Easter Break! (a little late!)

     Easter was definitely an eventful and exciting adventure! I went with a new group (since Laura & Lauren were going to Paris, and I had already been there, and Nicole was with her bf), and it was such a blast! So Thursday evening Jordan, Allison, Kristen, Robert, and Colin and I headed to the Hbf to catch our first train to München. So far, so good, everyone got there with plenty of time, and we caught the train no problem...however, I'm beginning to realize I have the WORST luck when it comes to trains, and that it is TOTALLY worth the extra $4 to reserve a seat. The first train was so packed that we spent the first 30min of the ride just wandering to trying to find ANY open seats, (not even by each other.) Finally Colin and I found two seats next to each other and got to sit for the next two hours or so. Everyone else apparently found seats together farther up. And, OF COURSE, just my luck, our train started having problems. We ended up running over 90min late, and obviously missed our connecting train. Thankfully, the DB people were very nice and stamped our tickets so we would be allowed to catch the next train. So we arrived to Munich a little over 2hrs late, so around 1am I believe. (but it might've been later...) We found the correct tram, and found our hostel relatively easily. It turned out to be pretty nice, but HUGE, and families were even staying there! Our first night we had a Russian girl roommate, she was really nice and spoke enough English to communicate.

     We got up pretty early the next morning and set out to explore the town. I remember they were holding like an outdoor church service, although I couldn't tell which kind of service it was. (I think Catholic, but they weren't speaking English..sooo yeahh. haha) We went up in the glockenspiel tower, and got a great view of the city! AND it was a BEAUTIFUL day, the sun was shining, and it wasn't miserably cold! Unfortunately we didn't get to see the glockenspiel do its thing, because they were doing maintainance or something... 

Glockenspiel in the background!

     We took a bike tour that afternoon with an Austrailian tour guide from Mike's Bike Tours. That was so much fun! And we learned a lot about the history of München. (Apparently Hitler tried to overthrow the government there one night.) The bike tour took us through the English garden (where nudist men apparently hang out when the weather is warm enough....) and we went to the Chinese beer garden? The beer came in liter mugs, they were HUMONGOUS, so I just got a Rattler. (Half beer, half lemonade) They also had gigantic pretzels! (Which soon became our main staple in Munich.) Plus I only almost killed one lady on our bike tour! (I might have been trying to take out my phone for pics while riding, and she might have had to jump out of the way when I started swerving towards her, but we didn't make contact and that's all that matters!) (For those of you who know me, then you know what a terrible bike rider I actually am hahahaha) Below are some pictures of things we saw on the bike tour! :)

My bike! Pink of course! :)

Memorial to the brother and sister that wrote papers for the general public,
 exposing what the Nazis were actually doing. 

The tower in the Chinese beer garden. 

The Englisch Garten! :) 

 

Jumbo Rattler and Pretzel!

Surfing in the canals, even though its in the 40ºFs. 

      After the bike tour we went to the Hofbräu Haus and met up with a couple Penn State guys, Griff and Sal. Then around 6:30pm, the group decided to try to do a pub crawl, so we found our way over to a hostel that was hosting it. Apparently no one else signed up to go that, and we decided it would be more fun to go with new people, so we chose to wait to do that on Saturday night. So instead we went to Wombats for "live music" although that didn't start until 9:30pm. We called a pretty early night, and headed back to the hostel around 11pm. There we found we had another new Canadian roommate who was pretty cool. 

Hofbräu Haus, with the disgusting cookie that I had wanted to try.... :(

     The next morning (Saturday) we woke up and traveled around to all the sights we didn't get to see on the first day. First stop, Schloss Nymphenburg! I thought it was a palace, although, the colors were a little dull haha. But overall it was still beautiful, and the swans were definitely entertaining! "Colin, go touch it!!!"

Schloss Nymphenburg

Jumping at the Schloss Nymphenburg!

     After the Schloss Nymphenburg, we headed over to tour Die Residenz Palace. Let me just start with the fact that this place is GIGANTIC!!! There were rooms on rooms on rooms! Somehow Kristen and I got ahead of the group, which was okay, because we both desparately needed to pee. So we began the adventure of asking the security people where the bathroom was. Most of them barely spoke English, and simply pointed in the direction of the arrows. (This place was so big you had to follow the arrows from room to room so you wouldn't get lost.) Finally after going in a circle, we found a lady that took us through a hidden door in the wall that led to tiny, hidden hall. I have never been so glad to see a toilet in my life! But then we had the fun of trying to find our friends again. Though we knew we had been way in front of them (since we had started sprinting to find the bathroom towards the end.) we still had no idea where they were, and of course, no one has their phones. So we start back tracking, and then suddenly we realized we had gone in a huge circle, so we tried turning and taking a different path, and ended up circling around again. WHAT THE HECK?! We saw the same security guards about 3 or 4 times, and each time they just pointed to the arrows. I swear we wandered for over an hour, just trying to find the exit at this point. Then FINALLY we found a part of the palace we hadn't previously explored which meant we had found the right path to the exit. We practically SPRINTED to the exit, hoping that our friends hadn't left without us. (Since we had pretty much decided there was no way they were behind us anymore.) Well... we got to the end, and didn't see ANYONE. But Jordan's backpack was still checked, so we knew they were still in there....somewhere.... (I have no idea what took so long, Kristen and I seriously saw everything THREE times and never ran into them!) So we waited/napped at the entrance until the group showed up about an hour later. Thankfully we were reunited again! 

We toured the Residenz Palace :)

The statue room in the Residenz Palace. 

       Since the palace took WAY longer than expected, we decided to go and look for lunch and postcards/souvenirs. By the time we finished shopping and eating (baked cheese pretzels, I told you pretzels became our main staple!) we decided to head back to the hostel to drop off our goodies, and decide was to do for the rest of the evening. Griff's friend Luke decided he wanted to stay in München with us, so he could go skiing with us in Garmisch. So due to the fact that pretzels are not very filling, we decided to eat the restaurant Dr. Wasser had suggested, the Augustiner. The food was DELICIOUS, and we got food super fast since they had apparently reservation people coming in a hour. Even though we had said we were going to do a pub crawl that night, that plan got changed again (thankfully). Due to the fact that we had to be up at 5:30am to pack up and catch our train to Garmisch, we decided it would be better to just go back to the Hofbräu Haus for a little bit. On our way there we found this really cool band playing on the sidewalk. They were HILARIOUS!!!

Undiscovered talent on the way to Hofbrau Haus! They were awesome!

          The Hofbräu Haus the second night was....eventful....to say the least. The place was PACKED, and we literally wandered around searching for a table for over half an hour. But finally we were successful! Of course our table happened to be next to the craziest table possible. First off was the Indian guy from South Africa who kept running around/jumping on the table and yelling and taking pictures of everyone (including us) and desparately attempted to high five our waitor telling him he was "so awesome." It was hilarious to say the least. "Hey, he almost smiled!" hahahaha Then came the Austrailians.... note to self: NEVER drink alone with Aussies, they are CRAZY. They tried teaching us a new drinking game, but it basically just screwed over one person really bad. (Thank GOD I drew good cards and was safe!) Daniel Thomas (or whatever his name was, since I swear he used both of those haha) and Lane were hilarious, but insane. Lane kept throwing around the coasters even after the waitor yelled at him, so Robert told him to stop. Lane's response: "Feel my arm and say that again!" (He did have big arms, but Robert did it anyways, it was hilarious!) Daniel made the rule that no one could point, it was definitely a good one. You never realize how many times you actually point at other people! But then Lane changed the rule to "girls can't talk."...which was a terrible rule. (Not just because I am a girl and therefore, couldn't talk, but also because it killed half of the conversation.) Oh Lane...what a character. Just for memories sake, never show weird phone quotes when you're not allowed to talk to explain them hahaha you WILL get your hand chewed on by Aussies. hahahaha #notreallife #whatjusthappened?! Because of our interesting new friends we ended up staying our WAY later than expected, and ended up getting back to the hostel pretty late. The Russian girl had left that morning, so that night we had another new roommate from Asia who didn't speak English... 

     The time change definitely threw us for a loop. You never know if your phone will work and change over, and even though Kristen changed her watch the night before, we were still nervous. Poor Jordan ending up waking up and showering an hour early, and Kristen had to run downstairs to ask the front desk for the correct. (Although I'd much rather be an hour early than an hour late!) Then at 8am it was time to head to Garmisch! :D :D :D :D :D 

      Thankfully that train ran smoothly, although they only made station announcements in Deutsch, but we managed just fine. :) Our hostel ended up being a short 10min walk from the Hauptbahnhof which was GREAT! Not to mention our hostel was adorable! They were four person rooms, with wifi everywhere! We decided to try to find some lunch and a cheap place to rent skis, which was another adventure. Since you have probably never heard of Garmisch, I will just let you know that it is a TINY town hidden in a valley between the mountains. And since it was Easter Sunday, basically everything was closed. The cheap ski rental place was closed for until after 4pm, which was 6hrs from now... so we decided to go eat and debate our options. Thankfully Subway was open and we had a yummy lunch! Afterwards we headed back to our hostel to ask the front desk guy if he knew of anywhere to rent skis. We were told to go to the base of the mountain and we could get it there, so we suited up. (In a rather unorthodox fashion since Jordan was the only one who actually had ski pants. I had sweat pants, and Colin only had jeans.) 

Our adorable hostel in Garmisch. 

     We bought train tickets and headed over to the mountain. Mountain day tickets cover train ticket costs, and the ski bus was free. :) Colin, Kristen, Jordan, Griff, and I all decided we wanted to go ahead and have "warm-up" half day since it was only 1pm and the lifts didn't close until 4:30pm. (Allison and Robert waited until after 3pm to rent their equipment for only one day and then just went back to town to explore.) Griff and I snowboarded, and everyone else skied. It was Kristen's first time skiing, but I think she did great! The mountain was interesting since they had a huge gondola thing to take you up the first part of the mountain where more ski lifts were, and you were also allowed to ride the gondola back down. The mountain was sooo foggy, you literally couldn't see farther than 20 feet in front of you, so we made sure to stay on the easy trails. Somehow we lost Colin and Kristen after a couple little runs, so Griff, Luke, Jordan and I split off to try to go a little faster. Needless to say, we had a BLAST!!! Then around 4:45pm we decided to head down the mountain. I now realize why they offer the gondola going back down because there are no "easy" ways down. I swear to God, I was looking off a straight up ice-cliff. And of course you would have to go slightly back up hill to get to the section of the mountain. Which meant that even though you felt like you were FLYING down the mountain, you had to maintain that pace to make it up the next part. It wasn't that bad until I decided to be cool and attempt to go fast. Needless to say, I turned sideways and was WAY faster than normal. I caught and edge, and then overcorrected. I had so much momentum that when I slammed onto my stomach, I flew straight back up in the air and flipped over, slamming back down on my back and then skidded to a halt. I literally don't think I've ever been in some much pain in my entire life! (THANK GOD FOR HELMETS!!!!) Sadly, I wasn't even halfway down the freaking mountain, so I had to get up and keep going. Thankfully my helmet did its job, and I really didn't get a headache. (although my confidence was basically shot, and I ended up walking up most of the rest of the uphill parts haha) 

Shredding the Garmisch Classic! :D (Before I died hahaha)

       Once we got down, we checked all of our gear into lockers at the mountain, and headed back to meet up with Allison and Robert. By that time we were ready for dinner, and Allison and Robert said they had found an amazing steak house that even had a Texas flag flying outside it! We were sooo excited, except when we got there, they promptly informed us that we needed reservations, and that they were full for the night. COOL. The other restaurants we tried, basically told us the same thing, so we ended up going to Pizza Hut, which was TOTALLY cool with me. :) Can you say stuffed crust pizza?! I might have gotten a large....oops...but it was definitely worth it! Since we were all beat from lack of sleep the night before and getting beaten up on the slopes, we called it super early that night, and were in bed by 10pm!

     We got to the mountain around 9:30am the next morning ready to rock and roll! Robert and Allison joined us on the second day, but it was Robert's first time skiing, so it was a little "interesting". All I can say is, I have never seen someone fall so many times in so many different ways,  and lose their skis so many times and still be able to smile at the end of it. Thank God he had a helmet also! 

Robert in all of his borrowed snow gear. #letsdothis

      We ended up splitting up again so that those who wanted to stay on the blue hills (easiest) could, and those who wanted  a bit more of a challenge (reds) could. Luke left us early because his train left two hours before ours. So it was just Jordan, Griff and I that went off to attempt slightly more challenging terrain. Well we had wanted to go over to ski the Zugspitze, and even though I could've sworn our tickets covered the Zugspitze lifts, we were told that they didn't. So we stayed on the Garmisch Classic. At the end of the day, we decided to attempt the final trail down the mountain again. (The fog had been gone all morning, but it was starting to set in again.) Literally the whole time we had been going Jordan and I kept joking about playing chicken...well we played alright, and we lost.... I managed to run over her skis and fall down, but we were still sliding down the cliff as a unit, REALLY FAST. Somehow Jordan stayed standing until I finally put my board down to stop, where we landed in a heap. I think it twisted Jordan's knee pretty bad...but thankfully we were still able to make it back down without anymore accidents.  

The clouds finally moved and we got a clear view of the Zugespitze! (Tallest peak in Germany)

Skiing/Snowboarding survivors! So much fun!

      Then it was time to return our equipment and race back to the hostel to grab our bags. We caught our first train back to Munich, and the train from Munich to Mainz no problem....but then the bad luck set in AGAIN. Our second train (the one to Mainz) began having difficulties, and we soon realized we were going to miss our last train. (Which happened to be the last train of the night going back to Bonn.) Normally announcements are made in Deutsch and then English, but apparently they decided to not do that. Thankfully a nice guy a few rows in front of us heard us freaking out and came over to translate. He actually used to live in North Carolina (?) but moved to Germany a few years ago. He told us that the train people didn't know where our second train was, and that it might still be behind us, or else they would give us taxi vouchers from Mainz. When we FINALLY got to Mainz, we discovered our last train had, in fact, left us, so the DB people wrote a taxi voucher for seven people back to Bonn. Jordan, Robert, and Griff rode in my taxi, and the other three took a different one. It was an HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTE taxi ride. I am SO GLAD I didn't have to pay that! Although we had initially been told that the cab driver would drive each of us to our houses, our cab driver apparently didn't realize that. But it was okay, since the trip from Griff's house to mine was short. Plus it was already close to 3am, and I really didn't want to be walking alone at that time of time. But overall the whole trip was amazing, and I definitely had a blast! :D