Seriously. This weekend was one of the best experiences of my life. Where to even begin? The train rides would probably be appropriate!
Tyler, Colby, and I left Brig around 7:30pm and took our first train to Zurich, Switzerland. To pass the time we played some Go Fish and Phase 10. I'm glad I can keep introducing this game to people :) We got off in Zurich around 10pm and walked around the train station because we had about a 40min wait until our next train. Train two took us to Salzburg, Austria and that was a six hour ride.
The train ride was long, and I never felt asleep for a long period of time. I think I was scared that we were all going to sleep through our stop and end up in Budapest, Hungary! Plus the guy that sat next to me had the worst body odor in the world, and then he decided to take his shoes off. Ugh, so disgusting. I think it's rather sad when others don't realize how badly they smell. After the long and smelly train ride to Salzburg, we caught our last train to Munich, Germany! Luckily it was only about a 10 minute wait between the two trains. We all slept for a good amount of time and then finally arrived at our finally destination: Munich, Germany!! And it was about 6:30am by this time.
We headed on our way to the hostel...that Tyler wasn't 100% sure of where it was at. He was fairly certain of where it was, but when we got there, it wasn't there to greet us. I had seen a picture of the outside of the hostel and was searching for it when finally I spotted it out of the corner of my eye down a smaller street! Thank goodness we headed in the right direction! We weren't able to check into the hostel until 1pm, but they let us leave our bags there, which was very fortunate. We decided to head back to the train station to head out around 8am to Fussen, Germany which is where the Neuschwanstein Castle is located!
I've been dying to go to this castle for years. The castle was built for King Ludwig II in 1884 and is the castle that Walt Disney modeled the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland after. So naturally, being the Disney fanatic that I am, I HAD to go see this in person. I felt bad because I drug the two boys along with me, but they loved it in the end. It was extremely unfortunate because we couldn't take pictures inside. It was breathtaking. The attention to detail in all of the architecture and finishing is out of this world.
After the amazingness that was the Neuschwanstein Castle, we headed back to Munich to check into the hostel. We got back to Munich around 5pm, bought some pre-dinner beers at the train station and went to the hostel to check in and relax for a little bit before heading to dinner. After a short break we set out to find the much talked about Hofbrauhaus.
On the way to dinner we saw all of these police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks blocking off all lanes that went into a large intersection by our hostel. Obviously we were curious what was going on because there were no cars or people involved, and no visible accidents. WHAT COULD BE GOING ON?! Then all of a sudden this helicopter lands in the middle of the intersection and out comes these paramedics, doctors in lab coats, and a kid on a stretcher. They start walking towards the hospital that was right on the corner. It was crazy to see such a busy intersection get shut down like that!
We finally made it to the Hofbrauhaus after an adventure through a shopping district, and the place was PACKED. I mean wall to wall full of people. And there were no hostesses to seat people so we had no idea what was going on. Finally we asked someone what we were supposed to do and she said stand by the wall and wait for someone to leave. So that is what we did. This place was amazing. It was filled with, I swear, around a thousand people! And the majority of them were there celebrating a 5-1 Bayern Munich home game win!
After about 15 minutes of waiting we swooped in on a tiny section of a table! First thing we did was order a round of beer. And these weren't wimpy little pints either. They serve beer by the liter at this place. It was really fun to see everyone just sipping away at these HUGE mugs of beer have a fantastic time. The people that we sat at a table with were so nice, and one guy had lived in Seattle for a year! We also ordered dinner there, and that too was superb. The boys both got half a chicken which was amazing and I got veal ragout with spaetzle. MMMMMMM :) After we finished our food we got another round of beers and just chatted away with each other and the people around us. The energy in the place was unreal, I honestly don't think anyone could go there and NOT have a fantastic time!
After what was most definitely a wonderfully fun night we headed back to the hostel to crash. We had three other people we didn't know staying in the same room as us, but we actually never met them. They weren't there when we checked in or when we came back to go to sleep, and when we had to check out at 10am, they were still sleeping. Oh well, I guess that's the beauty of staying at hostels, you're really just there to sleep.
Since we had to check out at 10am, and our train didn't leave until 4pm, we had a long day ahead of us. And we trekked it with our backpacks the entire time. Typical tourists. We didn't really have an agenda for the day, so we just started walking. I feel like we found something new at every turn we made. Munich is absolutely beauty, I fell in love.
After a very tiring adventure around Munich is was time to leave :( I wish I could've stayed longer but we had to go back to classes. One day I really hope I can go with my family. Since my Fah-Jah, Aunt Barb, and Oma used to live there I want to be able to experience it with them. I know the trip would be phenomenal, which is saying a lot since this trip was seriously amazing. I'm still so pumped about this trip, it was one of the coolest things I've done in my life.
For A LOT more pictures check out my Facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=320443&id=672975663&l=8b031a948b
I have to add these because they crack me up. Tyler was testing the shutter speed on his camera while we were waiting to go in the castle.
-Love-
Ahhh! SO jealous about the castle. Lovely!! I can't wait to hear about it and see more pictures when I see you when you return.
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