We have arrived in Munich

We made it into Munich, got our bags, got on the train, and to our hostel a-ok. It would be really helpful to know German, but oh vell. The way things sound is completely different from the way they look like they would sound to me, so listening out for things is pretty much useless.

When we were at the Norfolk airport they made me stick my shoes on the top of my pack and put the top of the pack over them. I didn’t get to do a solid job of adjusting the pack top so I was a bit nervous that during the handling of the travel something would happen like a strap would break and I would lose my pack top and my tennis shoes. Both wouldn’t be a catastrophic crisis but a major bummer none the less. Luckily the bag went through just fine and everything arrived safe and sound.

Other than that little snafu, I feel extremely prepared about this trip. In addition to having my really soft purple sweatshirt, having my computer with me will be a huge sense of comfort. Although Katherine and I were commenting in the airport how not having a cell phone gives us a sense of nakedness. Every time I feel something vibrate, Im like oh someone is calling me and then I realize no silly, you don’t have a phone on you.

So at a grand total, my pack weighed in at about 40lbs and my messenger bag 15lbs. So the most weight I will be carrying on me at one time will be 55lbs, which isn’t too bad considering that the majority of the pack weight is on my hips.

The international gate of the airport was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I feel like international people dress similar to us, but they add a little flair, like patches and colors, all the way to the extremes of wacky hair-dos and piercing. Everyone at the international gate was speaking different languages. I realized that while I was sitting waiting for the plane and messing around with my camera, I have minimal knowledge of how to use it to its full potential. The grossest part of it all was their was a piece of ham on the seat next to Katherine, just sitting out and greasy and gross.

The plane was supposed to leave Philly at 6:40 but we didn’t really take off until 7:50, which could have been worse. They did every announcement on the plane in English and German. It was funny. It was a 7 hr and 40 min flight from Philly to Munich. We were served beverages three times and two meals which turned out to be pretty delicious (a fettuccini alfredo and then Danish). They also offered a refreshment bar somewhere in the plane, but I never made it there. Preferred seating just needed up being a good view of the tv and first picks on dinner and beverages before they ran out. Unfortunately no business class. In reality, business class didn’t look that different from economy. I sat next to a very cool kid whose parents dies a couple of years ago so he has spent his time traveling and studying abroad. He was super helpful on places to go and see because he had been pretty much everywhere, his name was Zach.

So when we got off the plane, we realized that helpful people were legitimately wearing leiterhosens (sp). The man that checked us through customs asked more questions than the other officers seemed to, but we breezed by him no problem. We got on the wrong train originally, so took a more scenic train to the hostel. I was pretty pleased with how much easier we got to our hostel by train than I expected. Once we got off the train, I supposed we looked a little lost, so a nice man came up to use and asked if we needed help and pointed us in the right direction.

In Germany so far they are playing American music (Im listening to Hey Delilah right now). A lot of the houses remind me of the Busch Gardens roller coaster Alpengeist, which I figured was decorated pretty stereotypically, but I guess not really that far from the truth. There are BMWs and other nice foreign (but not so foreign cars) everywhere.

So Katherine and I are pretty whipped from our travels. We wanted to be champs and see some places today, but I don’t think some major touring is in the cards for today. Right now we are sitting in the hostel (which from the check in lobby area looks pretty nice, well see how the dormitory look soon) catching up computer business and waiting for check in at two. I am having a delicious dunkle beer and can already feel it starting to take effect. For a pretty majorly large, heavy, beer, it was only 1.9 euro. I thought that was a pretty good deal. We are very very tired girls so our plan is to sleep for a while, then go and check out Oktoberfest tonight. That way we can tour a good bit tomorrow day and hit up Oktoberfest again tomorrow night.

We are only staying in the Munich hostel for two nights, so I guess we need to figure out where we are going after Munich pretty soon. When we figure that out I will definitively let yall know.