**hole, bull** and some spoons

Munich was awsome! We arrived two days ago after a 6 hour train ride from Prague. I spent the whole ride balling my eyes out reading the last pages of a Nicholas sparks book, surprised? By the time we arrived in Munich it was late afternoon and we had to make sure to make reservations for our remaining train rides. You'd think after spending over $500 on this ticket there would be no additional charges...always a bad assumption. After about an hour of working with this guy we were off to "the tent"! Kim had seen it online but I had no clue what was ahead. Basically it was like going back to summer camp, think about a giant white carnival tent, in addition to two small ones, filled with enough bunk beds to sleep 100 ppl. They also had an area where u could camp with your own tent, bathrooms, laundry, and a hang out area with a kitchen/bar. The staff was really nice and they served breakfast in the morning and cooked dinner at night. At check in they offered us wool blankets for night time, 3 each...did they not realize it was mid summer as I stood there dripping sweat without even moving. I tried convincing him that there was no way I would need them and if so i would use it as a pillow, he insisted on just taking them all and 'i would understand'. I definitely thought we were in southern Germany but who knows if Kim had something up her sleeve.
After getting settled we were off to watch the football game with the rest of the country. It was an hour and a half before the game and not a single seat open in any restaurant. After what seemed like forever, we managed to squeeze ourselves into a bench next a few older ladies. They seemed like they were more prepared for martinis and slow dancing than beer and soccer but they were fun and took watching this game to a new level. We managed to rack up a bill costing more than 2 nights at the tent for the both of us but well worth the experience of hardcore fans, crazy tourists and of course, the cougar ladies beside us. Needless to say there would be no more restaurants to be visited, just markets and small snacks. Considering the loss by the Germans, the town seemed to die down so we headed home since we planned to be up early to make the most of our only full day. When we reached the tent, they had a fire going and some ppl were playing guitar and as you may have guessed...it was FREEZING!! We hung by the fire for awhile, met a girl from the states and were off to a cacoon made of wool blankets.
The next morning was one of those mornings in the winter time when you are so warm and cozy in your bed, the last thing you wanna do is roll out into the cold. Too bad, by 9 we were up and headed to olympiapark where we saw where the summer Olympics of '72 took place. Then we stummbled across the BMW welt, went inside to find some really interesting information about the process of designing, developing and research involved in making these cars. It ended up being a lot more interesting than i expected, not to mention also finding my future car ;-)
Now what's a European country without some nakedness, there's no escaping it from what we've experienced. But nothing can prepare you for the English garden in munich, I'm talking a 70 year old man doing his morning aerobics in the middle of the public green stark naked--just about lost my breakfast, lunch and dinner from the night before but one else seemed to be phased. I think I've had my fair share of open nudety for awhile. Things got a little more crazy as we continued on our way through the garden of naked people, but crazy in a more pg-13 kind of way. As we continued down the trail, we came around this corner to what seemed like, looked like and just so happened to be guys surfing on this tiny river, yes--surfing! Right after this bridge hugging the edge of a main road right outside the garden the extremely fast current from the river, and I'm sure other factors, creates a constant wave big enough for these guys to one at a time hop on their boards, it was unbelievable to watch some of them! I could have watched them all day but as we were leaving one guy has a unfortunate fall. He got caught at a bad angle right at the edge of the river where it meets a wall and smacked the left side if his face right into it. From what we could see, he sliced open his cheek and chin and possibly lost a tooth, I can only imagine the other injuries that have occurred but didn't stop anyone for a second. As we began to walk we actually came across an exhibit by a graphic designer and photographer, the designer was actually the one who did designs for the '72 olympics in Munich. The rest of the day we walked around the squares, ate at the local market (which was amazing--esp since I got one single nectarine and it cost 1.60€) and climbed the tower at a church to see a panaramic view.
By dinner time we were both exhausted and went back to the tent to rest, read, eat and possibly meet some new people. The dinner they cooked was delicious and the beer was large and thirst quenching ;-) after a nap and shower we started up a few card games with two guys from Cali and brothers from New Zealand...I was all for spoons but got quickly vetoed for some bull** and **hole, later making me victims of both. We had a blast and got to hear a lot of stories from other peoples travels [but who will ever know if it was just a bunch of bull**, right Casey?! or is that even your real name-haha]. later that night we joined other people by the fire until my eyelids became heavier than I could hold. We were back up at 6 this morning to head off to Switzerland, perfect timing to get a short rest from city life and experience some lakes surrounded by mountains and waterfalls. I write this as I sit next to the window of the smooth traveling train looking out over the Swiss alps, we seem to approach more and more breathtaking views-there's no way to explain it, you just have to be here! We will spend a couple hours in lucern before hopping back on the train for a 2 hour trip to interlaken. Our plan is to do a canyoning trip tomorrow (which, according to a guy we met last night from Vermont, was amazing and well worth it) and then possibly some hiking and/or kayaking on the lake on sunday as long as the rain holds off. Who knows, maybe someone will offer a bungee :-) :-)