ahhhhh....Munich!

so, we hoofed it around Munich this morning looking for the Starbucks, when all along it was right in front of us! It was about 8:00 as we were wandering, and it was just us. I started remembering that Monday is the "things-are-closed-day" and wondered if that was it (turns out things really are closed, including Dachau - oops!). Then, I started wondering if maybe today was a holiday, and that´s why we weren´t seeing anyone. We got to the Starbuck´s around 8:45, and they weren´t open. Um HELLO????? They open at 6 (or earlier) at home!

After a quick walk around the block to avoid the crazy drunk guy who wanted to talk to us, they finally opened, and I was able to totally confuse the Germans with my desire for a latte lacking in the espresso. Interesting note, for drinks with espresso in it, they don´t have venti - only small, tall, and grande. For all other drinks, they have tall, grande, venti. Weird. So, we spent the next 2 hours writing postcards in the Starbucks, totally enjoying ourselves and asking them tons of totally stupid questions. Turns out it is a holiday, but not because of the end of Oktoberfest like I thought. It´s a national holiday which meant that EVERYTHING was closed ALL day. We really wanted to get Chris a pair of Birkenstock clogs, but nobody was open. The good news was, though the Oktoberfest was still on. Today is actually the last day, not yesterday. Well, yesterday was the last day, but for the last several years, they´ve carried it on one more day - I guess for the locals to enjoy. So, after checking into our hotel and finally having a shower, we headed out to the Weis´n (that´s what they call Oktoberfest). Did I mention it was rainy and COLD all day yesterday in Venice? Well, it was, and it was even colder here this morning. I mean COLD (what I like to call "butt-a$$-cold), and then the drizzle started, and it drizzled all day, eventually turning into rain. What a pain, and it´s still COLD! So, we spent a couple of hours at the Weis´n. We even got into one of the tents. We could have stayed, but the layer of cig. smoke was getting to me within the first few minutes, so we moved on to the same restaurant we went to last time.  It was perfect!  We bonded with some non-English speaking Germans over some beers, and they laughed at me as I took pics of our food. It was great fun. But then it was time to move on. We walked around a bit more buying me a hat - I´m going to show those Tulsa Oktoberfest goers what it´s all about! - and Chris a cool-and-the-gang stein. Oktoberfest was cool, but you have to be inside to drink the beer, so we moved on to the Hofbrau Haus. BTW, we totally trainn hopped today. We didn´t buy tickets for the U-bahn (the subway), but our Eurail covers the S-bahn (above ground metro), so we decided to be stupid Americans. Again, we´re going straight to tourist hell!

Hofbrau was too much fun....again. Not to worry, I didn´t drink as much this time, we´ll make our plane tomorrow! We happened upon an empty table, and soon a Dutch couple and an American couple joined us, and we had a wonderful time talking, drinking, and eating. Chris made friends with an Irishman at the table next to us who apparantly really liked the drink and took a liking to me. He told Chris he was afraid to say anything about me to him, though because he knew Chris could squash him in an instant. He was just sure Chris was a football player. Too funny! We also met a Hofbrau regular who essentially owns his seat. That´s his, baby. From what I could make out, he comes in every day!

So, here we are, checking our flight status and the veracity of a tale some American told us that you can´t take glass as a carry-on, which is great b/c we have a TON of it! Chris just happened upon a liter beer mug in the train station, so we have that, plus we bought me a 1/2 liter mug and a ton of "Murano" (none of it has the stamp) from Venice. I will be a seriously happy camper if they try to take it away from me. Chris checked the FAA website, and it says nothing about glass, so we´re assuming it´s okay.

We fly out at 10 in the morning. We´re sad to see it end, but glad to get back to some of the things at home, especially the puppies, my mom, our friends, the ever-present bathrooms, the breakfasts that consist of something more than a slice of bread, regluar showers, our own bed....you get my drift. We´re already talking about how we´re going to get back to Italy!