The Worst
So there we were, standing in a crowd on the wrong train with forty pounds of bags strapped to our backs. In between train cars, the ground was constantly shifting, making it hard to stand. We had no idea how long it would be until we could sit. Nobody spoke the language, everyone was angry, and we were right next to the restroom. This marked the beginning of our stay in Munich.Our train ride was supposed to be easy- Paris to Mannheim to Munich. One stop. No problem. Leaving Paris was surprisingly simple. Nobody checked our passports or luggage. We simply showed up at the train station, and waited to board. After the train left, a man came by to check our tickets. "Zis train is not running" he explained in an odd half French half German accent. "Sehr ist a strike in Germany." This is when we started to worry. But the man promissed there would be an announcement with more information soon.
The announcement came. In French, then in German, then in poor English. It was difficult to tell over the herd of teenagers on board, but from what Aaron could make out, it seemed like our train was simply going to be an hour late. Aaron went to verify with one of the employees of the train. "Ya!", he said in broken English, "It ist just delayed one hour. All is gut."
We arrived in Mannheim, and decided to find an ATM and a restroom. Neither worked out well, but more on that later. The train to Munich arrived, and we immediately realized we had a problem. First, it was packed. Second, it was not our train. Our tickets had a different train number on it. The train car we were supposed to be sitting in wasn't even on this train. We had no seats, and it was 2 hours until we reached Munich.
We boarded the train in panic mode. We were desperately trying to get information as we squeezed past fellow backpackers. Aaron was on the phone with his bank, (Again, more on that later) and very few people seemed willing or able to help us in any way. Aaron hopped off the train to see if he could get some help. There was an old train conductor who gave him some sage advice. "Wrong train." were the only 2 words this man seemed to know. As Aaron attempted to explain the very delicate situation, the old man interrupted with "Get on".
And so there we were. Fatigued, frustrated, and flabbergasted, we stood in a crowd of angry Germans not knowing when or if we would reach our destination.
Luckily, a kind young man stuck standing next to us knew enough English to help us explain our situation to the person checking tickets. He translated some of the most relieving words Aaron has heard on the trip - "Most people are getting off in about 20 minutes." It was a huge relief, but it was only the beginning of our problems.
We arrived at our hostel tired, hungry, and as fate would have it, super super poor. There were a few factors that lead to our situation. Before our trip, we had decided to open a new checking account with a new bank. Our idea was to bring our debit cards for this account and only keep a few hundred dollars in there at a time. We would really only use these debit cards for cash, and we would transfer money as we went. Other than that, we were only going to bring one credit card each. That way, if our cards were stolen, we wouldn't loose too much money. The thing is, it takes a few days to transfer money between banks. Since Aaron lost his credit card, and Kaylea's card didn't work everywhere, we started having to use this account more often than we expected.
The night we left Paris, we had $83. We transferred more money and went to sleep. When we went to the ATM to pull out 20 euro, we had $16 remaining in the account. Some charges hadn't posted. After talking to our banks they told us that "unfortunately" there was nothing they could do. Aaron suddenly realized that without his credit card, he had no access to any of his money. Every option we were exploring was going to take 1 to 2 business days, and since it was Saturday, that wasn't going to help us at all.
As soon as we arrived, we went to a bank in the train station to trade what little money we did have for some Euros. We traded a Canadian 10, and a single US dollar for 4 euro. We knew we were getting ripped off, but we needed the money for a room key, and we realized we were standing at a Western Union. We asked the clerk about wiring money, and she said it should take about 50 minutes.
Finally we were saved! Kind of... After trying for about an hour at the hostel, we realized we couldn't transfer money from within Germany. Long story short (too late), our parents had to come to our rescue. We cannot express enough how much this saved us. Not every store accepted Kaylea's credit card. You know you're in for rough times when Burger King turns you down. Our first dinner in Germany was Pringles, sandwiches, and candy purchased from a convenience store in the train station. But we slept well knowing that there would be money waiting for us in the morning.
The Best
Our first full day started out amazing. We went to the bank, got some cash to make us through the weekend, and then decided to walk around the city of Munich. The day could not have been better. We started out seeing Marienplatz. It was essentially a giant shopping center with some old churches speckled here and there, but it was still nice to walk through. After that, we decided to make our way to the English Garden. We ended up taking the scenic rout, hiking our way through a long path to get there. Given our previous day, it was nice to return to nature. As soon as we got to the English Garden, we stumbled across a giant Biergaten (read: beer garden)! It was basically a bunch of people eating at tables outside, and dancing to live music. Aaron didn't get to visit a biergarten during his last visit, and was happy Kaylea finally got to experience authentic German culture and food. We each enjoyed a plate of sausage and potatoes, and a nice tall stein of beer. For some reason, this particular biergarten was filled with old people, and the live band was playing mostly old American rock music, but we didn't care. Kaylea got a huge kick out of watching old people swing dance to a slightly mistranslated Blue Suede Shoes sung by Germans. Strangely, it reminded her of home.
We finished walking through the English Garden. There's really no way to describe how beautiful it was without sounding cliche. Everyone had a smile on their faces. People were walking their dogs. People were playing sports. People were eating picnics. There were people everywhere, and yet it wasn't crowded at all. There were huge fields of grass, and the people seemed to be spread out for miles. We even rode around in a little boat around a lake. It was stupid romantic.
Unfortunately, this perfect day was followed by another terrible night. After a quick nap, we decided to go to Haufbrauhause. It's a famous restaurant in Munich. We arrived well before closing, seated ourselves, and waited for menus... and waited for menus... and waited for menus. After about 10 minutes an Austrailian couple joined us. We talked with them for a bit, and then waited for menus. After another 10 minutes, Aaron finally managed to make eye contact with a waiter who gave Aaron an assuring head nod. Another 10 minutes went by. When Aaron tried to flag down the waiter, he simply said "It's coming." Kaylea got up and got the table some menus. We were finally ready to order a little past 10 when a waiter came by and informed us that this menu was not available after 10. It was 10:10. They had made us wait for 30 minutes, so that we couldn't order anything off of the main menu. It was the most ridiculous thing that has ever happened to us at a restaurant. Making matters worse, mostly everything else was closed. We managed to get some food, but wasn't the best. Despite another terrible night in Munich, we still considered that our best day of the trip.
The Longest Ride
Our plan for the day was Neuschwanstein. Aaron had visited before, and Kaylea was excited to get to see it. Basically this crazy king from the 1800's had castle fever and decided to build the most ridiculous castles he could. He almost bankrupt Bavaria. It was apparently a big deal. Anyway, it was a 2 hour train ride, followed by a 15 minute bus ride, followed by a 30 minute hike to get to the castle. There's a paved road that leads to the castle. Aaron had remembered hiking a dirt path, but without a tour guide, we were unable to find it. Instead, we just kept walking off of the main road, making our hike much more difficult. So it was really a 45 minute hike. We made our way up to Marienbruk, which a small wooden bridge several hundred feet in the air. It's where everyone get's their best castle pictures. We posed. We took some pictures. Good times were had. Aaron, in a moment of pure comedic genius, came up with the brilliant idea of freaking Kaylea out by pretending to drop the selfie-stick. But the wrist strap broke, and Aaron actually dropped the selfie-stick several hundred feed into the rocky waterfall below. We both stood there helplessly watching it fall. It didn't help that Aaron counted down "3,2,1". It was one of those moments when you're not sure you're in reality. "Did I really just drop that?... Yeah. I really just dropped that."
(R.I.P. Selfie-Stick)
You guys will have to excuse any mistakes in this post. It's 2 in the morning, and we've been sitting in the laundry room of our hostel writing this blog post for a few hours now. Now for some much needed sleep!
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