Finally made it to Munich, it's a miracle!

We jumped on this train tired and in desperate need of a good long shower and coffee. This leg of the journey was going to take 7 hours, so we settled in with our books, our IPods and our laptop which we thought we would watch a DVD on. We read a bit, looked out the window a bit, ate our free brekki that was brought around and helped ourselves to the not so great, but free, coffee that was onboard before saying “okay, lets pop a movie on” We pulled the little blind down and popped our ear plugs in, we were oblivious to the world and what was going on. We vaguely heard an announcement in German and thought “oh yeah, another station, we still have 5 hours to go, it’s not ours” so we kept watching, some people grabbed their bags and hopped off and we thought nothing of it, and then, from behind the slightly see through blind I thought “ohh, that truck is REALLY close!” so I lifted the blind and then we became very very confused… there were large trucks surrounding us and caravans all around and all I could think was “what are all these cars doing on the railway tracks!? What is going on?” and then we noticed EVERYone was getting off the train… what?!? The carriage was now empty but for 2 other girls so I asked them if they knew what was going on, they said “yeah, everyone has to hop off the train while we’re on the ship” HUH? I was so confused and I didn’t like not knowing what was going on! We hopped off in a daze and realized that we were at the bottom of a ship. Somehow, while we were watching our DVD, oblivious to the world, our train had boarded a ship that would take us from Denmark to Germany. I didn’t know that we could do that. We walked up the several flights of stairs and Wohler; we were on a ship, complete with another supermarket, bars and restaurants. We went up to the top deck and watched the world go by before popping back down to stroll through the shop and see what was on offer and then recoil at the cost of things. This boat ride took about 40 minutes; it was quite nice to get some fresh air before jumping back on the train. We were now in Germany on our way to Hamburg where we had 20 minutes to connect to our next train to Munich (or Munchen as the locals call it) but there was a hitch, a “slight” two hour hitch that had us not only missing our next train to Munchen but also having to change trains again in some random tiny little station just outside Hamburg. We are not so sure what caused this long delay but it was whispered that someone had thrown themselves in front of a train, which in turn meant that every train travelling in our direction was held up. We made it into Hamburg finally, two hours late and more than just a tad annoyed by now. We were a little concerned about making it to Munich now, as we have come to know that once you have missed your train it is not always so easy to just jump on another and expect to have a seat. We jumped off the train and ran through to the departure area where we saw on the large board that there was a train leaving for Munich in 3 minutes. Well, we RAN through the station and up to a conductor and briefly and wildly explained our situation to him. He looked a little taken back, these two very tired looking, red faced, sweaty and now puffy Australians speaking to him in such a hurried manner and with accents he could not quite understand, we must have appeared slightly crazy to him! He allowed us on the train, telling us to go to carriage 2 and try and find a seat that was not yet taken. I hate this part. All the seats are always taken and you always end up next to someone who is slightly odd in some sense. I know I sound judgmental, but with all my experience I have found this to be true. So, we managed to find seats at a table of 4 and sat with a women who, despite having plenty of room to store her very large bag at the front or back of the train, insisted on having it RIGHT next to her, preventing people from walking down the aisle. It was packed and noisy and sweaty and as we were so tired this highly irritated us. The conductor came by, and when he got to our seats had to try and jump over this large suitcase all the while asking to see our tickets. We showed him ours and then asked if there was a chance of moving to the first class section, as you see sir, we have purchased first class tickets. He said that he did not know the situation of the first class but to have a look and if free, then yes, we could. So, Chris jumped over the suitcase and discovered that first class was… empty. There were only 3 seats taken at the time and there were about 45 seats free. You little ripper! We jumped up and grabbed our bags and hastily made a retreat to the comfort of ‘first class’ as we did so I heard the lady opposite us ask her friend “where are they going?” and the other one replied with an exaggerated sniff and ‘posh’ accent “first class” Jealous old cow I thought, just because YOU want to be in first class doesn’t mean you have to mock us! So then, sitting in first class was even nicer than it would have originally been as I thought of that mocking woman being left to sit in the squashy cart. A better person would have offered her their ticket, but not me, it was a help yourself affair here!

This train ride took FOREVER. Well, it seemed to anyhow. It was another 6 hours on train and by now we were both completely and utterly OVER train travel. We played many games of cards, watched DVDs, listened to music, finished our books, ate dinner… but were still so incredibly bored and restless. ARGH! The only good thing about the entire past 24 hours of train travel was the fact that our sleeper train last night was just the two of us and had it’s on clean bathroom (with shower, very nice!) It took so so long to get to Munich, we felt that we could have gotten out and run faster than the train (but only if we were superman or had go go gadget legs) but FINALLY we got into Munich at 10pm. It was dark, it was wet, but it was Munich. Thank god! We set off from the train station to the hotel in the wrong direction, but thankfully corrected this after a few minutes so it wasn’t too drastic, and half an hour later were lying on our beds groaning of how tired we were. Yet, we couldn’t shower and fall into bed just yet as we were meeting Kora, Chris’ distant cousin, at 11pm. She is staying at the same hotel on a work conference. So, prizing the eyes open, we met up for a few drinks at 11pm and chatted and got to know one another a little, and at 2pm, FINALLY fell into bed, where Chris slept and I… well, I was now over tired and couldn’t sleep!!! So, I watched some Michael Jackson tribute thing in German before deciding that it was torturous and turning it off to try and get some sleep.

written by  Chris and Emily on July 7, 2009 from Munich, Germany
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
Send a Compliment

comment on this...