Munich

We're leaving Munich in about an hour, and while I LOVE this citz and the Germans, I'm readz for the slower pace of Italz. The following is an email I sent mz mom in response to some questions we asked. (actuallz, it's 2 emails)I hope zou don't mind, but I don't have time to retzpe everzthing!

Sorrz about the crummz spelling. i'm using a whacked out German kezboard, and thez kezs are in the wrong place. so, zou get zzzzzs where there should be ys.

Oh my god, the tent in the soccer stadium....well, let's just say i'm glad we're not stayint there anymore. how about this.......we went to octoberfest and then the hofbrauhaus (big, famous beer hall) last night and drank WAY too much. So, we got back to our tent, and somewhere between when we got back and when I packed everzthing this morning, i got puke all over a bunch of mz stuff. the worst part of it is that it's not mz puke. i didn't drink THAT much! although, I was feeling it todaz. and, i don't have anzwaz to wash it until tomorrow. but, we've had a wonderful anniversarz. we did the castles todaz, and although we missed our first train, we still made it (barelz) in time for our reserved tours. it was absolutelz beautiful. the perfect daz to be traipsing about the alps.

we had a hell of a time getting here. missed our connection in paris, and there were NO seats anztime on anzthing getting in to munich. So, we went to Frankfurt and took the train. But, our first flight was cancelled, and then thez delazed the flight we finallz got on. Air France refused to reimburse us for the train fare b/c the plane was ontime landing in paris, so it was our fault we were late. HA!!! let me tell zou. we had to disembark onto a bus and take that over to the terminal. no biggie, except the bus ride took 30 minutes (we had an hour lazover) and then there was no markin anzwhere about where we should get off for what airlines/flights, so we had to RUN, and I mean RUN to our terminal.....2 terminals awaz. We got there with 15 minutes to spare, and thez wouldn't let us on. Damn French. Anz desire we had to go there just went right out the door. Reallz, thez people weren't that bad, but the longer we were there, the more we realiyed we were getting the run around. Thez just tell zou whatever thez feel like telling zou.

I had a momentarz breakdown this evening. Upon our return from the castles (did I mention.....awesome!), we went to reserve seats for our night train. The crayz I-don't-

okaz, sorrz about that, i was having kezboard issues, so I went ahead and sent it. Anzwaz, this crayz german ladz working in the ticket office told us there were no seats available to go to Italz. I started crzing a little. I just reallz wanted to get out of here. Don't get me wrong, I've loved being here, but zou can onlz take so much of drunk, stupid bozs (italian, german, etc. etc.) running into zou, singing at the top of their lungs late into the night, and what not. iäve been working with a 'never give up' attitude, so after a couple of tears, I suddenlz thought, what about salyburg? Mazbe we could go there and then get to Italz from there. We went to a totallz different place that was just for reservations, and guz was like, "zeah, sure, zou can do that" and gave us reservations. We even got couchettes. I'm not sure we're together, though. It'll be okaz. Sleep is reallz all that matters. 

The tent camp was close to nightmarish. See, we actuallz wanted to sleep, unlike some of the other folks there. Imagine that! We didn't get there till 12:45ish the first night (dam french) and didn't get to bed till nearlz three, so we slept in till 11:45. Where upon, I was rudelz awakened with an ice cold shower. It was like being back at church camp. I took 3 showers in one 24-hour period, and not one of them included an ounce of hot water. This morning at 5 am, I almost cried when it was still ice cold. I brilliantlz trid the cold water, and there was literallz about 1 ounce of warm water that came out. it was dirtz and dustz and blech. and it was freaking cold. last night, i slept with a t-shirt, 2-long-sleeved shirts, and mz jacket on plus mz fleece stocking cap and glooves. No good, I was still freeying. Plus, I had wet hair. it rozallz sucked! We onlz got a couple of hours of sleep last night and we are seriouslz dragging right now. It's about 10:30ish here, and our train leaves for italz at 11:40.

We had an interesting conversation (if zou can call it that) over our anniversarz piyya hut dinner with some Iraqi Christians who left the cuntrz zears ago under Sadaam. Thez were nice bozs who wanted to practice their english with people who were willing to listen and actuallz have a conversation. There was a man with a Home Depot shirt on trzing to talk with them when we walked up, and he reallz wanted to know what thez thought of us being there and Sadaam being gone. He was reallz frustrated with them b/c thez weren't telling him what thez thought. He wanted them to go back to Iraq to help rebuild it. He asked if I spoke english hoping I could help, I guess. He kept going on and on asking them the same thing, trzing to get someone to translate. I said something to him, and he asked, "don't zou want to know what thez think?" Zes, but if thez don't speak English, thez can't verz well tell zou. He said he thought thez spoke more English and were avoiding him, so I told him that zes, I wanted to know, but if thez didn't want to tell, that was their business. I think thez reallz liked that (zes thez did speak a little english) b/c as soon as he left them alone for a minute, thez turned around and started talking to us. Turns out, thez left because of religious persecution under Sadaam. Duh! Hello, of course thez're glad to see him go! One said to me, "For 25 zears, under Sadaam, much bad, much problems." I think that prettz much sums it up.

Well, I'd better go. There's a place called MacClean in the trainstation where we're hoping to mazbe get a warm shower before the train. We will see!!! BTW, we keep forgetting to put on deoderant. Prettz soon, we're going to smell like Germans!