Planes, Trains and... Well, just Planes and Trains.

My flight from Chicago left forty minutes late. I was sleeping at the time so I didn't figure out until later that it was because one of the plane tugs had accidentally smacked the plane and they need to make sure that it was still safe to fly. Considering that we only had a 50 minute layover in Frankfurt, being forty minutes late pretty much guaranteed that we were going to miss our flight to Munich. And we did.

Not only did we miss it, but we were disappointed to discover that we hadn't been rebooked for a new flight like the rest of the passengers. Upon asking we were told that we needed to talk to the Lufthansa people to get a new flight. But the Lufthansa people told us that all the flights to Munich were full because of Oktoberfest, so we would need to talk to the United people (who were the ones responsible for making us late).

The United people told us we basically had two options: we could spend the day on the waiting list for one of the flights to Munich or we could just catch a train. I thought the train sounded fun and the idea of spending the day in the airport just to repeatedly hear that we didn't make the waiting list for the next flight sounded grueling. So, we decided to hop on a train to Munich.

Unfortunately, we needed to claim our luggage first. When the told us about the train option, I figured that we would grab our bags and be on the next train in 20 minutes. What they didn't tell us was that it was going to take the next 2 hours to track down our luggage and send it down to us in the baggage claim. They also didn't tell us that the baggage claim was in the the bowels of the airport.



By the time that we got our baggage and got on the train it was 10:30 in the morning... 3 hours after the time that we were supposed to be in Munich. I think that we were all excited to be taking the train and seeing the countryside but it really sucked that we had spent so much time waiting for our baggage and then waiting for the train.

The train must have been packed with additional Oktoberfest passengers because when we first got on there weren't any seats in our car. We were concerned that we were going to have to stand for the entire 4 hour train ride to Munich. Fortunately, Morris and Sundy found seats within a couple of minutes and I was able to get a seat at our next stop which was only fifteen minutes away.

One of the things that confused me about the whole train experience was that some seats were reserved and others were open for anyone with a general train ticket to use. But I didn't understand which was which. I eventually figured it out in Nuremburg when I was kicked out of my seat by a family of four.

Just as I thought that I was going to be stuck standing again a couple of guys invited me to sit with them. They had planned on travelling in a group of 3 but one of them wasn't able to make it so they had an extra seat reserved. However, shortly after introducing themselves they disappeared to the bistro car to get a couple of beers. At least they left me their ticket so I could prove to people that the seat I was sitting in (as well as there two seats) were indeed reserved.

The two guys were gone for a really long time and I was started to feel bad for riding opposite of two empty seats... there were still people standing in the back of the train including Morris and Sundy. But it's not like I could give these guy's seats away after they had been so nice to me.

Eventually the two guys came back carrying with them as much beer as they could hold collectively in their four hands. I thought it really nice of them to offer me one of the beers. We spent the remainder of the train ride talking about Germany and America and the differences in language, culture and education (I think it's interesting that Germans are required to learn English starting at age 9).

When we got off in Munich, Andre and Frank, offerred to take me out for a few more beers before turning in. It was really incredible of them considering that they had just met me. They actually escorted me to my hotel so that I could drop off my bags and then we headed into the heart of downtown Munich (and Oktoberfest) to have a few beers and a bite to eat.



The place that we ate at was called Spaten Hof (I think). We had a couple of beers and I tried a traditional bavarian dish of leberkas and german potato salad. The lieberkas was something like a bologne meatloaf while the german potato salad was not that spectacular. Surprisingly the lieberkas was not all that bad with a little bit of mustard.

So, after all of that I am just now finally getting back to my hotel at 5PM. What a day. I think that it's been nearly 30 hours since I have last slept (really slept, the airplane doesn't count). I'll probably head back out to Oktoberfest for a while tonight before turning in. I'm tempted to get some sleep now, but I'd kind of like to force myself to stay up to get accustomed to the schedule here.

Here are some of my first impressions of Germany:
1. Everyone smokes here. People smoked in the airport, on the train and just generally everywhere in public. Not to mention there were cigarette ads everywhere. Big tobacco may be dying in America but it's still going strong in Germany.

2. The airport was really run down. It was probably just because it was under construction but it felt like we were in a third world country. There were walls torn down and wires hanging everywhere. It felt a little like a war zone.

3. Everybody speaks English here. The language just hasn't been a problem. It almost makes me embarrassed to be a stupid American that only speaks a single language (2 years of Latin in High School don't count).

4. The countryside is really beautiful. I loved taking the train to Munich. We got to see a lot of the country that we wouldn't have otherwise have gotten to see. I wouldn't say that we got into any real mountains but there were plenty of rolling hills and lush greenery.