London, Munich, and More

Note: I wrote this entry yesterday (1/31) on the bus from Munich to Prague

Hola

Sorry for the delay in updating. I haven’t had steady internet access since I arrived in Europe.

The flight to London was great. The plane was less than half full giving everybody lots of room. I met my roommate Walt at the airport and he is awesome. We arrived in London at around 8 am and went through customs where we were met by an AIFS driver. We drove into London and put our bags down at the Hotel and then went to explore the city. We really had no plan for the day so we took The Tube to Westminster and explored the city. We walked around for a while and decided to go to the modern art museum which had some cool works and some strange pieces. After walking around we headed back to the hotel to shower and check in. Not wanting to be jet lagged, Walt and I showered and got out of the room. We went to a pub with fellow Texan Ian and grabbed some local beers and food. We then went back to the hotel for a welcome drink where we met all of the people from our program. After the drink a group of us went to Piccadilly Circus to check out the local night life. We found a really cool bar that was packed with people watching a soccer game. It was quite the experience and I learned some new curse words and met many Liverpool fans who had a special disdain for Tom Hicks.

Day two in London included a tour where we all went and saw the major sights. We saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster, The London Tower and many other sights. That evening a group of us bought half priced tickets to see Wicked. The show was great. After the show myself, Becca and two other girls went and got some dinner and then headed home. All in all London was fun and only came close to getting hit by a car once.



Yesterday the group woke up at 4:45 am to catch our flight to Munich. We got to Munich at noon. After clearing customs I went to get my bags and low and behold the folks at British airlines left my bag in London. Filling out the paperwork to get my bag back was a lot of fun. The man at the BA counter gave me a little envelope with some toiletries and an XXL t-shirt. Walt gave me the British Airways socks that they gave out on our flight. It is quite the outfit. I was just happy that I had a clean pair of underwear in my backpack.

The afternoon in Munich was fun. We had a bus tour of the city where every single person fell asleep. We then had a walking tour that took us through the old city of Munich. It was freezing and snowing during the tour, which is something I am just going to need to get used to. Last night a giant group of us went to the Haufbrau House, an old school beer hall that took us about 40 minutes to walk there. Once we arrived we had to split into smaller groups and grab some tables. The beer was delicious and came in one size, liters. The beer was awesome and by the end of the night I had made friends with some Swiss, Italians and French people. The walk home took about an hour as we took the “scenic” route back to the hotel, I am not sure whether or not this was on purpose, but I have to give props to my friend Sarah for navigating the mean streets of Munich.



This morning I woke up early to pack up and get ready to depart for Prague. AIFS split us into three buses in order to not overwhelm the people at the dorm in Prague. I was on bus one that left Munich at 10. On board the bus we received our welcome packets, that included our transit passes and a phone card to call home along with a bunch of reading material. The bus ride started out like a normal bus ride, that was until we came to a complete stop in the middle of the highway. Apparently there had been an accident at 8am that had yet to be cleaned up. We hit the traffic at about 1:15 and didn’t move one inch until after 4. The delay wasn’t bad at all and provided me with a chance to get to know some people and just hang out. With that being said we missed our lunch at the famous Brewery in Plisin. That lunch became a dinner and it was delicious. After dinner we re-boarded the bus for Prague.

It is now 9:05 (hour 11 of the trip) and we are still on the bus headed to Prague. I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t be able to get my bag tonight. But we shall see. I am just excited to be in Prague and not living out of my bag (or British Airways envelopes) in hotels.