Bratwurst und Lederhosen

'Wilkommen zu Hause!' Day 1

After an unsure start, I arrived in Muenchen 2 days ago. With only one hour to transfer in Atlanta, I was a bit worried about making my connection when my plane was late leaving. As it turned out, I did not have to worry at all. I arrived at my gate just in time to hear the announcement "the plane for the flight to Muenchen has mechanical problems and will not be flying this flight. Stay at the gate for further details." The beginning of a long night. They quickly found a functional plane (this is a good thing), but we had to wait until they cleaned and restocked the plane. After sitting in the terminal forever, eating crappy plane food, watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in German and going in and out of consciousness, I arrived in Muenchen 2 hours later than planned. The best part of the flight was when they woke us up by turning on the glaring overhead lights and practically throwing our breakfast in front of us in the morning.

I first went to my friend Kristin's to drop off a suitcase before heading to my Couch Surfing accomodations that night. This was the first time I ever tried this service. Never heard of it? It is an internet website for travelers seeing the world with little money. Right up my alley. I searched for the city I needed and looked at profiles until I found some I liked. A medical student in the city said she had a couch free for the time I needed and it was set. The beauty of couch surfing is that you meet new people and have a place to crash for free. Because her roomates were gone, I even had a room to myself. While she was out that afternoon, I was in the kitchen making a snack when I heard a rustling in the corner. I looked over to see a hamster hanging from the top of the wire cage with her two paws. Don't know what she thought she was accomplishing, but she swung around until gravity got the better of her and she fell. Susanne came back later and is a really great person. We talked about medical studies, travel and family for almost 4 hours the first night. Funny thing is that both of us will be skiing in the same area in Austria at the same time. What are the odds of that! So I suggested that she and her sister join my friends and I to celebrate my b-day. It should be fun.

I walked around the first day by myself and was able to do a lot of people watching. In the apt they had an article posted about how you know you are a Muenchener. One of the first sentences was that when you are in the subway, you automatically move to the right side of the escalator. They could not have nailed that comment any better. No matter how large the group, you got on the escalator in single file on the right side if you planned to stand. No exceptions. The left was only for those walking up. Another comment was that you no longer point and say, 'hey look at the mice' when in the subway. Although nobody pointed them out, I noticed the little furry creatures scurrying along the tracks the first time I was down there. Maybe I was just nostalgic for the mouse friend I had in the house these past 4 months. It was so cute, I couldn't help but let him live. Such a softy.