Day 41 – Munich

Surprisingly, we slept really well on the train and when it got really cold during the night, they actually put on the radiators in the cabin! Awoken by the train conductor giving back our passes, we found ourselves back in Vienna again and were able to tell our cabin-mates what stop to get off at (they still missed it).

Using internet to get our admin done, we found out that the overnight Amsterdam train was fully booked for the next 5 days, and meant we would have to leave at 3.30am tonight. We’ve become used to these late night trains now. Before getting the train, we got some food to keep us going and beside us, a girl was eating like an animal and coughing ridiculously. We were laughing, as well as a man opposite us who couldn’t stand it anymore and had to leave!

My girlfriend and I sat opposite a couple on the train who were a rare bunch. We had a pleasant conversation for some of the time and the girl mentioned that she paid £40 for her interrail pass ‘back in the day’. I told her the price now and she nearly fell off her seat. We were interrupted by the coffee and snack seller as he needed to use our plugs to make his coffee…what kind of portable device is this? And the man was also disturbed by a random woman on the train. She had asked him to ring someone to tell him she was on the train – except it sounded all too dodgy – but we said nothing.

The Austrian countryside was just beautiful and I was a bit annoyed that we hadn’t visited more of Austria (we’ll definitely be back). It changed into German countryside and we had arrived in Munich before we knew it. After leaving our bags in lockers at the station, just behind where we had our noodles the last time, we walked out of the train station to a massive street parade.

I thought it was just a normal gay pride parade but it was actually St. Christopher Street Day. Everyone was practically drunk and they were playing some tunes off the buses, throwing condoms and haribo sweets at us and just enjoying themselves – it was only 12 in the afternoon though! It looked like great fun nonetheless.

After they had finished passing us, we continued on and found the main square where they were setting up beer tents and a stage. We decided to come back here later when it was ready and continue on to get lunch for now. As you might do, we decided to go off the main street and follow the back roads to get a cheaper place. Of course, and as usual for us, we found ourselves in the richest possible area of the city, Prada and Gucci shops with Ferraris and Jaguars outside them!

As fate was obviously not on our side, we went to a shop and got ourselves some chicken and salad. Because we couldn’t cook any of this and as the German language isn’t one of my best attributes, I needed to ask if this chicken was alright to eat cold. The butcher didn’t understand and got another girl who didn’t either, she then got another man and then he another, all with increasing levels of English. Finally, we got the all clear with our chicken and headed to the park.

This park was nothing like you have at home (unless you’re from Munich obviously) as it had a man made lazy river running through it, people jumping in and floating away, even people surfing up at the rapids! My girlfriend was very annoyed that she didn’t bring her bikini with her and the train station was just too far away. Instead, she wanted to buy one but I had said I didn’t want to go in at all. After huffing for an hour with me, she eventually gave in and left to buy a swimming costume, returning from H & M an hour later. She swam for 5 metres in the cold water before it started to rain with thunder and lightning. Don’t think it was really worth it but of course she would never admit otherwise.

The storm clouds were fast apporaching and my girlfriend was taking ages to get ready. Stuck in the trees for 5 minutes until it cleared, we made an effort to get to a building before it got bad. This was only the calm before the storm. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it in time and were soaked by the time we reached shelter.

As we were already wet, we didn’t care anymore and just walked around in the pouring rain. Finding an Irish pub, everyone knew we were from Ireland as we looked to be used to the rain. They all looked and laughed at us but I was secretly proud, my Toms shoes were also the dark blue colour they used to be. They could have at least got us a drink for being mad! We dried up, finished our heated conversation on the difference between crisps and cornsnacks and made our way back to the main square.

We watched a Hen-do charge €10 for people to cut a heart shape from the top of the wife-to-be. Lots of people were actually doing this and it was only 8pm – they were hardly drunk. We stayed to listen to the live music before trying to find a coffee shop and just relax (it would be a long night). We couldn’t find one and as we got hungrier, the search criteria included restaurants too. I told my girlfriend to just pick the next one you think reasonable and she did, except it was the first one she saw and it was horrible.

We were crammed into a table with no escape and a German couple were sat beside us. Basically we were on a double date as the tables were so close that we had to order together and our food came at the same time. There were only like 10 choices of food and I got the chicken with the bone (I hate picking around the bones and was really not bothered for it today). The couple even asked how our food was we were that close. They were going to a concert of a girl I have never heard of (apparently she did Woodstock before?) and we talked about our trip. The table on the other side got the wrong beer and I realised that I had his and he had mine. I said nothing and pretended I was right. As soon as we finished, we left straight away so as to not cause anymore havoc.

Finally we found a coffee shop and the waiter who worked there was Italian – great to hear to Italian language again and chance my arm at it. We had to listen to an accordian player outside though and he was truly awful, playing Canon in D with massive breaks between the famous ground bass.

Back at the train station, we got our bags and found a comfortable place to stay as we would be here quite a while. We sat and watched a gang of African-Americans on a rota. There were 2 walking their route on the main floor, 2 on each balcony overlooking the platforms, 3 at the main entrance, 2 walking from side door to side door and 2 walking a large circle. They were so suspicious looking and all phoning each other when they saw the police. There were so many of them, which made it worse. Luckily we stayed safe until the train came.

The train did come an hour early as this was the first stop but it didn’t open the doors until 15 mins before departure. We could have been sleeping on it already! When we did get on, a man walked in on my girlfriend in the toilet as she didn’t know how to lock it. It got even more awkward when the automatic door took ages to close and she could just count the seconds of embarrassment.

After complaining that I always get the window seat, my girlfriend took it but wanted to change not long after because there was nobody behind me, and she wanted to put her seat back…women.