Day 39 2/27/2010

Day 29 2/18/2010

Thursday. O so close to the end of the week but not quite there. This is a day that I was just being incredibly lazy. I decided to skip our rescheduled Maya workshop. (He rescheduled because he had to leave early yesterday). I didn't learn anything from them and I was going to sleep anyway so why not do it in a comfy bed rather than the hard desk. Well eventually I got up for the day and headed to class. When I got there it turns out that I didn't miss anything. The guy never showed up. Apparently he called in "sick." However, we all think that he just skipped out because he had a deadline to cover. So, we spent the rest of the day doing studio work again. Boring right. I don't even remember if I stayed late or not. I'm sure I did to get my travel info in order. The next day Trisha, Catie, Brian, Jake, Jacob, Alvaro, and David and I were all going to Munich. David and I would be traveling together. Jake and Jacob would take the train. Trisha and the rest were on a different plane. So David and I got checked into our flight that evening with the help of Alvaro and had all the paperwork that we needed printed, printed out. Then I went home to get ready. I was able to talk to Sean for a little while, while I packed but not long. I was sad because I wasn't going to get to talk to him for the entire weekend. I finished packing for the most part and after messing with facebook went to bed.

Day 30 2/19/2010

I had to wake up at 5:30 today in order to make sure I was at the station in time to catch our bus to the airport in Cologne. David was suppose to meet me at the Hauptbahnhof at around 7:30 well he ended up being late so we missed the first bus. It was ok we were able to catch another before it got too late. After David got there we walked over to the bus station to figure out where to get our tickets. We ended up buying the wrong ones at the machine just to find out later that we could have payed for them on the bus. So I have this train ticket that is useless till the end of the semester when Sean comes. Also when the bus finally got there we had a bit of a mix up with the driver again the English/German language barrier. I don't know why but I always feel embarrassed when this happens. So we were finally on our way to the airport on the bus. This took about 30 minutes but I got to see some interesting country side when I wasn't sleeping. When we got there we jumped off and hurried to our terminal. I wanted to be there almost an hour before that. Since we had already checked in and we had no bags to check we headed for security. This was the usual routine except for taking off your shoes, thank god, till we got to the end. David had packed his shampoo and toothpaste... I could have hit him. You can't take that crap in a carry-on on the plane, you idiot. So he decided to go back and check his bag. I was allowed to sit on the bench that was at the end of the security line waiting for him to come back and go through again. After a few minutes another person came up to me and told me I couldn't sit there, even though the other person said I could. I didn't press it, I just got up and moved over to the entrance to the Gates where I could be out of the way but still see the security lines. I waited and waited. He took forever but I guess its because he had to walk all the way back to the check-in gates then wait in line. Finally, he came back I gave him is jacket back and we headed for our gate. We both took at least one bathroom break while waiting. I took it to go get some water; they took away my water bottle at the gate. It didn't take long for our plane to get there. We were already more than an hour later than your suppose to be at the gate, but it didn't matter we caught our plane all the same. Both of us slept all the way there. We didn't really talk just slept. When we arrived we headed the the baggage pick up. Waited till the bags came out and snagged David's bag. Then headed outside the airport. We were suppose to meet up with the other four that took a plane because they arrived about an hour after we did. David and I just sat outside our gate and slept on some of the chairs waiting for them to call us and let us know where to meet them. Around noon the called and told us to meet them in Terminal 1. Apparently we were in Terminal 2. Awesome. Now we have to walk a looooonnnngg way. It took forever to get over to where they were but luckily they already had the train ticket situation worked out and we were able to leave for Munich. Riding that train took about 40 mins and half of that for me was spent separated from the group. I hate having those moments when I realize how cut off I am from them. Anyway as soon as we got to the station we headed out toward where we thought we should go out. This place is huge not like the Bonn Hbf. So no one wanted to actually say hey follow me which irritated the crap out of Trisha. She didn't shut up about it for the entire rest of the time we were around the other guys. Well finally we found out where we needed to go to get to our hostel, Jaegers Hostel. When we finally got there and checked in, we went up to our rooms. OMG. I now know why these places were so cheap. It grossed me out. I got over it though because again it was really cheap. It was like our cabins back at Prude Ranch. So we shoved our stuff into some lockers threw a jacket onto our beds to claim them then headed right back out the door to do some exploring. Before we went anywhere far we decided to grab some food. We ended up stopping at this Italian restaurant near the hostel. We sat in there and ate and talked for a while. Catie and I ordered Lasagna. Alvaro, Brian and David ate pizza. While, Trisha ordered spaghetti. We were going to walk around the town till around 5:30 when we need to head back and get ready for a show/concert that Trisha had sort of arranged for us to go see. Any way I gave them the place to go, Marien Platz. This was Munich's main square and the best place to just walk around and do nothing. The first thing we saw when we came out of the Train tunnels was the side of this beautifully elaborate building. This was the New Town Hall or Rauthaus. It kinda stood out against all the other buidings in the area because it was the only one made of gray stone and it had a Neo-Gothic feel to it. In the middle of this platz was a column dedicated to Mary. On the right side of the platz if your facing the Town hall is the Altes Rauthaus, or Old Town Hall. This building was a pretty soft pink color with the strange staggered facade. like a stair ran up one side then immediately down the other. Other buildings near here include the largest cathedral in Munich and another church. So we started walking just around no particular place. At one point we split up just to meet again at the Cathedral. I got separated from my group in there because of the size of the place. The bells for Evening mass began to chime and so we hurried out. Alvaro and I had a small argument about whether it actually was a mass or not because he seems to think that they all happen at the same time. I disagree because I know that the masses at St. Mary's in College Station are at different times than the masses at Holy Angels in San Angelo. After that we just walked some more. We also went souvenir shopping. I ended up getting some stuff for the family and a lot for myself. After that we headed back to the hostel to figure out what needed to be done to get to this place. Trisha had directions but they weren't all that great. So yet again we headed out with actually knowing where we were going and again she got overly irritated that no one was being decisive. She was also overly irritated that we weren't going to get there 2 hours before the show. I thought the entire time she was being ridiculous. Anyway after much confusion and complaints about the cold then getting wet because it started to rain slushy ice we finally found the correct street. We asked a lot of different people where to go and finally we found a bus and we got on it for a few stops. No one knew if we were going the right direction. I finally saw a street sign and confirmed that we were indeed going the right way. First we got off at the wrong stop that wasn't good because yet again we didn't know where we were. Finally a local helped us out again. He told us to get back on a bus going the same way and then get off in 2 more stops. That ended up working perfectly because when we got off we could kinda see the place hidden a few blocks away to our right. So we started walking through the icy rain to the show "tent." By all definitions the place was a tent. There wasn't much building there. It was called Das Shloss. So we got inside dropped our coats off, and headed inside to find a table. I spotted one with just enough room for all of us and we sat down. We got there nearly 45 minutes before the thing started and Trisha still didn't feel like we got there early enough. Whatever. A few of us grabbed a beer and talked till the show started. Brian, Jake and Jacob didn't show up till about 30 mins into the show. I forgot to mention that Brian stayed behind at the hostel till Jake and Jacob showed up because they hadn't arrived yet. Well it turns out that this was more a show than a concert. He did most of the talking and even though I couldn't understand any of it I could determine the high and low parts of the story. I was happy when I could understand any of it. We spent the evening listening to this story that we couldn't understand and enjoying the small bits of music that occurred during the performance. After this we headed back to the hostel to go to bed and get ready for the long day the day. We ended up walking most of the way back and catching a bus for the last bit of it. One exciting thing that happened along the way was that I saw a fox. This was completely unexpected and awesome. I squealed over that for a few minutes. When we finally got back to our hostel one of our room mates had come back. He sat up and talked to us for a while, and I messed with my computer. After about an hour and a half of that we went to sleep.

Day 31 2/20/2010

Today we all decided to get up early to go to Neuschwanstein Castle. The tour started at 9:15 so we needed to get there before then. I set my alarm for about 7:30 so I could get up and be ready by 8:30. I got up and took my shower first. After I had gotten dressed and had my hair up in the towel I woke the next person up. I milled about picking things up while the other took their showers and got dressed. by the time they were done I was done getting my stuff arranged and we all headed down stairs to eat breakfast. The bad thing was that it was 3.80 Euro to eat and the milk was bad. I was a little disappointed by this fact so I just ended up eating a small breakfast and drinking 3 Euros worth of Orange Juice. Then we headed to the meeting place at the Hauptbahnhof Starbucks. As soon as we got there the clock struck 9:15, perfect. The tour guide, Harriet, told us what we would be doing for the day. (Take a train, then a bus to visit Neuschwanstein Castle). Then she told us to follow her outside so we could pay for our tickets then be on our way to the train. We got our tickets using our student visas for a discount then immediately boarded the train heading for the town near the castle. So here commences the train ride. Nothing really exciting happens, except me laughing at Trisha getting to see landscape that she thought of for her book. She practically drooled over it. I think she was more excited to get to see it in person rather than just in her head. Well also along the train ride was talked and laughed and watched the scenery. Finally we arrived at our station. As soon as we were off our train we headed over to the bus stop to be picked up by the bus. Again a long ride to finally get to the castle. We had a few mins before it was time to head up to the castle so I decided to do some souvenir shopping. I found myself two books and and few other small things. Then it was time to go. I missed part of what she was saying as I walked outside. I didn't even get to grab anything to eat. That was a bad idea. Well we headed up to the first stop and the first story. Sadly, I missed part of it on my recorder. Basically she spoke about the castle on the hill near N. Castle called Hohenschwangau Castle. Don't ask me to say that out loud I have no idea how. I got the story about this castle how it belonged to his parents and how he didn't get along with either of his parents but he was really close to his governess. Then his father dies and gets crowned king. After a time Prussia declares war on Austria. This is all I can remember from the first part. I'm sure that there is more but I just can't remember much more. Well right after that we walked over the this huge lake that reminded me of the lake they had in King Arther. It was huge and nestled between two "foot-hills" by the way. Were in the middle of the Alps. Right after that it was time to walk up this huge god-awful hill. It was steep and slushy. I was not happy to walk up it but it was probably a good thing. I burned some calories. So after a long walk, where I walked mostly alone I might add, we were at the top. There she told us part 3 and 4, I think of the story. Then, it was time to head inside the gates. When we got in there we were able to mill about and take pictures. The sun came out so it was beautiful outside and the it was good for taking pictures. We did that till our tour number came up to go inside. A different person lead us through the castle. We walked up several flights of stairs because the inside was never finished only a few floors actually had finished parts to them. Those were the parts that we were going to get to see. They were beautiful. There were paintings all over the walls. the furniture was overly elaborate. You could tell that this entire building was dedicated to Wagner. As the story goes he built this place for Wagner. All the walls were covered in some depiction of some part of a Wagner opera. His bed room was the story of Tristan and Isolde. Also one of my favorites. The story not the opera. We walked through all of these areas. We saw the ball room and the throne room. The tour guide also took us to his bedroom and living room. There were only about 5 rooms that we visited, all of them painted all of them elaborate. The tour guide then told us that the tour was over that there was a gift shop on the third floor and that we would exit through the HUGE kitchen. The kitchen was huge. It would make Sean envious. I came out and Harriet, the previous tour guide was there to meet me. Remember I did most of this alone. I miss understood her because I thought that she said that my group had already gone to the bridge that was built near by and came back, therefore I wouldn't have time to go to the bridge. This bridge gave a great view of the castle and I kinda wanted to go see it but like I said I miss understood her. What she meant was that I was the last one out of the castle. I found out later that some people from my group was still at the bridge when I came out of the castle. So, sadly, I stared to walk back down the mountain. First, I grabbed a few pictures of the whole castle again with the sun out. When I got to the bottom I found a different souvenir shop that sold dolls. I found a Bavarian doll that I wanted. Then I headed back to the food stand that we stopped at earlier. I grabbed myself some Currywurst then headed to the bus stop. When I got there I realized that she was telling the rest of the story. I didn't get any of it on cam. This slightly upset me so I asked her if later she would be willing to tell me on the train on the way back. She said she would so all was ok. We got on the bus to ride the 10 minute ride back to the train station. I ended up sitting next to a girl from Russia. It was neat getting to talk to her. We didn't talk about anything particular though. We got the the train station. While waiting for the train, Harriett told us about some of Ludwig's family and how most of them were crazy, probably because of inbreeding. As you find out in my videos Ludwig himself was accused of being crazy as well. Finally the train got there. Trisha and I talked about what we wanted to do later that night. Harriet came up and told me the rest of the story and we were able to talk for a little while about it. We talked about what we really thought about his mysterious death and such. The train arrived in Munich and we depart saying good bye to our tour guide. By the way it is now dark. This tour literally took all day. Trisha and I wanted to go on a Ghost tour while the rest of the group just wanted to go drink. I was ok with just spending some time with Trisha. So after stopping by our hostel we headed to the underground to get tickets to where ever. Trisha and I didn't want to walk so we bought tickets. The rest of the guys didn't have the patience to wait for a ticket so they walked to Marien platz. When we got there we walked around and around this place and couldn't find what we needed. It was suppose to be near Mary's column but we couldn't find anyone matching the description Harriet had given us. It was suppose to be a guy in a robe or something like that. We just walked around at about 7:15 she and I decided to forget it and we just walked around some more. I wanted to go see a gate that was at one end of the platz. We also did some more souvenir shopping for her I didn't get anything. Then after Trisha had gotten over being mad at everyone for being indecisive, we headed over to the Hofbrauhaus. We had found this place earlier the day before and planned on going there. We found everybody upstairs in the restaurant area of the building. This was really neat because they played old German music and had dances and they did these songs in chorus with wips. That was strange. I ordered Wiesswurst. Which was incredibly good. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was made out of veal. That made me a little sad but it was good all the same. Trisha and I shared two liters of beer and we talked and laughed for the rest of the evening. Everyone except David all left to go somewhere, I don't remember, before we were ready to go. Eventually we decided it was time to go back to the hostel. We took the underground to get there. I was nervous because David didn't have a ticket and I was even more worried because you get fined if you don't have one, but we got there with no problems. Trisha, David and I ended up sitting in the lobby area where the bar was talking about really deep stuff like, religion and why Trisha feels the way she feels, blah, blah. She was bit more talkative because of the alcohol. Shes not any religion but I don't exactly understand her reason. I think its because she agrees with most all of them. I really didn't like how she made it sound like the only reason Christians are Christians is because it was shoved down their throat since they were a child. That hit a nerve and I kept trying to tell her that, that wasn't the case with a lot of them she just ignored it and went on with her boohoo session.

She acts like the world is against her and personally I think its because she has emotional problems and she has an ego the size of Texas. The world doesn't cater to her, therefore she hates the world. She also acts like if she likes something, NO ONE ELSE DOES. Even though I've mentioned to her numerous times that I also like abstract art, and I also like wine, because I don't like it the way she does I'm some how wrong. I'm tired of her making me feel like crap for being the way I am. I'm lazy, so what. I like soft drinks, so what. I like impressionism over dada, so what. I like to buy souvenirs when you don't. So what. I like Farmville you don't.... I could go on but I won't. Get over yourself, Trisha. I prefer to not read a book I disagree with. So freaking what. I'm not a bad person and I'm not ignorant because I chose to be this way!

Sorry, small rant. Anyway. Right after that we pretty much did nothing else and went to bed.