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Published: December 10th 2005
train ride
I tried using that neck pillow. All it really did was make me look like an idiot. Well, while everyone was celebrating thanksgiving this weekend, I jumped ahead on the holidays. Yes, christmas was certainly the theme for my Munich trip. It was great; I love Christmas so much and this was the perfect way to enjoy the holidays. It was like Christmas central. So, on the train ride to Munich we had to sit in pretty uncomfortable seats, a slight step up from the sleeping carts. There were six seats in the cart, 3 on each side facing eachother with very little leg room. We had company for a little bit, but both ladies got off earlier in the trip and we had the room to ourselves. We got to Munich and it was extremely cold. Ive come to realize Im not someone who can easily handle the cold, or the extremely hot for that matter. Yeah, I had on three pairs of socks and my toes still felt like they were going to fall off. I had a couple of sweaters on one day and one night i was so bundled up you could only see my eyes. I know I looked like an idiot, but hey, I was warm and thats all that mattered. We
checked into our hostel which was pretty easy. We didnt know what we were going to do when we got there; we decided to use our rail passes to take a train to see the castle neushwainstein, the famous castle built by king ludwig that inspired the disney castle (thats ok if you have never heard of it, i hadnt until we went). Now this is "the" castle of all castles. The train ride was about 2 hours to Fussen. Then we had to wait about an hour to take a bus closer to the castle. So we walked around the town a little bit. It was pretty cute. Did i mention how horribly cold it was, so we took refuge in this little cafe. Sarah and Laura had some hot chocolate and I got this delicious pastry of some sort. Im not sure what it was exactly but it was very good. Then we headed back to the station to catch the bus. We had to walk a little after the bus dropped us off to the ticket place. We found out that if we didnt want to walk up to the castle, which we didnt, we had to
train ride to fussen
look at all that snow take a horse and carriage (the bus shuttle was not in service). So, yeah we took a horse and carriage up to the castle through the snow in the mountains. It was extremely surreal. We didnt know what to do when we first got to the carriage, but this old man just grabbed my butt and pushed me up into the carriage. The three of us sat in the front with the driver. He was extremely nice. On the way up one of the horses had to, you know, do his thing, so the driver just stopped the carriage and said "apples" and we had a front row seat to the horse taking a rather large bathroom break. Then the other horse kept farting on the way up. Not a very pleasant smell. So the carriage dropped us off and we had a little bit more to walk up. You can not imagine the view at the top, well, you will once you see the pictures, but the pictures dont do it justice. God, it was beautiful, but like ive said and will continue to say, it was rather cold, and since it was another 30 mins before the tour
was to start we went into the very small gift shop where everyone else was. And they were all huddled around the one furnace in the room. There was also a bathroom with a hand dryer that we used to warm up our shoes. The tour was short and sweet. We werent supposed to take pics, but the tour guide didnt seem to mind, so we did. The castle was pretty cool, very extravagant. Some of the levels were never finished so there wasnt just a whole lot to see. Once the tour was over, around 4:30, we walk outside and its already getting dark. We walk down the mountain to the bus stop where we sit and wait for the bus. It feels like an eternity. Its already completely dark, extremely cold, and we didnt want to miss this one train because we would have to wait another hour for the next one. Luckily the bus came and got us to the station in time. We headed back to munich and headed back to the hostel and went to our room. The room was great; we had a room completely to ourselves with a sink. Plus, they never kick
you out; it was more like a hotel room. It was really nice. We asked the guy at the front desk for a good place to eat and he suggested this one beer hall so we took his advice and headed for the restaurant. We got off the tram and were slightly lost, but we found the place eventually. We asked this one guy for help, but ofcourse he turns out to be italian and knows the place about as well as we did. The beer hall was very busy and crowded and loud and fun. A lady sat us at this huge table. The waitress was a little mean when we first walked up; i think she was just a little stressed out, i mean i would too if i worked at a place like this. Then this big group sat down with us. They were fun and really nice even though i didnt understand a word they were saying. They just kept getting huge mugs of beer. They were a hoot. We ordered some beers, ofcourse, and all three of us ordered the same meal which included some pork, potato dumpling, and sauerkraut and a pretzel to finish
me in pastry shop
my hat is freaking awesome by the way the meal off. Man, they were huge meals. We ate so much, that was pretty much the running theme this weekend. It was great. So while everyone at home was eating their thanksgiving meals, we still got plenty and it was all sooooo delicious. So much needed meat. Ahhh, German food is the best. So, after we we couldnt eat another bite and after we finished our last drop of beer, we headed back. We were pretty exhausted since we were working off the very little sleep we got on the train. The next morning we had breakfast downstairs and then took our time getting ready. We didnt even get out of the hostel until 11 or so. We decided to just start walking and wander munich for awhile. The city was great. So different from rome, I mean there arent ruins every ten feet. A pretty modern city. They had a skating rink set up outside. It looked like fun, but we never went because, well, it was just a little too cold. We made it to marian platz where the christmas market was set up. We went into this one church which was pretty cool. I cant recollect
the name at this moment. The market was so great. So much great food and crafts and hot drinks. Did i mention the amazing german food. I mean you wanted to try it all and we came pretty close. We would eat even if we werent hungry because well, we had to. The smells lured you in. We did a little shopping and then picked up a snack to take back to the hostel. I got a chocolate covered pear, laura got chocolate covered dates, and sarah got chocolate covered apple slices with walnuts on top. They were all very delicious. We sat by the fake fire place in the sitting room for a long time trying to warm up. That night we went back to marian platz to see the ceremony of the lighting of the christmas tree. It was pretty crowded which was great because it provided some much needed body heat. They had a little band playing some music and they had a couple of guys give a little speech. After the ceremony, we did some more shopping. We had a bratwurst on a bun with mustard and sauerkraut for dinner and it was soooo good. Exactly
horse and carriage
yeah, took a horse and carriage to a castle surrounded by trees, snow and mountains, pretty sweet what i had been wanting. We also got some chocolates from this one booth. Most of mine were chocolate covered dried fruit. At some point we took refuge from the cold in a huge book store that like like 5 stories high. We took the elevator up and down a couple of times because it gave you a great view of the square. We were going to get some gluwien, hot spiced wine. We got to the booth and i dropped a 2 euro coin in this little slot and i couldnt get it out. So there went my gluwien money. I did try lauras and it was pretty good. This sweet german man even tried to help me. He brought me a little twig to try and get the coin; that failed, but it was a nice gesture. Saturday we woke up and decided to do some more wandering around the city. We just walked around, found a park, another book store in english, a medieval festival, some other festival thing (im not sure what that one was about). We stopped in yet another book store on the walk. We also stopped in the chocolate shop because we saw
some amazing little cakes in the window and decided to have a mid morning snack. We shared a huge cookie with like jam on it or something and we shared a chocolate coffee cake. It was so pretty and it tasted even better than it looked. We went to st. peters church and went up the tower to see the view of the city. It felt like we climbed forever, but the view was well worth it. You could see forever. You could even see the mountains way off in the distance. Then we did some more shopping, walked around some more, had lunch, stopped in an h&m store. I thought it would be really expensive but they were having a great sale,but it was way too crowded. You had to push your way through the crowd. Im sure it was like the shopping that happened this past weekend in the US, which i did see news coverage on in the hostel. It looked pretty bad, people falling down, pushing to get inside the store first. What has this world come to? That night we wanted to go eat at the Hofbrauhaus; we went to the upstairs hall, but they
were having some special festival going on and you had to purchase some buffet so we tried the restaurant but it was a little too intimidating. We were heading out when we noticed the huge hall downstairs, i guess the main one. So we walk inside and ofcourse its extremely loud and busy and theres polka group singing. We didnt know what to do so i finally asked some waiter and he told we were just supposed to find a seat and take it. We searched and searched and finally came to a table where a group was about to leave so we grabbed it as soon as they left. Then a bunch of guys sat down with us, they didnt look older than 17. The waiter cards the guys and then actually cards us. I showed him my passport and that satisfied him for all of us. So we ordered some beers and then some food, although we werent exactly sure what we were ordering. He brought out 2 dishes, one was half a chicken which we were pretty sure we did not order. The other one ended up being what laura ordered although it was not what she
was expecting. Then we brought out my dish which was nothing like what i was expecting. Then we made him take back the chicken and bring what sarah ordered. He was not very happy with us. The guys we were sitting with were very helpful in dealing with the waiter. So my dish was a little disappointing, but thats alright. I had fun and im glad we got to eat there. The beer was good and we split one huge pretzel. That night they were having a "party" at the hostel at the bar. It sounded like they had a marching band downstairs until about 3 in the morning, or atleast thats what laura said. I managed to fall asleep to the sound of drums pretty early on. Laura was not quite as fortunate. The sound pretty much kept her up most of the night. That morning we grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the train station. We sat waiting for our train and this crazy guy started to talk to Sarah about the most random things. I couldnt stop laughing because he sounded so ridiculous and laura and I did nothing to help sarah. I couldnt even
face them, i was turned away laughing so hard i started to cry. At one point he was across the table whispering something to sarah. Something about a water closet in britian. He really didnt make any sense. Finally sarah was like "i bet our trains here guys" Yeah, she managed to save herself. Then as we were walking away he took the wrapper from his sandwich and wiped down sarahs seat. I really dont know what he was doing. So the train ride home was long and we were stuck in another little box with 6 seats and he had company most of the time. I mean the train was overflowing with people. People were sitting outside the carts, on the floor near the bathrooms. Atleast we had seats. We got back to rome around 8:30. We got on this bus that was super crowded. As i was pushing my way off at our stop this guy unzipped my purse and tried to grab my stuff but i grabbed my purse before he could get anything. Yeah, thats when i knew i was back in rome. So, the count is at 2 for pickpocket encounters. I guess considering the
length of my stay here in rome, thats not bad. Then as i was walking back to the apartment my bag opened and some of my clothes fell out. Luckily this guy brought this to my notice before everything fell out. So, a stressful return home, but thats always the case after a trip. The first thing i did was take a nice, hot shower. Now ive got to study for an italian final for wed. plus do some oral presentation for the class and ive got to work on my papers and project for quinns class. Fun. Atleast i still have amsterdam to look forward to.
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erin
non-member comment
wow
The one picture of the castle at sunset is one of the prettiest pictures I have ever seen! I'm glad you had fun. Sounds like you ate more in those few days than you have since you've been in Rome! :) Can't wait to see you in a 3 weeks. love,erin