Hey guys, I'll have the pictures up later but I'm in Vienna now and don't have much time so I'm just going to post the text and put the pictures in later. If you want, you can wait to read it later
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Hey again! I know, I know it's been a while, but I have good news – I am still alive! And no, I'm not living on the streets (again). I'm actually writing this on a train going from Munich to Vienna, so all is going according to the plan.
Last time, we left off with me ending my last day in Rome. I checked out the next morning around 11:00, ready to take one last glance at Rome before leaving on my train to Munich at 7:00 pm, an overnight train that would get me to Munich around 6:00 in the morning on the 28th.
When I left the hostel, I first headed to the Termini train station to get something to eat. The Picadilly-style restaurant there was really good, with a prima pasti (might have spelled this wrong), second pasti, dessert, water, bread and side dish of potato wedges for 12 Euros. Fed like a king, I decided that I would randomly walk around the town, since I had 6 hours to kill.
Most of the time was spent dotting around the same places I had been around in my night tour of the city, including the Monument to Vitto Emmanuel II, the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. I tried to get an inside tour there, but it was too expensive and the line was too long, so I was content with an outside look. Perhaps I will go on my next visit, but I was happy with what I got to see.
At one point I was pretty tired, so I found a nice park to take a nap in. The bench there, while kind of small, provided the perfect place for me to get some z's.
I went from there to the Pantheon (I got to go inside this time!) and then took the short walk to the Trevi Fountains, which was very crowded now that it was daytime. It ended up being one of my favorite places and I decided to treat myself to my first taste of Gelatto in Italy, a final toast to the city before I knew I would be leaving.
Before I knew it, I was off to a new city and Rome was part of my past as I jetted towards Munich in a 6-seat cabin (no couchettes this time, so it was a little bit of a more difficult sleep, but years of sleeping on the way to Canada helped).
After we had rolled out of the station, I pulled out my laptop and watched the movie, “You've got Mail” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, which was a good American distraction in an increasingly-more European world.
After the movie was over, me and some of my cabin mates began to talk. The kid across from me was Italian but he went to a “German” high school in Rome, which taught all of their classes in German. He was actually fluent in German, Italian, pretty-good French and surprisingly good English. Him and his classmate, a girl who spoke very little English but was very friendly, were going up to Innsbruck for a 10-day ski trip.
I didn't know what to make of the couple because my first instinct was to say that they were dating, but they didn't show any visible displays of affection and were very respectful of each other's personal space. It was funny though, because by the end of the night I woke up once or twice and saw them kissing (they were right across from me). It made me smile, thinking that perhaps I had witnessed the growth of a budding romance in a single train ride. That's what it seemed like to me and I'm going to keep that story :P
However, it also got me thinking how despite differences in cultures, languages, mannerisms and accents, the little things between people could be so similar. Young, spontaneous love crosses all borders, kindness and charity are universal and perhaps the beauty of a single moment could transcend any language barrier.
I'll stop boring you with my 3:00 in the morning musings on life – suffice it to say that it was just another learning experience in a journey full of them.
Around 3:00 in the morning was actually when I had my first mechanical error of the trip – the train stopped in the middle of nowhere, a snowy respite somewhere in Germany and refused to go any further. We waited for a while before being informed that the train wouldn't be able to go for at least another hour. The Italians went out for a smoke break (in fact, it seems like almost all of Europe smokes) and I tried to sleep a little longer but it was still difficult. I like it better when the train is moving – you really feel the stillness when you are trying to sleep in a train and it's not very soothing.
We ended up pulling into Munich around 11:00, giving us a nifty-5 hour lateness factor, but I slept through most of it. Armed with my knowledge of the word “Hallo” I marched somewhat unconfidently into the ticket booth to buy a metro-pass, called the “U-bahn” or “S-bahn” in Munich depending on which train you are on.
At first I thought I should try and take the metro to the different sights but without a map it was difficult and I decided to just walk around and see what trouble I could get into. Its become a hallmark of my trip so far – I spent 5 hours walking around Paris just finding a place to stay, so walking around and enjoying the beauty of Munich without the added pressure of finding a roof for the night was easy in comparison.
I was very happy to find that while Italy doesn't have any Starbucks coffee shops, Munich is full of them, which gave me a free wi-fi spot to help me orient myself whenever I was lost, as well as help me to catch up on the American sports scene (right now, my Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks are kicking butt).
The Starbucks was right next to one of the coolest churches I've seen, a big golden-cathedral in the heart of Munich. Next to the Cathedral was a collection of statues that I took some pictures of.
On the other side of the Starbucks was the entrance to the “English Gardens” a giant plaza where many people took walks and jogs while surrounding by beautiful shrubbery...well shrubbery that would be beautiful, except for the fact that it was winter and most of it was dead. The chilly walk was very pretty though, despite all of that and I enjoyed the chance to see some of what Munich had to offer. At the end of the plaza was a very big glass building, but I didn't know what it was.
The added bonus of just walking around is that I get to see random sights that I wouldn't have seen if I was staying completely on the “tourist” track. For example, as I walked through a pretty much empty street, I found another church and, to my delight, a soon-to-be wedded couple taking their pre-wedding pictures with a professional photographer (and, without their knowledge, with me!)
The second picture was some funky thing where they were trying to take a picture of the bride throwing the bouquet of flowers over her shoulder, only to have the groom jump up and catch them in mid-air. They tried a couple of times with not-so-successful results. I asked my Munich hosts later on if it was a German tradition and they said it was probably just the couple being silly.
I saw a pretty neat statue in the middle of the city. I love how I see all of these things without actually knowing what they are. I will probably look it up online after the trip and see what sweet things I was seeing. For now though, I am content with just having seen them.
By now, I was really warming up to Munich even as it got colder outside. The people were very friendly, the city was very clean and attractive and greatly exceeded my expectations for it. While I wasn't at first planning to go to Munich, I am now very happy that I did.
Amidst my wanderings, I found myself a small German museum to go to – but after buying a 3 Euro museum ticket, realized it was a German Museum of North American Indian history, Buddhist history and African history! Haha...so in Germany, I saw an exhibition about America (kind of)! It was pretty good though, here are some of the highlights:
Walking around, I got to see some of the teenager's at one of my personal favorite hobbies – surfing in a river in the middle of winter!
I watched a few of them bite it in the cold rapids before continuing on my way back to the train station. My host family, the Pȕttmans, had told me that they would be home around 6:00 pm, so I needed to find the right track on the S-bahn to head to their house right outside of the city's core.
The Pȕttmans, in case you didn't know, are the Aunt and Uncle of my best friend and roommate Paul Kirschenbauer. Aunt Christine is Klaus' half-sister and “Jackie” is Paul's fifteen year old cousin. Uncle Andi owns a church-supplies business that has been in the family since the 1800s I believe. They were all so nice to have me in their home for the 28th until I left on the 30th, and I think we all enjoyed the company.
We ate a traditional German dinner which has a name that I never had a chance of remembering. It was a combination of meat sausages, salad and bread. Afterwards, me and Andi talked about the economic situation of Europe, including the European Union, and he left me with some really interesting thoughts about how the banks are printing out too much money, lessening the value of their currency and losing the currency's value when compared to Gold. He is very smart and I tried to keep up with him, so hopefully to keep a good conversation even for a dumb American :) It was great because when I told him my concerns about the European Union he looked at me and seemed to be totally surprised, saying, “So you know about the European Union!” That led to a great discussion that lasted a good half-an-hour or more.
Afterwards he introduced me to a sweet-tasting wine that was a mix between red and white, but I don't know what it was called. It was really good and I had a few glasses while talking with Andi, Christine and Jacqueling about what sights I should see the next day, which would be my only full day in Munich.
They said they were impressed by how much I had already seen from just walking around. Jacqueline offered to take me around the town and show me the spots, so I already had a tour guide. We laughed and discussed possible places to go to, drinking wine and enjoying each other's company before finally going to sleep around 11:30.
I crashed so hard and woke up the next morning around 9:30. It was bad for me, but I was used to the earliness, while poor Jacqueline is on her winter break and wasn't used to getting up early anymore. She complained like a good teenage girl while we had a good breakfast with lots of bread rolls, sour cream and a cold bacon-like meat (they told me what it was called, but of course, I forgot...I tend to do that).
We started the tour off by taking the S-bahn down to what Jacqueline called one of the “main streets” of Munich, a place where a lot of shopping was going on. She wanted us to make sure to get there by 11:00, because one of the city's main traditions occurs in the plaza there at 11:00 in the morning and 7:00 p.m.
The Bavarian legend says that when the Black Death came in the 1400s or 1500s (can't remember my dates), the Bavarian gypsies came to the town and chased the Plague away, basically saving the whole city. As the guardians of the city, the gypsies haven't left – they've just been placed in the town square as automated, robotic gypsies that come out at 11:00 and 7:00 to greet the citizens of Munich with dancing from their lofty perch!
We continued our stroll, exploring the streets before finally getting back to the metro. Jacqueline was disappoitned because she was going to surprise me with a ride on one of the bicycle-drivers who take tourists (and citizens, I suppose) around on tours of the city, towing them in a small carriage behind the bicycle. Unfortunately, there weren't any in the loading area, probably because of the holiday.
We stopped by a kebab shop to get a “Dȍner” (I think that's what it is called), which Jacqueline described as “delicious and lots and lots of calories.” Sounds like my kind of meal! It was very good, basically a giant taco with lots of sour cream, lettuce and meat within two large-bread buns.
Our next stop was the BMW museum, which is right by the Olympic Village. The museum was awesome and even though I don't know much about cars, it was exciting to go through gallery and gallery of fine art décor, fine cars and fine German engineering.
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We explored the Olympic Village from when Munich hosted the Olympics sometime in the 1970s. It was very interesting to see it, especially after seeing our own Atlanta Olympic Village and I wasn't disappointed. The buildings were really cool, built with a design that would seem edgy even now.
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We took a trip up the Olympic Tower there, which allowed us to get a great view of the city and the Olympic Village below, including the “football” stadium and the BMW museum.
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I tried to climb up to the higher level using the employee ladders, but thought better of it when a fresh set of tourists showed up. If they hadn't though, I would have gotten an even better view! Jacqueline just shook her head and called me the “damn crazy American” over and over again.
We ended our mini-tour with a trip to the Bavarian statue which is located next to a giant field – the site of Oktoberfest, which is famous throughout the world and has it's origin in Munich! The Pȕttmans often told me about the celebration and said that I really should come back in October sometime to get a good experience of Munich during the festivities. I told them with school I would have to come over a weekend so it would probably be a very expensive weekend for me to do, but that maybe one day I could.
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We ran back to the city and found ourselves next to the Pȕttmans religious supply store, so of course we had to stop in and see his workplace. It was a very sleek, elegant business with a front-display that is open to the public. I then went in the back and saw the catalogue that Andi sends to all the cathedrals and churches, displaying their products. He also treated me to a couple of German chocolates, which were very good, and then some Swiss mini-chocolate bars. At this point, Jacqueline had to leave for a doctor's appointment, so I would have to find my way to my final stop – the Deustchlands Museum – on my own. It was roughly 2:30 now and the Museum closed at 5:00.
Luckily enough, I was able to find my way to the Museum with no troubles and spent a solid two hours exploring as much as I could. The Museum is huge and I was particularly impressed with all the models it had – models of planes, missiles, helicopters and giant, wooden boats. The aviation section was particularly impressive as well as the upstairs where they had a whole floor dedicated to the development of photography, newspaper production, phones and computers. In each section they had tons of replicas or real examples of the old methods of print production, which for a journalist like me was pretty interesting. I had to move quickly because I didn't have enough time to see all of the exhibits in the huge museum, but hey, what's new – this whole trip has been more of a whirlwind tour than anything else!
I ended the night back at the Pȕttman's home, where I was treated to an excellent dinner of “Veicht” (white) sausages, which Andi assured me must be eaten with “Veichtbeier” (White beer). Of course, I had never had white beer before, so he gave me a glass of regular German beer and then a glass of Veichtbeier and asked me to compare the tastes. I said they were both good, but that the white beer had a more pronounced taste. I ended up drinking both with my dinner and had finished one more glass of white beer by the end.
Afterwards, Andi insisted that he give me a taste of this Italian cheese he had bought, so the family and I stayed seated as we talked about life, the States, the world, all while being treated to a very good cheese. The cheese, Andi said, must be eaten with red wine, so he poured me a glass of red wine and also handed me a mustard that he described as “made in Italy and very good”. It was very sweet and when I asked what it was made from, we couldn't figure out what the English word was in German. Later he looked it up on google and said that it was made from “figs”, which made sense, coming from Italy.
By the time the cheese was finished, I had consumed three or four glasses of red wine to add to my beer total, so with my “last” glass, Andi told me, “I think I will not pour you another one. I think that will be the last one – I don't want your mother to call me and ask me why I got her son so drunk.”
Maybe ten minutes later, he refilled my empty glass with the last bit of wine remaining in the bottle, giving me my real last glass of the night.
Me and Jacqueline made a dance video to send to Paul on facebook, then I went to bed after getting to hear their home-cinema, which is Andi's hobby at home. It was really well done, with an awesome surround-sound system and very comfortable chairs in a room made for cinema. It was pretty darn cool.
I woke up at 8:30, had breakfast with the family and then ran to the S-bahn metro stop, which I barely caught on it's way to the city. I was able to make it to the train station just in time to slide myself into the train doors for my ride to Vienna, Austria, where I will be meeting up with my friend Katie, who goes to Penn State and who worked with me this summer at Southwestern in South Carolina. She is from Vienna, so I will have a very informed tour guide through my four days there, as I am planning to leave sometime on the 2nd.
I will try to be better about posting the next few days, but until next time, love you mom,dad, joe ari,paul,ave,ana,aly,amy,aby,angelina, joey. See you guys on the 7th/8th!
