first stop munich, germany

for this trip the plan was that I was to meet my friend tabitha who was already in germany on business, then we would travel together throughout various cities in italy. I had never traveled alone--well flown alone at least, before this trip. I didn't sleep a wink the whole flight there, I was flying into a whole new country worried I would be swarmed by people running around speaking in german and I, who needed to make my way to a train station, purchase a train ticket, find the correct stop, then walk to the hotel (all without google maps people) well you could say I was a tad anxious. also there were some good movies on. 

Once I landed the airport was quiet, I swear people were whispering- not at all as I had imagined. quite the handsome man (he was the perfect mix of chris evans and a young ralph fiennes) stamped my passport and directed me to the train station- easy enough. after much deliberation I hopped on the first train that came and luckily it led me to the station I needed and lone and behold the hotel was just right in front of my nose. awwwh. the train ride was interesting, in a good way, we went mostly through what seemed to be country covered in a blanket of snow. with a grey sky, white snow on every surface and brown sticks that I'm sure were once trees in warmer weather there popped a most alarming amount of graffiti. on every flat sprayable surface there were pictures and tags with the brightest of colors. it made me smile, not sure why but it did. with tabitha still at work i was able to nap a bit and regain some energy once I got into the hotel.

we walked around munich for a bit and made our way to the infamous hofbrauhous. it was fun just being inside - loud music, loud people lots of laughter. it was packed and eventually we found a table, tabitha spotted a group of young men waving us over. they were from the south of france and in munich for a bachelor party, which they called something else, je ne sai pas[i don't know what]. 

we had a great time laughing and playing silly bar games and really just trying to figure out what they were saying, three spoke well enough english the others not as much but they didn't let that hinder them from making an attempt. they were around our age so it was quite fun to hear about life in a different country and the ways they do certain things compared to what we are used to. simple things like taking a girl out or the fact that they learn a second language so young. I was told that parisians are not the real french and not to be fooled or put off from france because of them-- they were really french, real french people are hospitable and obliging, I was instructed, rather than rude and snobby. they knew a lot of english music and we had some fun sharing favorites. I even talked about football and the 49ers with one. we had some good food, and because it was on my bucket list I drank a german beer and all in all a great first evening to start off our trip. later that night we caught our night train to venice.