Hotel Munchner Kindl Munich

... Alli, Tracy, and I had a little more motivation to get our asses in gear and get to the Wiesn. It was Saturday, the weather was absolutely spectacular and warm, it was German reunification day (equivalent to their 4th of July), and the local soccer team, Bayern Munich, had a big game across town. The older folks were going on an excursion to the Bavarian Alps to see the Neuschwanstein castle, so we took off for the Wiesn without them.

We got there shortly ...

... into our hotel room and wakes us all up to get ready to head to the tents. Apparently without a reservation, it is almost impossible to get into any of the beer tents past 9am (when the doors open) and thus we all decided to get to the tents early so we could garuntee ourselves a spot at one of the tables in the tent. Though the morning air was frigid, all 10 girls huddled together for warmth and made it through the 2.5 hour wait to get into the tents. After a mad ...

... mug I drank my beer our of, so I bought that for 5 euros. We also got ice cream (I know, we eat too much. But it's vacation!) and then came back to the hostel.

Once we got back here Jason and I went to the hostel bar to get another beer. Mine wasn't as good as the one I had earlier, but I didn't expect it to compare. We met some cool Danish guys and hung out with them for awhile. Surprisingly, they like Americans.

Meri and I did laundry but we put our clothes in ...

... breakfast, pack my bags, and head for the train to take me to Munich International Airport. I caught my plane on time and decided to add up my costs. Between airfare,hotel,souveniers,food,transport ation,tours,and admissions, the grand total is: $2310.00. I had a budget of $5500.00. With $3190.00 left in my budget, I wonder where I can go next?

... cities in the world, even though I didn't see much of it this time. On the train I was ina compartment with a Croat and two Austrians- the Bavarian immigration lads checked our papers- of course me and the Croat got special attention (Austrians and Bavarians being exceptionally similer)- my passport got flashed with an ultra-violet gun and the Croat got his double checked via phone..bloody none EU people....anyway, we were off... -By an interesting ...

... or Stuttgart or someplace like that. He's a professor of veterinary science, I believe, and was off to save the animals. Or at least teach others how to. That same morning, Sean was scheduled to arrive from Paris. Pia, who is a teacher, had gone to work by the time I got up, but she had kindly laid out some Brötchen, butter and marmalade and some coffee for me. Soon Sean called to let me know he had landed, but that he needed to do some work at the airport where he had an ...

... various parts...and every single group were yelling and laughing and just generally behaving, in my opinion, sooooo innappropriately for the nature of the place they were in. But I guess like our tour guide said, they are pretty much forced to go there for school at least every year...and at 13 and 14 years of age, they don´t have respect for anything, much less a place like a concentration camp memorial. I guess maybe they´re just too young to comprehend the horror of ...

... Venice. It is on a hill overlooking the Tauber River and is a wonderful place to spend a day or so. So I pulled over and Julie ran into the Gasthof Goldener Greifen (EUR 82 per night), one of the hotels recommended by Rick Steves. It was a really cute place with tons of character and a perfect location right off the main town square. It is over 600 years old and is the former Mayor's house. So we dropped our bags inside, parked our car in the back, and walked around town for a ...

... look which I couldn't quite decipher. The cleaner then saw me and was about to shout "What the hell are you doing here?" until she realised I was in fact a female with a buzz cut. I sat and waited, having a good ole chuckle with the security guard and cleaner, pointing to my head saying "Ja, sehr kurz" (yes, very short). Hearty back slapping followed, along with buzzing noises, and rubbing fingers over my scalp.

5 minutes after ...