Again, the following entries were written last week during my travel break...which is continued from my Berlin entries..

February 12th

We got into Munich earlier today after a night that resulted in extreme exhaustion. When we got into the airport we thought it would be a great idea to take a taxi to our hostel, even though the directions recommended us to take the train for 8 euro/person. The funniest part about it was the cab ride turned out to be around 11 euro/person...and we couldn't stop laughing at our stupidity. When we got to our hostel t was awesome. The place was really modern and cool, and it had a bar, a common room, and everything in between. It was rated the #1 cleanest hostel in Germany, so we all know I was excited about that one.

We didn't do too much after arriving besides walking around and exploring the city (in the rain). Munich is a lot different than Berlin. Berlin is more historical and spread out, whereas Munich is more commercialized. Both are absolutley beautiful and I just fell in LOVE with them.

We also ended up going down to the bar for happy hour, and we ran into my fellow boilermakers from the CIMBA program there. We were all just hanging out talking, when we decided to go to a famous restaurant/brewery place called Hofbrauhaus. We met two Aussies, Liz and Phil, and they came with us. And let me tell you, this place was AMAZING! It was really large with high ceilings and long tables lined up in one main common room. They sold beer by the liter, and I've never seen such a large glass. It was a true accomplishment to actually finish it.

After we sat down we ran into more people from the program (probably about 20 total), and they told us they were all staying in the same hostel. Small world huh? ANYWAYS, I had the greatest meal. I tried pork knuckle, saurkraut, dumplings, and sausages. Man, it was fabulous. I never like saurkraut before until I tried it here, and I've been eating quite a fair amount of it. Only bad thing is it gives us killer gas. Heidi is the biggest victim of that one. She can't help it, but her gas is strong enough to knock out the whole country. Honestly, I've never experienced something so horrendous. It does make for great table talk though...hahahaha

Oh and did I mention John got mites from the Berlin hostel?? yeah... he broke out into a rash. I bet you can only imagine how I reacted.

February 13th

Today was a true adventure. (I know, I say that a lot). But in all seriousness, it was pretty ironic. Heidi and I had it set in our minds that we wanted to go see this famous castle that was the influence for the Walt Disney castle at Magic Kingdom. (aka "The Disney Castle"). We were told that it was going to be a 2 hour train ride both there and back, and so we accounted that it would probably be about a 7 hour trip overall. John and Phil decided to go with us, so the four of us hopped on a train and 2 1/2 hours were at the site. We went up to get tickets, only to realize that the castle closed in 10 minutes. No joke. We came all this way, and weren't able to see the inside of the castle. We traveled a long way, so instead of thinking of this as a waste of a day, we decided to make the most of us. We paid 20 euro and got a horse drawn carriage ride to the top of the hill where the castle was. It was hilarious because they went like a mile an hour, and it was probably the most ghetto carriage ride I've ever seen in my life. Totally not like we had expected, hahha. BUT it was fun. Funniest part of the carriage ride was when we were riding up and all of a sudden the horse on the right starts passing gas. The driver didn't speak English, so all he said was "stereo....musica" and laughed. Seriously, we died laughing. (I think the horse and Heidi have a lot in common haha)

SO we got to the top and took pictures of the outside of the castle, which was not very impressive. I don't even think it was an old castle...it was just kind of blah. But that's okay. We ended up just eating at this restaurant and walking around in the dark for a while after the whole place closed. Long story short we made the long trip home, and arrived at the hostel about 6 hours later. I think we are just gonna stay here tonight, so that should be fun.

February 14th

It's Valentines Day!!! Wooo!!! haha not like that matters too much here, because let's face it, Heidi is my valentine, and the boys don't really want to buy us flowers. Oh well. It's okay because today I went out and walked around Munich and ended up buying myself my own little valentines day gift. I bought a really pretty amber ring from the House of Amber. I saw it, and immediately fell in love. It was love at first sight.

So wanna hear a funny story?? Okay I know I've been talking about Heidi's killer gas, but today was the epitome of it. We went into H&M to shop around a little bit, and the place was huge. 4 stories high, with tons of people. Well Heidi and I split up at one point, and so when she came over to show me what she found she was in the middle of conversation when all of a sudden she looks at me and says, "Molly...run." Now, I didnt understand at first, and my initial reaction was confusion. 5 seconds later though it was complelety clear. I ran for my life. I thought the world was going to explode, or I was going to die of suffocation. So we ran upstairs, and we were safe for a little bit. Well, that didn't last long either...because then checkout time came. We were at the end of the line to buy our stuff, when all of a sudden Heidi lets another one loose (and these are not on purpose...she seriously couldnt help it). Well, 10 seconds later someone gets behind her in line...and all you hear is "ugh" from the person behind her. HAHAHAHA. Oh man...hilarious.

Tonight we are getting on an overnight train to go to Prague. It's 10 hours long and we have reclining seats and not beds, which means no sleep and uncomfortableness alllll night long. It should be interesting.