Welcome to Germany

April 28, 2011 – 12:51 pm (Munich time)

I am happy to say that I survived my second flight and am currently in Munich, Germany!  Our flight was delayed by an hour, but I was able to send Yurie a Facebook message letting her know we were delayed. As I mentioned before, Keenan and I were able to sit next to each other again. I was hoping to sleep a lot on this flight, but unfortunately, I have a very difficult time falling asleep. I may have dozed off here and there, but probably not more than 3 hours total. I couldn’t put my seat back for a while because the person behind me had his tray down and that apparently stopped me from moving it back.

Since we were leaving from Toronto, there were quite a few Canadians on the flight. Am I the only one that gets giddy whenever a Canadian says “Eh?” at the end of their sentence? I just think it’s so funny to hear. I can’t help but automatically think of those moose in the movie “Brother Bear”. For those who have seen it, you know what I mean.

After landing and going through customs, we went to the baggage claim. Luckily, it didn’t take too long before we met up with Yurie. Now we are still hanging out at baggage claim waiting for Katie and Caitlin to arrive. Only ten minutes left (assuming their flight isn’t an hour late like ours was)! Once we find them and they get their luggage, we can finally go to our hostel. It sure would be nice to take a little nap to recharge my batteries…

Before I left, Nicolette gave me an envelope with my name on it. The instructions told me not to open it until after I get to Germany, so that’s what I did. Inside, there were many smaller envelopes that had dates on them, indicating when I can open each one. I was able to open the first envelope – however, the contents of this envelope will remain a mystery to all of you.

 

Proof that I did not open it until I arrived in Germany.

 

The date on my watch. I swear I didn't change it!

Did I mention I don’t know any German? This should be interesting.

             

April 28, 2011 – continued…

We successfully met up with Caitlin and Katie at the airport on Thursday, and managed to find our way to the hostel. It required taking a 35 minute train ride, and then a short walk. However, when Caitlin got her luggage from baggage claim, one of the wheels was completely gone! It was very difficult for her to drag her suitcase along, so we had to put her suitcase on top of Keenan’s suitcase, with myself, Keenan, and Caitlin all holding it to keep it balanced. It was a bit of the challenge, but we made it.

Keenan Moment #1 (probably funnier to us, but I will share it anyways): So we were on the train from the airport and we were getting off at the next stop. All of us were standing so that we could get off quickly with our luggage. When it came to a stop, the train jerked back slightly. This caused Keenan to lose his balance, and almost crush a baby in a baby carriage. He then said “Sorry” to the baby, who did not respond for obvious reasons.

We checked into the hostel, and when we booked it online, we had booked a 6-bed dorm. However, our room actually turned out to have 8 beds in it. It’s separated into two smaller rooms, though, with 4 beds in each. The girls are all in one room, and Keenan is in the other room. He ended up having a few roommates, including a couple – one from Berlin, one from Venezuela. There is a bathroom in each of the smaller rooms, which is nice. We decided not to take a nap, despite how tired we were. The best way to adjust to the time change is to keep ourselves awake until a more normal sleeping hour.

After freshening up, we walked over to the train station to grab some dinner. We found a place that served hamburgers, but we were nervous about ordering since none of us know German. This brings me to:

Keenan Moment #2: Keenan decided he would order first, certain that the man at the register would speak English. Oh, how naïve he was. Keenan walks up and says “I would like a cheeseburger please…With fries…And a beverage.” The guy stared back blankly, not understanding what Keenan had just said. He also got confused and thought that Caitlin was buying food with him. Finally, the guy pointed over to a girl who worked there, and went off to go get her. Ah, the joys of language barriers!

We stopped at a couple of stores after dinner, including getting water at a small mini-mart. However, we found out later that we accidently got carbonated water which I am not a fan of. We were all pretty exhausted from the long day of traveling, so we ended up going to sleep around 8:30 pm. However, Caitlin, Yurie, and I woke up around 1 am and felt wide awake. So, we all went downstairs to the lobby to use the internet for an hour, and then went back to bed after this little break.

Next up: Our first full day exploring Munich!