The Euro Journal: Chapter 4

Day 7: Catching up with old friends in Amsterdam 

The next morning, we packed up our things and planned our day. Check out for our Air BnB was 11 am but our bus to Munich wouldn’t be leaving until later that evening. We had the whole day to stroll the city and catch up with some old friends. The first was Mayci, Reagan’s old friend from high school who’s studying climate change; the second was our friend Stewart from the Netherlands who took a bus from Rotterdam into the city to see us. We knew Stewart all the way back from our days at Camp Woodward, PA!

The four of us sat outside of a restaurant on Dam Square for hours just catching up and reminiscing on old times. It was very pleasant. After that, Mayci gave us a tour around the infamous Red-Light District, since Reagan and I were not brave enough to explore the place at night. I won’t say much but it lives up to its reputation. Next, we wandered around the canals and ended up at another open-air market. There we parted ways with our friends and grabbed some lunch.

It was interesting seeing all the fresh street produce and open-air markets right next to the big, name brand box stores. As we walked down the street, we recognized a fast food chain we heard about called FEBO. This wasn’t any old fast food chain though, instead of ordering at a counter you received your food from a vending machine. That’s right! The walls of this place were filled with vending machines full of fast food staples. We didn’t try anything though which was probably a good thing; we needed to save some room for gelato.

We grabbed our gelato to go and ate it on a bench outside. As we sat there talking, I glanced up and saw four people pass by.

“Huh,” I thought to myself, “They look awfully familiar…”

I went to take another bite and it immediately hit me; it was rapper Ice T, his wife, daughter, and who I assumed was a body guard! Sure enough, I looked up his Instagram and Ice was in town for a concert. First there was Puddle of Mudd on our flight to Iceland and now Ice T on the streets of Amsterdam! Europe was leaving us starstruck.

After our second celebrity encounter, it was time for Reagan and I to head to our bus. To get there we had to take a complicated series of trams and gates. We finally made it to the bus station with time to spare for grub. It was a 12-hour overnight ride to Munich so we would have some time to kill onboard. Thankfully, as I was giving the bags to the driver, Reagan went ahead and snagged a roomy spot on the front row of the bus’s second level. Gotta love that extra leg room. We tried to sleep as much as we could along the way before arriving in Munich that next morning.

 

Day 8: Munich

We arrived in Munich at 8 am, dazed from our overnight bus ride. We couldn’t check into our Air BnB until noon, so we had to find something to do for the next couple of hours. We wandered around with our 20-pound backpacks for seven blocks searching for a place to eat. After going up and down main street we found a nice little café for coffee and pastries. As we ate, we remembered seeing a laundromat and decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do some laundry. The only other option we had was a sink to clean our delicates; after all, that’s about all you can do when you’re living out of a backpack.

After coffee, we headed to the laundromat. We assumed that there would be an attendant there, a detergent dispenser or at least a bathroom but after peaking around we had no luck with either. We went to the dry cleaner next door to ask for help and they looked at us like we were crazy. We tried our best to point and even used Google Translate (a must have app for any trip) but we were still lost in translation. We later learned that Germany was the least likely country to speak English.

Out of frustration we left the place and abandoned all hope of doing our laundry. By now a couple of hours had passed. It was a beautiful day so we thought it might be a nice idea to find a park and relax under a tree somewhere, sounds nice right? Reagan pulled out her iPad to read a book…and that’s when she panicked. She couldn’t find it anywhere. Was it stolen? Did we leave it somewhere? What happened?

Reagan thought back to where she kept it on the bus ride the night before; in the seat pocket in front of her. Both the seat pocket and iPad case were grey, so they must’ve blended in perfectly. It had to be there! We immediately got up and started walking the seven blocks back to the bus station. We got there and of course the bus had already left. We asked a worker behind the kiosk and they said that the exact bus wouldn’t be back until 7 pm that night. We were stuck and had no choice but to come back later and hope for the best. iPad or not, we weren’t going to let it ruin a perfectly fine day in Munich.

We made the way to our Air BnB, hopped in the shower, changed clothes, and headed out for lunch. With our faithful Google Itinerary in hand, we headed towards the beautiful Englishcher Garten park.

Once there, we were in awe. There were over 50 picnic tables just scattered around with a buffet of fresh roasted chicken, potatoes, sausage, and sauerkraut, with ice cold beer in generous 32oz mugs, the German way. We quickly fell in love with Munich and its culture. But even after all that we only had one thing on our mind and that was surfing. Yep! Right in the middle of Germany.

The Eisbach river runs through the middle of the Garden and when I say run, it’s streaming by at a brisk 10 mph plus current. There were groups of people that jumped in the river and let the current take them downstream. I was immediately bummed out that I didn’t have any shorts on because it looked like a ton of fun! But back to the surfing. To help slow the current huge concrete blocks were placed in the river, which was an engineering fail, but a surfers’ dream. The blocks create a manmade wave on the narrow river where you’ll see 10 or more surfers at a time waiting their turn.

Surfing the Eisbach is a bit different from the ocean though. Instead of paddling out to the waves then standing up at the crest, you wait for the waves to come to you from the river bank then jump right in. If you make it this far you ride the wave back and forth from one side of the bank to the other. We stayed and watch the locals shred the Eisbach for a good 30 minutes. After that we headed to the enormous Hofbrauhaus Beerpalace beer hall. We were greeted by guys in traditional lederhosen, even other customers had lederhosen on too!

We sat down and enjoyed yet another 32oz (or two) of beer. We were still amazed that 32oz mugs were the only size available unless it was happy hour. Germany sure knows how to drink. Halfway I got up to use the restroom and noticed a hallway that was lined with mug sized lockers. Apparently, locals rent out locker space to keep their mugs for their visit. Next thing I know all the staff got up and directed our attention to the Bolivarian band centerstage for a nice afternoon show. We fell in love with Munich all over again.

Fun fact, the Hofbrauhaus is city-owned and was originally created by the Duke of Bavaria in 1589 because he thought there needed to be better quality beer in Germany. The beerhall was reserved for royalty only until 1844 when it became open to the public. Let’s just say there’s a lot of history packed into this place!

Afterwards it was time to head back to the bus station and see if we were going to find our iPad. We were happy to see that the same two drivers were still with the bus when it pulled in. We immediately asked if they found it but they both said no after double checking the bus. We begged to search the bus ourselves and after some coaxing, they let us onboard. I ran up to the second level and sure enough, the iPad was exactly where we thought it was; tucked neatly into the back of the seat! It blended in perfectly which is why nobody spotted it earlier. I came back down with a huge smile on my face. Neither the drivers nor Reagan could believe that I found it. Crisis adverted!

Now it was time to catch the Metro back to our apartment. Once we arrived, we dropped our things and thought that it was too nice of a night not to go out for a stroll around the block. The walk inevitably turned into dinner at a late-night burger joint where we ate some of the best burgers we’ve ever had. Sleepy, satisfied, and well-fed we made our way back to our place and called it a night. Munich did not disappoint. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again that we fell in love with the fair city in Bavaria.

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