Monday, May 31, 2010

Munich and beyond

We're back! Although we're actually sitting at our hostel in Berlin right now, we'd like to update you on our adventures this week throughout Munich, Vienna and Prague.

We took a train from Cologne to Munich last Monday, May 24th. The train was late but we didn't really care; we hadn't planned on seeing much of the city until the next day anyway. The few hours of daylight that we had in Munich were still awesome though. We took a stroll through the famous park, the "English Gardens," where Becca had to pee so badly that she squatted behind a bush...really classy. The Gardens are huge, by the way. More than twice the size of Central Park. The scene was really cool too. People were out enjoying the (still) awesome weather, throwing frisbees, grilling out, nude sunbathing...well not that last one but it's supposedly very popular on hot summer days.

On our way back from the Gardens we passed a shrine to Michael Jackson. MJ fans had commandeered the statue of some poor irrelevant German guy and plastered his entire pedestal with pictures, fresh flowers, candles, love notes, and all sorts of other weird shit you can only get from devoted Jackson fans.

We ate dinner at some place recommended by our awesome hostel, Wombat's, and had high hopes, only to be crushed by the massive Rick points deduction that ensued. The restaurant had menus in seven languages, the waitresses seemed to hate their lives, and the food was pretty bad. Oh well. At least the beer was good. We also got Haagen Dazs afterward, which made everything alright.

The next morning, we went out to explore the city. We pretty much continued the trend of walking everywhere (seriously, everywhere) and got a good feel for Munich. The city is really beautiful. It's got more parks than it knows what to do with and has some really interesting architecture as well. We especially enjoyed our walk along the Isay river, which runs along the edge of town. On our way back to the main shopping drag (where we would later buy provisions for a picnic lunch) we stopped to see the old 16th century glockenspiel at the town hall. Pretty cool, I guess, for something built hundreds of years ago but it definitely paled in comparison to the animatronic band at Chuck-E-Cheeze. We then made our way to an awesome outdoor market so we could buy food.

And now for the saga of the "sausage bitch."

After successfully purchasing bread, cheese, produce, alcohol, etc. with a hodgepodge of bad German and sign language, we made our way into a tent that looked like it sold smoked meats. Perfect...or so we thought.

Being a good tourist (and fervent disciple of Rick) I smiled broadly as I entered the store and greeted the shopkeeper in the local dialect (Gruss Gotte, not Gutentag) and asked "Sprechen sie Englisch (do you speak English)?" She glared at me and said "no," then turned around and refused to serve us.

Screw her. We didn't want her stank nasty sausages anyway. Becca and I walked thirty seconds down the road and bought stuff from a very nice lady who appreciated our tainted American money.

We left sausage bitch in our badass American dust and made our way to the Seehaus, a famous beer garden in the middle of the English Gardens. Beer garden tradition allows you to bring your own food, so we spread out our picnic feast. I bought a liter of Weissbier and started working away. Becca wasn't a fan but she did seem to enjoy feeding the ducks (which would come up to you and literally beg) cherry pits, ostensibly in an effort to kill them. I finished my stein and we briefly contemplated heading straight to the train station so we could make our train to Vienna with plenty of time to spare.

I had bigger plans. I wanted to visit another beer garden close by (the Chinese Tower) and have another giant beer. Everything was under control and precisely timed. We were never in danger of missing our train, but Becca wants to take over at this point and tell of her hectic, boob-bouncing run through the streets of Munich. I walked at a brisk but comfortable pace. Apparently having two lumps of fat strapped to your chest makes things difficult, so here she is to tell her side of the story.....

Becca
First off, I was all for going to the second beer garden and allowing Jay to work on his solid afternoon beer buzz. I, however, told him that we needed to make sure we had enough time to make the train. Jay told me not to worry and that he would check the time on his phone. He finished his second stein and said that if we walked quickly, we would make our train. For those of you who know me, this task is impossible. I walk at the pace of a turtle. Either that or I'm running. There is no inbetween. So I ran the WHOLE time to keep up with Jay(who seems to grow stilts when he is in a hurry). Mind you that this is a 30 minute run to the train station and we still had to go by the hostel to get our packs. Jay acted like he was completely not worried, but I knew he was. I made him run through Munich with me so I didn't look like the only idiot pushing past poor Germans trying to enjoy their nice afternoon without having sweaty, boob-ridden Becca shoving them out of the way.. We honestly got on the train about a minute before it left. If we hadn't run, we would not have made it. Jay has yet to thank me for saving his ass. BUT, Munich was ridiculously cool. My favorite city yet :)

Now on to Vienna!
Vienna was really nice(although a lil rainy), and Jay and I decided we wanted to stay at another Wombats because they are so clean and friendly. The hostel itself was nice, although it was kinda in a sketch part of town. Lets just say I wouldn't feel safe walking there by myself at night. We shared a room with some really cool people and after checking in, we were starving so Jay and I went to grab some late night Doner Kebabs(these tasty, quick meals have helped us in many a bind). On the way, we passed about 8 viennese prostitutes. Jay really wanted to pick one up but I had to tell him that he was "to only look, not touch." The next day, we woke up and started our exploration through the city. We went to the Haus Der Musik, which was a really cool, interactive museum. You could conduct the Philharmonic Orchestra, write your own composition, or play the many games that they had set up around the museum. It was very cool to learn about the physics behind sound and how it applies to music.
After the museum, we went to grab lunch at this vegetarian place(I convinced Jay to go there only because my body was starting to crave something that wasn't meat and potatoes, which the Germans seem to never get sick of). I also dragged Jay to a cafe so we could buy the famous Sacher Torte(which is authentic Austrian chocolate cake). I mean, Rick Steves had recommended it, so it couldn't be bad right? The moment arrived and I took my first bite. It was.....okay. Honestly, I didn't see what all the hype was about. It was sort of dry and tasted like it was made with raisin juice. Grody. We explored the city some more(the architecture is beautiful and so unique) but it started to rain so we headed back to the hostel. We spent the night at the "Wombar", ordering food and chatting up a super friendly Australian dude. He ended up getting plastered by the end of the night and when I ran into him the next morning, he claimed he was still drunk and was not going to make his bus due to his predicament. Poor guy.

Our time is about up, so I will have to go. But stories from Prague and Berlin later on! I will leave you with this little treasure, though.

I was awoken in the early hours of the morning by a drunk guy who sat on me. I vaguely remember yelling and cursing at him. He stared at me and didn't seem to understand "Get up. GET UP. GET THE FUCK OFF ME!!" and obviously didn't care that I was hitting him as hard as I could. Douchebag. He was really drunk but eventually realized that the bed was already occupied and tried to climb to the top bunk but failed. He fell on his face with a large thunk that woke up the whole room. I gave him a good, long glare this morning before he left. I'm sure I really frightened him :)

We love yáll!
Becca and Jay

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