Leaving Prague far too soon, we made our way to Munich – with a slight detour to Nuremberg to visit Becca’s friend Anna. This was our first bus experience, and enjoying the luxury of actually having a seat, we made the three and a half hour journey! We made the decision last minute, realizing that Nuremberg was so close to Prague and on the way to Munich, with Becca not wanting to waste an opportunity to see a friend.

We arrived in Nuremberg just after 11 and quickly made our way into town. Anna was busy for the morning, so we explored the main square and found a place to sit and have lunch. After lunch we sat in the shade and waited for Anna to arrive. When she finally showed up we got a quick tour of the town. Anna has spent a fair amount of time there and it is where her mom grew up.

We walked up to the castle and looked over the city, which is seriously beautiful. Then we headed to a Biergarten and caught up. Anna wanted to walk to a “nearby” lake, but this turned out to be more of a trek than she anticipated. We enjoyed it nonetheless, and walked around the perimeter of the lake before heading back to town.

Unfortunately, our time with Anna was short as we had to go to our hostel in Munich to check in. We said our goodbyes and hopped on the next train.

Our hostel in Munich is a serious highlight of the trip! It is nice to be around so many young people, and the hostel is really nice. We have huge windows in our room, it is cleaned every day, has its own bathroom, and the common space is a sort of greenhouse-atrium combo with trees inside! It is a really nice place to hang out.

We arrived in Munich at 8 pm, so the first night was really just getting settled and eating dinner before going to sleep.

Our first day in Munich we were woken up at 5 am by two of our roommates packing up and leaving (the downside of the hostel). Luckily we were able to fall back asleep, only to be woken up again by our remaining roommates leaving at 7 am. Needless to say that we were up early that day.

We set out to explore Munich hoping to find a nice coffee shop for breakfast, but found everything to be closed because it was Sunday… bummer. We found a chain coffee shop and it was an okay alternative.

We did not do much research prior to coming to Munich, so we did not have many expectations of the city or a list of places to go.We decided to wander around and ended up seeing a lot of monuments on the way. We stopped for lunch at a dumpling place which was awesome! Then we decided to go back to the hostel via a park we saw on the map.

We entered the park expecting a calm stroll through the trees before making our way back. Instead we were met by thousands of people attending Japanfest, many wearing full costumes and makeup! We made our way to the entrance and took in the sights – everything from Kendo fights to a flower arrangement competition. We ended up staying longer than we anticipated, spending almost an hour wandering through the varying booths.

After leaving the event we found that the park itself was very interesting in its own right. There was a large river flowing through parts of the park with shockingly strong currents. We followed the river to its source, finding many people surfing at the strongest point of the current! Elsewhere there was a traditional Japanese tea room, huge areas dedicated to volleyball and other sports, and hundreds of Germans sunbathing despite the fact that it was only around 70 out and cloudy (reminded us of home).

After wandering a while, we felt we should head home, and just in time. As we got closer to the hostel, some massive rain drops began to fall in a brief shower. As the afternoon progressed, this turned into a full-on thunderstrom, with huge bursts of thunder throughout the night.

Taking refuge from the storm outside, we settled into the hostel bar to watch the World Cup Final! We arrived early (at Ryan’s behest) and got some great seats near the front of the room. It was a great game, and the bar quickly filled up as more people wanted to watch. We (and the rest of the room) were rooting for Croatia, but *SPOILER ALERT* in the end it was France who came out victorious.

We hung around for a bit after the game ended, enjoying some pizza we had ordered to avoid having to go into the rain in search of food. Eventually we made our way to our room, expecting to see new roommates but finding it empty still. We spent the rest of the night watching Queer Eye together and assuming we’d lucked out and had a private room, until four new roommates all showed up at once. So we did not have the karma we’d hoped, but they are nice anyway.

This morning we woke up early and headed out for a coffee shop we’d found online that hadn’t been open the previous day, Man Versus Machine. The coffee was great and we got some yummy marzipan croissants. After breakfast we went grocery shopping because we realized that the hostel had a really nice kitchen. We came back and ate lunch in the common room and then read for a few hours on the couches.

We are leaving for Vienna tomorrow, and only have one day there, so we spent some time strategizing before dinner. Since dinner we’ve been hanging out, doing crossword puzzles, drinking tea, and writing this post! Life is good!