Disclaimer: This post was written in a train somewhere between Germany and Austria in mid January.
In an interesting turn of events, I
spent just under 24 hours in the Bavarian city of Munich. In Brussels, I
purchased a DeutscheBahn train ticket for 100 Euro which would take me from
Brussels to Frankfurt, where I would switch trains and carry on directly to Bad
Gastein. But a problem arose when there were unexplained "technical
difficulties" on the first train and my arrival in Frankfurt was delayed
by just over 2 hours. The DeutscheBahn info people told me to hop a train
to Munich where I could catch a connecting train to Bad Gastein. But when
I got to Munich, it turns out that the earliest direct train to Bad Gastein
would be the next day. I chose the latest train, leaving at 6:30 PM from Munich and arriving in Bad
Gastein at 9:41 PM, as I was supposed to on my original trip the day before. This
would be good for my host, as she was busy with work and as it would give me
the entire day to sightsee.
After getting my ticket adjusted, I
tried to find wi-fi so that I could sign online and find cheap hostel somewhere
in town. Seeing as how there was no free wi-fi anywhere at the Munich
main train station, I went to the DeutscheBahn "servicepoint" and
asked if they had any recommendations for hotels, as my delayed train caused me
to be stranded in Munich overnight. Hearing that the delayed train caused
my problem, they hooked me up with a free hotel voucher for a hotel across the
street from the train station! I lugged my things across the street and
checked in so I could leave my luggage and head to find a place to eat.
I took the S-Bahn downtown to
Mariensplatz and found the least touristy, most crowded eating and drinking
establishment I could find. By this time it was 10:00 PM so I was both starving and
parched from my day of travels. I promptly ordered 2 Paar Weissewurst over a
bed of sauerkraut, which was both the cheapest thing on the menu and really the
only thing that I could figure out what it might be. Even so, I was still
slightly off.
When I finished eating, was on my
second 1/2 liter of beer ( I would have asked for something smaller, it's just
they didn't have it. And I surely could not have ordered a water or diet coke
and come off as the prudish tourist) and when I had completely exhausted the
entire USA Today which I snatched from the front desk at the hotel, I spotted
(and overheard) an English speaker across the way from me. Seeing that both he
and I were alone, trying to make it look like we were busy on our (dumb, as in
opposite of smart) phones, I invited him to join me. "Sure, no
problem, then" was his answer.
He turned out to be a nice,
slightly balding Irish lad (named Patrick) who just arrived in town to
interview for a job. He's spent the last few years teaching English
around the world before he met his Kiwi fiancee in South Korea and moved to New
Zealand with her where she then became his ex-fiance.
Sucks.
So enough putting nice ol'
Patrick on blast. He and I had a nice chat about everything from vestiges
of colonialism in Ireland (which I brought up) to the dangers of living in
Jordan as a Westerner (which he brought up, and to which I was sure to deny
that there was any at all). Afterwards I headed back to the hotel to get
in a few hours of rest before hitting the cobblestone the next morning.
The next day I basically spent
walking, drinking, eating and photographing. I took no public
transportation and spent 9 AM-5 PM traversing the city. I consumed one glass of gluwein at a
cute cafe in the middle of a market , one white beer and a pretzel with mustard
in the middle of the English Gardens (a park in the north of the city), and
one bowl of spatezel and one dark Haufbrau beer at the Hofbrau Haus in
the city center. I think I have finally reached the point where I am
satisfied with the amount of beer I have getranken before returning to Jordan.
Then at 6:27, I got on a train to Austria.
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