Guten tag!

Well, hello from Munich, Germany!  Ah, we've only been here for a few hours, but it's been quite an adventure so far.  Never have I ever felt more American, confused and clueless!

We took the train from Paris to Munich (a 6-hour ride).  We had a fun ride ... as we always manage to make things fun.  We read, listened to music, played cards, watched a movie and snacked along the way.  We arrived in Munich at about 9:30pm.  Found our way outside and surveyed the taxi situation.  It took us a minute to sort of figure things out, and we ended up with a female cab driver who happened to NOT speak English, as so many people here do, and who did NOT know how to get to our hotel.  There were bad signs from the get-go.  Since we couldn't communicate with her verbally, we had to point to where I'd written down in my travel notebook where we were going and the address of the hotel.  She had to get out her reading glasses and then walk over to another cabbie to consult him about the location ... it was quite an ordeal.  I think she got a little lost trying to get us there.  And then we had some miscommunication about paying ... ugh, it was a mess.  By the end of it, she was basically kicking us out of her car and muttering, "Americans," with disgust under her breath.  Whoops. 

So ... we got checked in to our hotel fine.  It's a great place!  But ... like many places in Europe, they value the "community" aspect of hotel dwelling.  We have a sink in our room, but that is all.  Community toilet down the hall.  And community shower next to that.  Lovely.  Haha.

And what's the first thing any respectable traveler should do when arriving in Munich?  Have a beer at the neighborhood bar, of course!  Which we did.  However, neither Jenna nor I are beer drinkers, so we had no idea what to get.  We walked in and I asked the bar tender if she happened to speak English.  She said, "A little," so I proceeded to order us two beers -- trusting that whatever she chose to serve us would be good.  And it was!  (Surprise!)  I'm quite proud:  I drank more than half of mine.  (I don't like beer, so that amount is a feat for me.)  So Jenna and I drank and chatted and relaxed, and then right as we were leaving, you won't BELIEVE the song that came on.  Sweet Home Alabama.  I stopped dead in my tracks and said, "Oh my god.  That's so surreal."  Then, hearing my English, a man behind me jumped in and asked if we were American.  We had a nice little chat with him -- yay for running into another American -- and then retired for the evening.

So, now I'm off to shower in the little closet down the hall.  Wish me luck!