Day 17 - Last day of the Trip
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2008
1
19
Trip End
Jul 05, 2008
Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Saturday, July 5, 2008
I'm somewhat bummed out that I'm missing out on all the 4th of July festivities but my ipod, as if sensing this, played a bunch of country music the moment I turned it on shuffle. Not quite the same as being at the rodeo but close. Then Mattais got over the intercom and tried to play "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springstein from Tanya's iPhone and when that didn't work, he tried to sing it. While this was going on, our bus driver a Czech man who spoke almost no German, (and Czech happened to be one of the languages Mattais doesn't know), was getting us lost on the twisty, turney beautiful country roads. I didn't mind being lost at all as the surroundings were so breath taking. I eventually dozed off.
We arrived in Munich without too much to do. The city was incredibly packed but very cool. I got to wander aimlessly with Chelsea which was a great deal of fun. I've gotten very close to her during this trip. I feel like we're kindred spirits. I get to be jealous of her as she lives on a farm and she gets to be jealous of me as I live on my own. The bus deposited us around the Glockenspiel. We had about forty minutes to wander in the Swiss cheese of shops and beer gardens before the clock went off. Chelsea and I wandered up and down Marienplatz before returning to the clock to watch it go off. The actual ringing off the clock seemed like it went on forever. The clock tells the story of a Duke of the area getting married. So there's lots of bells going off and little figures dancing around. There's even a joust with supposedly life-sized men. I felt like I couldn't quite enjoy the experience as I was constantly looking over my shoulder. It was a situation where pickpockets are rampant so I was a bit nervous but we walked away without any kind of drama.
Chelsea and I then made our way over to the beer garden and did some more shopping. In the area directly surrounding the beer garden, there were small, temporary shops set up in the park area surrounded by more permanent small buildings. It was very Saturday-Market-esque. I found a small shop selling amazing chocolate with a very pleasant owner who spoke amazing English. She had chocolate in every conceivable flavor and darkness. I bought a bar of 90% dark with chili flakes. 'Twas delicious.
Since getting into Munich and being inundated with beer steins at every souvenir shop. I've gotten into my head that I really want one. There are two classes of steins: Ugly, cliche ones and expensive, unique ones. The one I found and consequently fell in love with, was a large stein with a silver lid and black background. The front of the thick ceramic was a gun-metal silver eagle. It was lovely and I wanted it. Bad. It was, however, 45 euros. My funds are starting run low at this point so I made a promise to myself that I would have money left over at the end of the trip. There wasn't an opportunity for me to talk myself into buying the expensive stein as we had to run to catch our bus.
We met back up with the group and got a neat bus tour of the city. There's a stream that goes through the middle of Munich with a small patch of naturally occurring rapids that attracts surfers from all over the world. The city, in an effort to slow the flow of water, had large rocks installed on the creek bed. This only made the water faster and more dangerous. Nor does it keep people from trying to surf it. Even on that cloudy day when the bus pulled up and let us out there was a group of maybe twenty or so people in wet suits, waiting for their turn to try to surf the rapids.
After finishing up the tour we drove toward the outskirts of town for our dinner destination. The restaurant was quite a treat tonight: A traditional beer house. The food was incredibly rich and savory. The beer was light and delicious. I can trace my current love of European beers back that one evening. The whole group got split into two groups to sit at large U-shaped tables. There were beer-maids in traditional, low cut dresses and accordion players in leiderhosen.
After eating, I visited the ladies room to find, through a large window, the stables for the large draft horses that, in a bygone day, pulled the beer wagons. I marveled at the massive proportions of the reins, the halters and other tack. These horses must have been huge. I rejoined the group and pointed it out to Chelsea, another avid horse lover, so she could check it out. The niggling of wanting a beer stein hadn't let go of me yet so I ate quickly and decided to wander a bit before we left. A couple of the Molalla kids and I went out trying to find a store selling the coveted steins to no avail. The only shops we found in the outskirts of town were fairly questionable looking at best and certainly not containing anything even remotely touristy.
As it turns out, we took too long to get back to the bus and the rest of the group was anxiously awaiting our return. My energy and patience were waning. I was looking forward to getting home and resting. As I got on the bus, I noticed one of the girls flashing a stolen beer stein from the beer house. My experience of working in the restaurant industry has taught me that the theft of equipment only hurts the waiter and waitresses, especially when the said item has the personalized emblem of the restaurant. I may have been a little harsher on the girl that necessary, as I raised my voice when I told her what a stupid thing she did, but my patience was hair-thin at that point. The rest of the bus ride was quickly over. Not before riding by the Olympic Stadium. It was massive and still in fairly decent condition, considering how many years it'd been around.
Our hotel is quite a bit away from the actual city center. We are near a little town, however, by the time we arrive, most of the city is shut down. A couple of us decided to try to find something to eat in the waning light and ended up wandering far and wide before finally finding a McDonalds that's open. I find it interesting going into these American businesses while being overseas. There are all the usual things: cheeseburgers, mcnuggets, etc, but then there's something completely random. Of course I didn't write down any of the weird and random things I found at these American fast food chains and being as it's literally been years since my trip, I've completely forgotten. We walked back to the hotel, which took far longer, it seems, than the trip out. Once back to the hotel Team Molalla met up and filled out some final paperwork for the trip, (rating the hotels and restaurants we visited, etc).
I begin to pack up my things and I'm pleased with how much space I have. I've been using my wonderful little red suitcase for this trip and it's served me so well. Inside the suitcase I have the awful blue and orange backpack provided by EF that's currently empty. For the trip home I fill it with some clothes that wont quite fit in the suitcase. One of the tricks I've used this trip is bringing disposable clothes. One of the pairs of shoes I brought with me are on their last legs so I'm just throwing them away. I also cram alot of my clothes into plastic ziploc bags and squeeze the air out.
Our flight leaves at the ungodly hour of 7am so many of us decide against even going to sleep. So Chris and I sprawl out on the floor to watch YouTube videos and this is when I'm introduced to the horror that is Salad Fingers. If you are unfamiliar with this set of disturbing animated shorts DO NOT GOOGLE IT. You cannot un-see some things on the internet. And this firmly lives in the portion of my head that's filled with things I desperately want to forget. So we watched cat videos until we eventually dozed off.
A few hours pass and we're on a small bus for the airport and the journey home begins. While I am sad that I'm leaving the wonder of Europe and all its glory, I'm so stoked to be heading home, I'm almost vibrating despite having very little sleep. We are almost alone in the Munich airport and all the noise we made echoed loudly off the large space. Mattais left us soon after this point and we were left to wait for our plane. The next thing I seem to remember was dozing on the plane from Munich to Frankfurter. The plane was small and the flight was blissfully short. We had a layover in the massive Frankfurter airport. I was pleased to find that my passport got stamped as we entered the terminals. One of the nice things about European borders being open is it doesn't take long to cross into one country from another, however it meant my passport didn't get to be stamped as often as I would have liked. We took turns wandering the airport, shopping and eating, while a couple of team Molalla guarded our rather large pile of bags. During one of my walk abouts I found a small stall selling none other than beer steins. Imagine my surprise and glee. After careful consideration, I picked one out that had a large, pewter eagle on the lid and ceramic coats of arms of all the different areas of Germany. It seemed like the perfect souvenir. I also had enough room in the awful EF backpack, which I was using as a carry on, to store the fairly large mug. By the time I made my purchase and gotten back to our gate, the plane was boarding. However, by now I was ravenously hungry and the small cart selling fresh baked pretzels right outside our gate was too much for me to pass up. I scurried back and got my place in line just in time to grab my seat.
We were flying on Lufthansa. If you haven't had the opportunity to fly on a European airline, do it. Book your flight now. Seriously. It was the singular best flying experience of my life. As I sat down in my large, comfy seat I noticed that I had a tv screen in the back of the seat in front of me. However, unlike American airlines, it was just like a tv and I could pick and choose what I wanted to watch. As I was being seated, I noticed that Chelsea was being seated across the plane from me. Since the flight was just over ten hours, I didn't want to be stuck next to a stranger. The severe-looking man that sat next to me a moment later solidified the plan I had a-brewing in my mind. Before the man had a moment to get comfortable, I asked him if he spoke English in my broken German. He said he did and I explained how my little sister was deathly afraid of flying and if he wouldn't mind if they traded seats. I pointed at Chelsea who happened to have a scowl on her face about something or another. The man sort of frowned at me and nodded. I called to Chelsea and waved her over. There was a moment when the two passed by each other and I had a moment of apprehension, hoping he wouldn't give her any grief. It looked as though he leaned in to say something to her and as she sat next to me, I asked what that was about. She smiled and said, "He told me every one's scared of flying at first. He was nice."
The rest of the flight was just as awesome. The tv's had a diverse selection of shows and movies to chose from which made me quite happy. Beverage and food service seemed to happen quite frequently and was of surprising quality. After the first few times the beverage service cart went by, being pushed by a gorgeous aryan-looking pre-thirty something young man. As he asked me if I'd like something to drink while flashing me a dazzling smile, I stuttered out "How much a glass of bailey's would be?" He scoffed at me. "You do not pay for beverage service on Lufthansa." He told me in his beautiful German accent. I woke Chelsea up, who was napping, telling her it was her last chance to legally drink for another five years. She perked up and we both ordered baileys on the rocks.
When we landed in Seattle, we were all exhausted. He had gone almost half way around the world at this point. Our moods were not helped by the fact that we had a ridiculous six hour layover in Seattle. Due to some kind of scheduling error we were going to be stuck in Seattle for longer than it would have taken us to drive. Tanya, in vain, tried to get EF to rent us some cars so we could just drive home before we left for the trip, but they wouldn't budge. Tanya however, not one to be easily dissuaded, started trying to charm the people at the airlines. Being as it was the day after the 4th of July, there weren't many people traveling. She managed to get all of us on a flight that left hours earlier. The plane was almost empty as there were eight of us. Having never flown from Portland to Seattle, I wasn't sure what to expect. But when I boarded, I was seated on the wing, which had a propeller. I was a little nervous about being on a plane so small. When we started taxing the runway, I couldn't tell you if there was a safety announcement or not as I couldn't hear a damned thing over the roaring of the propeller. I settled in and read for a bit. I could see the stewardess bustling around, preparing for beverage service, so I thought. As it turns out, she was preparing for landing. We were in the air for all of thirty five minutes. Getting back into PDX was quick and easy. I got to meet the parents of the other kids on the trip and we said our good-byes, I realized I was home.
