeing earlier, walks by. The recognize us, even telling me what colour of dress I was wearing in the afternoon. They convience us to go to an Irish Pub with them, this is when we realized that Bachelor parties love us and that we love them. I was a perfect night, the music was great and they kept the beer coming. With my new ring spotting abilities tuned, I realized that I had once again ended up chating with a married guy, Martin. He was really cool though, he is a police officer in London. He told us tons of cool places to go when we´re there. Leah had hit it off with Andy from the bachelor party but I was not interested with flirting with any of the others. But I did spot a guy in the pub that became my crush for the evening. As the evening was winding down I finally just sucked it up and walked right across the bar and went up to him and told him that I thought he was very attractive. To try and play it smooth I just told him what I thought then started to walk away. Alas a badly placed bar stool ruined my dream of looking coordianted, I kinda stumbled over it. I guess he must find uncoordination cute because as the Bachelor party was saying their goodbyies, Eugene (my crush) approached me.

He turned out to be from Ireland and was just vacationing for 2 weeks with friends. The 3 of us went to go check out this yearly Munich tradition where hundreds of people dress up in traditional attire and dance from 2am - 6am in the park. It was crazy, I have never seen anything like it.... people even brought feasts with traditional place settings. Around 6 am he walked us to the tram station where Leah and I had to go and we had a very nice goodbye as the sun rose.

Needless to say we slept away most of the day today. We are currently sitting in a coffee shop looking out on the rainy Munich streets lamenting last night. We are headed to Berlin tomorrow and for once we have a hostel booked in advance and we are going to arrive well in advance of the required time. (crossing fingers). We are both excited to see what Berlin has to offer as we will be there for over a week.

I have already started to send a few postcards so start checking your mailboxes,

Catrina Pheeney

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