Munich on a shoestring (make that half a shoestring)

July 21-25, 2005

Hello All,

I went and saw the wedding crashers this week...in English grrr…..I
really need to start seeing some German movies.

On Saturday morning I got up bright and early and was at the train
station before 6 am. I was going to meet Gusti (my mother's friend
from Austria) and her family in Munich for the weekend. I wandered
around the station looking for people who were taking the train using
the 'schönes Wochenende' (happy weekend) ticket. This ticket costs 30€
and up to 5 people can use the ticket to travel anywhere in Germany
using only regional trains (the slower trains that stop at most
stations). Before I had the chance to ask anyone I had 2 boys ask me
if I was travelling with the ticket. They weren't going as far as I
was so it wouldn't have work out that well. So I went and asked around
and found 2 elderly couples who were going for a day trip to Munich.
They were very friendly and would not except any money from me for
letting me travel with them using their ticket. It was supposed to be
a 3 hour train ride but in Augsburg there was a little delay......at
first they announced a 5 to 8 minute delay then it eventually grew to
an undetermined amount of time. Since the elderly couples were only
planning on going for the day they decided to take another train
somewhere else. Before I knew it, it was 9:30 and I was still stuck in
Augsburg. I was supposed to meet Gusti at the hotel between 9:30 and
10 and it was obvious that I wasn't going to make it…..so I did a
little more asking around and was able to borrow someones cell phone
to call the hotel and let them know I was late….again people were so
generous and immediately handed their phone to me. By the time the
trains were allowed to head towards Munich ( I really don't know
what happened but something must have been wrong with the track) there
were a ton of people on the train. I figured I would be safe without a
ticket considering there was no room to even move in the train….there
were people on the stairs, in the corridor, everywhere….and besides
the elderly couples I was travelling with before told me I should just
go without the ticket and explain the situation if someone came along
to check. I made it to Munich at 11am just fine and without a fine.

I met up with Gusti et al and we spent the day wandering downtown
Munich seeing all the old beautiful palaces, churches, Rathause…. We
climbed up to the top of St. Peters church and got a great view of the
city. Saw the English garden but we didn't see the giant wave everyone
talks about….but that's ok because Ann Marie and I will be going back
to Munich soon. That day we had some really great and a great amount
of food but we needed all the energy we could get because of all the
walking we did ;)

That night Mickey, Raffi and I went out for some drinks. The famous
Hofbräu house was packed and super loud so we found a quaint place to
sit outside.

The next day we went to the Deutsche museum and toured around the city
a little more. Gusti, Julia and I also decided to take the tram to see
a little more of the city….it's nice how public transportation is so
accessible here in Germany.

I got to the train station around 6pm on Sunday and started looking
for someone travelling with the weekend ticket. I was having problems
finding someone for the train ride home because this wasn't a train
direct to Stuttgart so most people where just travelling within
Bavaria and therefore were using a different ticket. I asked a few
people but eventually I got discouraged and just started chatting with
someone…..I told the person that I kinda felt like I was begging……he
assured me that everyone does it. After he said that, I asked one more
person and sure enough she was travelling with the ticket. I gave her
5€ and she got me to the outskirts of Bavaria. At my next connection I
started the process of asking again….the second people I asked were a
group of 4 international students from Stuttgart…..what are the
chances of that. This was perfect since I could travel the rest of the
way with them even though there was another connection to get to
Stuttgart. They were very friendly and were happy to let me share
their ticket free of charge – I did give them all some Ritter Sport
chocolate though since earlier that week one of my roommates drove
Katie and I to the factory. There was a guy from France, one from
Malaysia, one from China, and a girl from Spain……it was so weird that
all these international students with so many different languages had
to communicate to each other using English. We did speak a little
German too but the majority of the time it was English.

I got home around 11 and after eating the rest of my giant Bavarian
pretzel I went straight to bed.

THANKS GUSTI, RICHARD, MICKEY, RAFFI, AND JULIA for such a nice weekend.

Tschüs,
Steph