Week 7:
This weekend I got to go to Munich and stay with some family friends as we explored the city together. I had an amazing time.
Arriving was an adventure all of it's own. First, I got onto the wrong train at Bonn Hauptbahnhoff. Instead of an IC train to Nuremburg, I got onto a regional train towards Koblenz and didn't have service enough to figure out how to fix my mistake. I actually realized my mistake just as the doors shut and the train started to roll. However, a nice couple helped me and figured out the right route for me to take. I stayed on the train to Koblenz and was able to catch my IC train at that station because it was delayed. Well, the delay kept getting longer and I ended up missing my connection in Nuremburg by almost an hour. However, a woman on the train could tell how lost I was and helped me because she was headed to Munich as well. She told me that on DB, a delay of more than 20 minutes that makes you miss your connection means you are allowed to take any train to get to your destination. I was able to take an ICE train and actually get in 1 minute ahead of schedule. My dad's friends greeted me at the train station and welcomed me. They hadn't seen me in over 5 years so they found me using our family's Christmas card and a description of my brightly colored jacket and backpack.
While in the city I got to see how family-centered the town is. Part of this was due to the family I was staying in, Jochen and Mecki treated me more like family that I have experienced in Germany thus far. They were so friendly and explained as much as they could fit and made sure I had an amazing trip. I felt like a child again (I think mostly because they have 3 grandchildren and I felt to them like an older grandchild). We got to take a city bus tour where I saw some of the main sights, I went to see the Rathaus and its dance when the clock hit noon. I loved the Viktualienmarkt with all of the easter stands beginning to come out. One of my favorite parts of the trip was my trip to the Haufbrauhaus where I enjoyed pretzels, beer, a chicken leg, and lots of trilingual conversations. Jochen and Mecki (both native German speakers proficient in English), a man (originally from Spain and fluent in Spanish who worked in Germany and knew a little bit of German and was fluent in English) and his parents (who only spoke Spanish), and I (native English speaker with moderate skills in Spanish) succeeded in having a wonderful conversation in all three languages with enough laughter and joy to go around. As cliche as it sounds, it really went to show me that happiness was universal and a little bit of effort to communicate a message to someone goes a long way. The food and beer were amazing at the Haufbrauhaus but my favorite part will always be the challenge and fun I had with the multilingual conversation.
On the Sunday of my stay, Jochen and Mecki and I explored the English garden, a massive park stretching throughout the city with statues and monuments throughout. I got a great view and walked through some of the prettier parks. Before we took off, we stopped for nearly an hour to watch some young adults surfing on a man-made wave in a channel. I thought this was really interesting. The people (mostly men with a couple very talented women) wore wetsuits and the majority were very good. Mecki told me that it is very difficult and that her sons had tried when they were little but could not manage. It made me think of being in California with my brothers, but this wave was fixed in place and always present, which seemed much more convenient than what I had done when I tried surfing in the ocean. Maybe someday I'll return to live in Munich and try to learn to surf here.
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