My time in Munich

Trans-Atlantic flight & Munich, Germany -- München (as everyone here calls it)


Leaving XNA in Arkansas really started my trip. My friend Steven dropped me off two hours before my flight and as I walked passed the white unloading zone, an airport worker with a small podium asked me which airline I was flying. At this time, I was all smiles, nothing could bother me. So, I told him Lufthansa. His face pinched and he asked with bewilderment, "which airline, sir?" My chest tightened a bit because my ticket said Fayetteville airport. I was closer to Bentomville which made me think I had come to the wrong airport. It turns out Lufthansa flys with United, but none of us knew that until they looked up my ticket number. Things so far, were going smoothly.

I spoke to a nice lady in the airport bar whose husband was stationed in Germany during the Persian Gulf War. She told me German phrases, what to eat, and that if a German said they couldn't speak English they were full of it.

My flight from Arkansas to Chicago was sort of an omen because I sat next to this lady from Sweden. I fly out of Sweden Aug. 12 so I thought this must be a good sign.

It was more like a taste of things to come. I immediatly started jabbering away about my trip and she sat and listened for awhile with folded arms until a man from the back informed me she didn't speak English. This was very true, she never had answered my questions. I thought she was shy. The only thing I could make her understand was when I pulled out my iPhone and showed her a picture of Sweden. She immediatly pointed to where she was from, I assume. We never said another word to eachother.

After an hour and a half flight, I had a 5 hour layover in Chicago O'Hare. It wasn't all bad waiting, I noticed alot of people wearing nametags that said, "be on the watch!" I asked one of them what it was I was watching for, turns out they were Jehova Witnesses going to an international meeting.

It finally came time to board the flight and that's when I noticed all those people on the watch were boarding the plane to Munich.

Lufthansa Airlines is an amazing company. Fly them if you can. One word: CLEAN. Every employee was finely dressed and the flight attendants were all pretty. They were also all German, and they spoke German with English right after. If the people on the plane weren't all German citizens, the rest were Jehova witnesses. I luckily sat next to a pretty Jehova's witness girl who was nice to talk to when we weren't all asleep.

Eight hours on a plane isn't that bad. They had individual TVs in front of every seat that you could pick what you wanted to watch by yourself with headphones. Everyone pretty much slept, or tried to sleep, I couldn't sleep.

The plane touched down in Munich about 12:30pm local time Tuesday (we lost time from flying againt the time zones) and all my baggage arrived safely. Thank God for that. I packed my carry-on into my backpack and set out to find that train station I read was supposed to be there. It was, but EVERYTHING was in German. You bought your tickets from a vending machine, and it was in German. This took me a good 30min just starring to figure out I wanted to go to someplace near Liam.

I found out later that the U-Bahn was the subway that would've taken me within 5min walking distance of my hotel. I, however, only knew about the S-Bahn. I was let off at Liam only knowing the name of the road (same as hotel) I was supposed to go. It started raining and I had to grab my rain jacket out of my sack, what better place than in the middle of the train station? This is where I was approached by two young people - probably from Turkey - holding a sign in German. They both seemed to be pleading and I had a bad feeling. I kindly stuck my hand in their face as they had kindly thought I was vulnerable and told them "bye bye!" After they left this German man gave me a "whatever that was" look and I shrugged my shoulders then walked off.

My first taste of Munich was walking out of the train tunnel into the city with an accordian player giving me his best on that thing. Munich is nice, it's a big modern city. There's nothing but Mercedes Benz cars/trucks/taxis, Audis, and BMWs. I noticed all them on my hour walk to find my hotel.

I was relived to arrive, I was wet, jet lagged, hungry, and very unsure of everything. I got a shower and walked onto Nyphenburger Straße (street) determined to find food and good Bavarian beer. My first resturaunt choice ended up being a bad one becuase no one wanted me there as soon as they found out I spoke English.

This didn't bother me, I'd probably hate a general American as well if I was German. I kindly moved my hunger and open wallet to a more accomodating place. I had lamb stuffed with sheep's cheese baked in tomato and onion stew. German food is right up my ally. I'm a meat and potato guy, and the Germans can cook those two things. My meal was followed by a very long slumber.

I'm typing on my iPhone in a café so please excuse the grammer and bad syntax. I can't proofread all that I type. More to come soon, I'll be going to Berlin tomorrow.

Bis später!!! Auf vieterzang!!! Tschüs!!! Goodbye!!!