Germany!

Germany bound

I'm in Germany!

Easier said then done. First the hostel tried to con us into paying for new furniture, but we found out they were trying the same think with another group here...long story short, Marc and Ted are no pushovers, and Marc doesn't intend to come back to Firenze 2000 agai .

The train station was about a half hour walk, on very narrow cobblestone sidewalks. (another thing I need to remember to appreciate- flat, easy walking ground. I shouldn't have to play leap frog on a walking path). My suitcase is probably edging up to the 40lb mark, and I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow, but I feel accomplished. Even though my wonderful brother Luke offered me help, I did it all on my own. I probably will be ditching some things for the next train ride though; my shoulders are going to need some work in the meantime, and it'll be worth the sacrifice of a pair of shoes and maybe a sweater. But like I said, I'm both tough and stubborn, and I made it.

The train was only a half hour to bologna,and then we had 20 minutes to find out next train and get loaded up. A little scary, a lot of teamwork, and some serious determination, but we made it happen. The next train ride to Paris has a 7 minute space between switches,and I know everyone is dreading it, or just deciding we won't make it. So we had something to prove for this changeover, and I think we did pretty well.

The 7 hour ride to Munich wasn't bad; the quarters were a little cramped, but we had our own little carriages, so it was more like the Hogwarts express experience a few of us were looking for. I got a little restless towards the end, but in a way, it's like we're making the trip home now; were slowly going further north! Going through the alps was SO pretty, and the girl in our car told us about her great aunt, who had climbed them to escape Germany during the war. So cool. Climb every mountain, the hills are alive, etc etc.

Our hostel was only like a 5 minute walk from the train station, which was great. it's SO nice. The top floors are hotel rooms; we even have a tv! The bottom floor is a basic hostel set up, but we also have a breakfast room and a bar in the basement. The bar is the main attraction right now, but apparently they have something called a "toastie" that's like a grilled cheese sandwhich with salami, which I could totally get into.

We did our walking tour of the city- from what I can tell, everything seems cleaner and more modern, but the language barrier seems way more daunting. We ended up eating at the haufbraus house (I know that isn't how to spell it, but i don't have anything to look it up with) which was not at all what I needed. It was a complete 180 from Italy.

It was exactly what you would think of a beer hall. Lots of wood tables, loud people, servers running around and taking orders from a room away, a band of old men playing live music, and people up on the tables, dancing on their chairs, or singing drinking songs. Basically, just really, really loud. It was probably fun, but I was just ready for bed and completely not interested in the shenanigans. Hopefully we go back a time I can appreciate it,because it was so authentic and fun. We sat next to a man from Spain who lived in Germany for the last three years, but spoke English. It was very cool, and it would be great to meet more people,which is way easier to do in that kind of environment- but I missed the quiet intimacy of Italy.

Now I'm in my down comforter typing this while Jacque and katie, my new roommates, work on their journal entries for our academic journal. Starting the virgin suicides tonight, and taking advantage of our later start to tomorrow to sleep in!