The other day we had a bit of a kerfuffle, because I was in town to pick up Rose, and then decided we could stop by the library together. I was feeling really proud and accomplished because we made it to the bathroom in time despite having to descend three floors (who doesn't put a bathroom in the kid section of a library? Do they even know any kids?) and I signed up for a library card on my own (If that doesn't sound very impressive, you've obviously never had to fill out a personal information form in German)! As it was now around the time Ev get's out of school my host mom asked if we could pick her up too. Except that she wasn't there. I called to ask if there was any possible meeting place I hadn't thought to look (I don't pick the girls ups from school very often, about once a month) and probably made things worse by totally freaking her out. After a big panic, we found her, she had run off to talk to friends and didn't wait where she was supposed to. If the parking lot hadn't been full and I hadn't had to park in another lot, I would have walked the normal route and seen her with her friends, but alas, nope. So it was an eventful afternoon to say the least. That was followed of course by grinding some crayon into a carpet, for which my typical solution would be goo-gone, but I don't think they make a bio version...
I'd worked that morning so I had the rest of the afternoon off, and I drove down to the lake to get caught in a storm. I love storms though, so I found a great (free) spot to park from a hill and watched the rain fall on the mountains. So cool! Drive through the alps at some point please everybody - there's nothing more amazing to see!
Yesterday my cousin got married in Windsor. Weddings with my family are a ton of fun and I was really wishing I could be there to celebrate. Fortunately for me, Frühlingsfest is going on in Munich, so I had something to distract me. I found out Andrea, who I met in Amsterdam at the world's funnest hostel, was visiting Dachau, and would be in the area so I told her we could meet up. What was supposed to be a large group going turned out to only be myself and Silvia 2. Due to construction in both of our towns we both missed the first train to Munich by seconds, which was the start of a fantastic turn of events:
- While waiting for the next train we met a group of people from allover the world living in Munich that get together to do stuff. Yesterday they visited the Kletternwald, a famous high ropes course here in Prien. Now we have new day-tripping friends!
- We ran into creepy German men on the way from Munich Hauptbahnhof to Frühlingsfest. I told them I didn't speak German to make them go away, only to have them reply in English and provide us with really helpful directions! I stupidly thought we could just follow people wearing dirndl's to the fest and didn't think to find directions!
- We missed the Ubahn by seconds, and Silvia stuck her sprained foot between the doors to stop it, which ended up being hilarious and painful, and unsuccessful.
- We arrived at Frühlingsfest just in time for it to start to rain! We got a few great photos and then decided to split! (Frühlingsfest is a big carnival with rides and biergartens and great food stands. It's not such a drunken mess as Oktoberfest, but there still isn't a lot to do if you have to drive a car home, are broke, or have a fear of heights. It was great to see everyone in Dirndls and Lederhosen though!)
- We headed back to Hauptbahnhof in search of food. We planned to go to Marienplatz to meet Andrea, only to hear that because of all the soccer players and fans partying, trams, buses, Ubahns and SBahns weren't stopping at Marienplatz (last year the celebration for Bayern Muenchen's win was so big the police had to shut it down). So we went in search of ice cream instead!
- On the way we passed the Justice Palace, an amazingly beautiful building, and saw a gorgeous fountain! We finally found ice cream (McDonald's sundeas for a euro! Yes, please!) and in the earnestness of our pursuit realized our train was leaving in 4 minutes. SIlvia has a sprained ankle, remember. On our run back we passed a gelateria we hadn't noticed right beside the Bahnhof, of course.
- We made it to our train in time to see the girl ahead of us make it on board, and thinking we could too, banged very loudly on the windows and pretty green door-open button as it slipped from our fingers. Another hour till the next train. At this point, Silvia could hardly walk, we were both holding ice cream soups, and we were laughing uncontrollably at my awful Italian, her awful German and our inability to communicate clearly. (But then, of course, when I go to buy a water I forget all my German and order in beautiful Italian from a confused barista.)
- Silvia noticed a couple Canadian flags on a group of guys' backpacks, and due to my strong Tim Horton's commercial upbringing, of course, I started chatting with the group and we all immediately got along as fellow foreigners! They were from Hamilton (I would also just like to point out, that when people who actually know their Canadian geography ask me where I'm from I don't just say Toronto, like some people... No one knows about Canadian cities cause no one bothers to say them!). They had just run into a couple of Canadian soccer party-goers who had sung them the Canadian anthem!
Although I love meeting total strangers, the idea of having to make conversation for more than a couple hours straight (and in Italian!) sometimes scares me sick, even with a friend! But ICH HABE DAS GESCHAFFT! I'm proud of how well we got along yesterday, in spite of the language barrier and my introversion. Sometimes I just have to remind myself that I didn't come all the way here to be a hermit. There are great adventures to be had in books or watching an entire season of ________ in one weekend, but there are cool ones to be had in my real life too!
Despite the fact that we never ended up meeting Andrea and her friends (they got stuck walking from Marienplatz and just made their last train home for the night), we missed three trains, we got rained out of Frühlingsfest, and our ice cream melted, it was a great day! The trip which was supposed to be about 4 hours, ended up being about 7. Nothing seemed to work out but it was more fun that way!
Silvia and I have made ourselves a great travel team too, in that neither of us could care less if we didn't think to bring directions or we miss a train! There's always going to be another! (Is it possible I'm a little too laidback here?)
I'd worked that morning so I had the rest of the afternoon off, and I drove down to the lake to get caught in a storm. I love storms though, so I found a great (free) spot to park from a hill and watched the rain fall on the mountains. So cool! Drive through the alps at some point please everybody - there's nothing more amazing to see!
Yesterday my cousin got married in Windsor. Weddings with my family are a ton of fun and I was really wishing I could be there to celebrate. Fortunately for me, Frühlingsfest is going on in Munich, so I had something to distract me. I found out Andrea, who I met in Amsterdam at the world's funnest hostel, was visiting Dachau, and would be in the area so I told her we could meet up. What was supposed to be a large group going turned out to only be myself and Silvia 2. Due to construction in both of our towns we both missed the first train to Munich by seconds, which was the start of a fantastic turn of events:
- While waiting for the next train we met a group of people from allover the world living in Munich that get together to do stuff. Yesterday they visited the Kletternwald, a famous high ropes course here in Prien. Now we have new day-tripping friends!
- We ran into creepy German men on the way from Munich Hauptbahnhof to Frühlingsfest. I told them I didn't speak German to make them go away, only to have them reply in English and provide us with really helpful directions! I stupidly thought we could just follow people wearing dirndl's to the fest and didn't think to find directions!
- We missed the Ubahn by seconds, and Silvia stuck her sprained foot between the doors to stop it, which ended up being hilarious and painful, and unsuccessful.
- We arrived at Frühlingsfest just in time for it to start to rain! We got a few great photos and then decided to split! (Frühlingsfest is a big carnival with rides and biergartens and great food stands. It's not such a drunken mess as Oktoberfest, but there still isn't a lot to do if you have to drive a car home, are broke, or have a fear of heights. It was great to see everyone in Dirndls and Lederhosen though!)
- We headed back to Hauptbahnhof in search of food. We planned to go to Marienplatz to meet Andrea, only to hear that because of all the soccer players and fans partying, trams, buses, Ubahns and SBahns weren't stopping at Marienplatz (last year the celebration for Bayern Muenchen's win was so big the police had to shut it down). So we went in search of ice cream instead!
- On the way we passed the Justice Palace, an amazingly beautiful building, and saw a gorgeous fountain! We finally found ice cream (McDonald's sundeas for a euro! Yes, please!) and in the earnestness of our pursuit realized our train was leaving in 4 minutes. SIlvia has a sprained ankle, remember. On our run back we passed a gelateria we hadn't noticed right beside the Bahnhof, of course.
- We made it to our train in time to see the girl ahead of us make it on board, and thinking we could too, banged very loudly on the windows and pretty green door-open button as it slipped from our fingers. Another hour till the next train. At this point, Silvia could hardly walk, we were both holding ice cream soups, and we were laughing uncontrollably at my awful Italian, her awful German and our inability to communicate clearly. (But then, of course, when I go to buy a water I forget all my German and order in beautiful Italian from a confused barista.)
- Silvia noticed a couple Canadian flags on a group of guys' backpacks, and due to my strong Tim Horton's commercial upbringing, of course, I started chatting with the group and we all immediately got along as fellow foreigners! They were from Hamilton (I would also just like to point out, that when people who actually know their Canadian geography ask me where I'm from I don't just say Toronto, like some people... No one knows about Canadian cities cause no one bothers to say them!). They had just run into a couple of Canadian soccer party-goers who had sung them the Canadian anthem!
Although I love meeting total strangers, the idea of having to make conversation for more than a couple hours straight (and in Italian!) sometimes scares me sick, even with a friend! But ICH HABE DAS GESCHAFFT! I'm proud of how well we got along yesterday, in spite of the language barrier and my introversion. Sometimes I just have to remind myself that I didn't come all the way here to be a hermit. There are great adventures to be had in books or watching an entire season of ________ in one weekend, but there are cool ones to be had in my real life too!
Despite the fact that we never ended up meeting Andrea and her friends (they got stuck walking from Marienplatz and just made their last train home for the night), we missed three trains, we got rained out of Frühlingsfest, and our ice cream melted, it was a great day! The trip which was supposed to be about 4 hours, ended up being about 7. Nothing seemed to work out but it was more fun that way!
Silvia and I have made ourselves a great travel team too, in that neither of us could care less if we didn't think to bring directions or we miss a train! There's always going to be another! (Is it possible I'm a little too laidback here?)