My trip began with a short 4-hour train ride to good old Munich, Germany. After arriving I had the lovely task of navigating myself through an unfamiliar and large city to find the hostel I would be staying at. As it turns out, I'm getting really good at navigating myself through strange European cities, so finding it wasn't the problem. However, as easy as it was to find, it wasn't nearly as close as I had hoped and expected which made for an extremely NOT fun and tiring trek through sketchy streets while carrying my luggage (which wasn't that much but just to enough to make my back want to snap in half). A million blocks and silent prayers later I finally found the hostel, Easy Palace, where I checked in and hunkered down for the night in a room with 5 other strange girls (but at least they weren't crying kids) - 3 from Brazil, 1 from Singapore, 1 from China.
The next morning I had to be at my tour bus (for the castle tour) at 8:00 so I set my alarm for 6:30 which would give me just enough time for a shower and breakfast before I had to be to the bus. But, thanks to my ability to sleep incredibly deep, I slept right through the alarm and woke up just in time to throw on some clothes, grab my stuff and sprint back down the million blocks to the train station where I would catch the bus. Thank goodness I made it just in time jump on the bus and get a fairly decent seat on the upper level of the double decker bus. :) Of course I felt like a complete dork being alone on a tour bus full of old british people, and rich american parents who had to force their spoiled kids to try and enjoy the vacation... but to be honest I thoroughly enjoy being a dork. I loved the warm, cozy bus, and the nice tour guide who was a perfect medium between helpful/informative and pesky/annoying. The tour took us from Munich to the beautiful Bavarian Alps and would take us to two beautiful Castles built by the Bavarian King, King Ludwig II, and a beautiful little village in the mountians. Our first stop was the smaller of the two castles called the Linderhof Castle. After our rather short guided tour of the Castle and a little postcard shopping, it was back on the bus to head to the pretty village of Oberammegau. There we were able to take a while and do some souvenir shopping and just enjoy the scenery and atmosphere of small town Germany. After that we were finally on our way to the highlight of the trip, the Neuschwanstein Castle. Along with the castle itself, the setting and surroundings of the castle are so incredibly breathtaking. I could hardly believe that I was actually there, like I had just stepped into the picture that is still hanging on my wall in my bedroom back home. (that is if Penny hasn't taken it down) :) The castle has a very 'disney fairy-tale' feel to it. While inside, I half expected the furniture to move and talk, and I even peeked around the corners for signs of 'the Beast'. :)
There isn't much to report after the tour because the next day I just spent the day in Munich sightseeing and basically killing time. But after a couple hours I had come to the conclusion that I really hate Munich. There are few cool things to see but other than that, the only thing to do there is drink beer and eat pretzels. I'm not complaining about the pretzels, they were positively delicious, but the amount of beer consumed by the people in Munich is horrifying and disgusting.
But all in all, it was great to have a few days to myself and check another dream off the list. :)
View of Neuschwanstein from the "village" of Fuessen. I put village in quotations because it's pretty much a joke, it basically consists of souvenir kiosks and a hotel. :)
Remember how I mentioned the castle being like a 'fairy-tale' castle? Well while I was there I found some pixy dust that Tinker bell had left there on her last visit to see Belle and the Beast, so I took it and used it to take this picture of Munich from above.
Ok really I just paid 1.50 to go to the top of a bell tower of one of the churches to be able to look out over the whole city.
The ever-so-lovely hostel room... my bed is the middle top one.
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