Munich, World of Beer & Brats 7/22/08

Wallet: Day 16
Jeans & Sweatshirt again

The conductor knock on the cabin door at 5:30 AM. Brutal. He tossed a few croissants and OJ containers into the room. Even though our train had left Budapest nearly an hour late we were right on time in Munich at 6 AM. Once I got myself out of bed by rolling off I walked out into the hallway. Everyone from the other cabins was waiting to get off the train and none of us in ours had even started to put our stuff together. I rushed back in and packed my stuff up quickly. I told Loyd to see if I forgot anything and left the train. Loyd was the last one off the train and he told me that the conductor was yelling repeatedly "please leave, PLEASE LEAVE!!". We made our way to a cafe in the station and sat for a bit. About 20 minutes later my heart skipped a beat, I realized I had hung up my towel overnight in the train and in my mad dash to get out, I had left it hanging there. I sprinted down to the platform where our train was and saw it was already gone. I guess my towel is somewhere in Budapest at this point.


We called our hostel to see if we could drop off our stuff and possibly check in early. They said check was at 2 PM without exception. Seeing it was 8 AM we decided to go drop off our stuff and then find something to entertain us for 6 hours... I looked at the directions and realized that the hostel was across the street from the station so the walk over was quick. As we walked in I noticed a few people on what looked like hammocks in the next room but I didn't pay too much attention. We put our bags into the luggage room and then I got a good view of the next room, it was an atrium full of hammocks, massive bean bags and benches. SCORE!!! Both of us snagged a spot in the room and were out within seconds. I woke up 2 hours later and looked around, I spotted Loyd laying face down. We were that tired from our trip.


There were signs in the hostel for a free walking tour leaving directly from the hostel. Although our past experience was, shal I say, less that ideal we decided to do it anyway. As soon as the tour guide started talking we knew we made a good decision. The tour guide was a flamboyant gay guy from the states who had moved to Berlin because his grandfather, who was German had caught "the fever"...jungle fever - which is why he's black. He was cracking us up from second one. He was exactly what we needed that morning -entertainment. He started the tour with a thorough review of the history of Germany, the high and the lows, the fact that before WWII and the Nazi party coming to power. I didn't know that the money in Germany was so worthless that they only printed it on one side. We left the hostel and headed through the city.


We stopped by a few churches and then at a beer garden, packed with people on a weekday afternoon. Loyd and I enjoyed 1 liter beers each, amazing. We continued the tour after the beer garden in much happier spirits. The fact that I hadn't showered in 30 hours wasn't bothering me so much. We learned about Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putch (coup) and saw where it all went down. The tour went on for a few more hours and finally ended with our brains hurting from so much information being pumped in. On the tour we met a brother and sister from Santa Barbara, Diana and Jacob. Once the tour ended we headed back to the beer garden for another round.

A little while later we finally made it back to the hostel and got that much needed shower in. We met back up with Diana and Jacob and headed to another Beer Hall that Ozzie had recommended. The food was cheap and the beer was delicious. A great dinner and a brew cost us each 10 euros, not bad! We headed back to our hostel for a pub crawl but just as we left the Beer Hall, the rains began. It was absolutely pouring. By time we made it back to the hostel 10 minutes later, we were all soaked head to toe. Instead of the pub crawl we decided to relax a bit in the bar in the hostel. We enjoyed the Happy Hour and 1 Euro beers and played some card games. Eventually we made it out of the hostel and to the Hofprahouse, where that failed Hitler coup occurred.


We finally made it home after an absolutely epic night. We're off to Strasbourg tomorrow but I knew from moment one that we had spent far too little time in Munich. Germany has absolutely been the best country we have visited yet. Off to FRANCCCEE!