May 27: Más Munich

Today was another free day in Munich. We got up late, as several people got a little too lit the last night. Eventually everyone had cleared themselves of any hangovers and some of us went out to see more of Munich. We did some souvenir shopping and sightseeing but none of us were really up to much exploring. Partly because we were partly hungover. Mostly because I feel a lot less confident in Munich than I did in Vienna. In Vienna I feel like I could get anywhere easily but in Munich I’m scared to leave the city center and venture out because I don’t know what to expect. 

But we did alright for ourselves. We ate lunch close to our hotel to make it easier for people who stayed at the hotel. On our way to eat we noticed that there were several rowdy soccer fans walking in the same direction. We asked a passerby what was going on, and they said that if Munich’s team won the game that was about to start, then Munich would advance to the next round of the tournament. Im kind of happy we left the city before the outcome of that game because soccer fans have a bad reputation for reacting poorly to any outcome in a soccer game. We ate lunch at a pizza place that had an Italian family operating it. It was really good pizza, even if the staff was lacking in politeness. I don’t want to go back to America’s food, even if it does have free refills and politer staff. 

We didn’t get to see much after lunch because we had to catch our bus back to Vienna. To put it lightly, I don’t realize how difficult it would be to make it back to the bus stop. We took the metro back to the closest metro station and began to walk, assuming it would be really close: it wasn’t. We walked around for almost half an hour trying to find it. Then I asked a information booth where it was and he said it was easy, just walk out that door, and walk about a mile. Well we only had like 15 minutes until this bus left so we had to speed run towards this bus stop with all of our souvenirs and luggage weighing us down. I gave up all hope about 10 minute into this, I was already thinking about if I should go ahead and bus a train ticket or go cheap and get another bus ticket. But we made it to the bus terminal, and with that a whole new he’ll emerged. There were probably dozens of busses and we had no idea where ours was. We were all out of patience with each other and yelling at each other from across the terminal trying to locate his damn bus. Eventually I was able to find the right bus by running up to a driver and asking him where his bus went. Of course our bus was the only one without its destination printed on the back. I managed to get everyone over to our bus. The driver didn’t even check our passports or bus tickets, he just waved us on. Probably because we were making him late. We didn’t get to sit by each other as the bus was completely full. I sat next to some random lady and took a Melatonin pill so I could get some much needed rest on our way back to Vienna. The bus ride flew past me, which is good because it was 6 hours and I asked Peyton and he said I didn’t miss much. 

When we arrived back in Vienna we were let off in the middle of nowhere and it was hard on our mental state. I’m pretty sure Anna had a mental break at the station. But we’re competent Americans, so we managed to get on our train back to our host family. Our train was about an hour of total travel time. Which at the end of our bus ride was really hard to do. I really don’t like living so far outside the city center, I know beggars can’t be choosers but it takes the four of us so long to make it home every night.