Europe Day 1 (Monday)

Europe Day 1
Arrived in Heathrow at 7am. Long taxi into Terminal 4 followed by a commute to the fated Terminal 5. This terminal is brand new (opened in February) and by now is almost infamous for an absolutely catastrophic opening few months. Tons of baggage lost and confused travelers. British Airways and Heathrow seem to have been making a conscientious effort to improve things and based upon my experience they have succeeded to at least a reasonable level.
Immediately off the plane I walked onto a bus that took me to Terminal 4 where I followed tons of signs to connections for Terminal 5. Once I got down to the lower portion of the terminal I was directed towards another bus driven by a very terse English woman that was destined towards Terminal 5. The ride took almost 20 minutes and went through long underground tunnels and other forgettable portions of the airport.

Terminal 5 from the outside is a dauntingly gorgeous piece of engineering. It looks almost like an enormous (like the size of a military hangar) glass and concrete wave. Once inside, I was pushed through security for the 5th time in 3 days by reasonably efficient English folk who at first glance didn’t seem to hate their jobs.

After I got through security I was blown away at the size of the inside of the Terminal. The ceiling was more than 100 feet above my head and the terminal itself is supposed to be more than a quarter mile long. The inside is densely packed with high class shops (prada, coach, etc…) all of which are crazy expensive. Its almost like a ritzy mall that planes just happen to take off from.

Reasonably comfortable though as there are copious amounts of chairs and lounges. There is also a ‘multi-faith’ room (wtf????)…. Where people can go to meditate and pray. I figure if there is one volatile area in the whole airport, that has got to be it. I went in for an obligatory “praise jesus” and then was on my way.

I had almost 5 hours to kill before my connection to Munich was schedule to depart so I made an attempt to sleep. I failed. I was pretty wrecked regardless of my inability to sleep. Attending Elizabeth’s wedding on two hours of sleep and then having to wake up at 8:30 to leave for the airport with the Woodruffs did not make for any more alert of a day.

Flight to Munich was pretty short. Tried to sleep. Failed.

Munich airport is brutally efficient and easy to get through. Customs basically looked at me, stamped my passport and then peaced me. Easy. My bag was essentially waiting for me when I walked out of customs. Unfortunately I had to wait almost an hour for Ryan and Dip to arrive from their terminal with the ride.

Our ride was a very nice gentleman by the name of Ralf. He works for BMW and gave us a ride into the Munich city center where our hostel is. He also sat down with us and gave us a rundown of many of the things to see and do in town.

Hostel is pretty good actually. Not in any way skeezy or dodgy. I was honestly expecting crap so this place is pretty good. Bathrooms are very clean, rooms are freshly painted and very clean. We have 3 beds in a 14 or so bed area. All of the people are nice and diverse in nationality. There are the obligatory college students from the states and some others.

Once we got settled we went out for some food/beer. On our way to finding food we walked into a group of incredible musicians doing a concert. They performed the overture from Rossini’s Barber of Seville on one violin, one bass, one cello, and an accordion. I was blown away how good they were. I could have probably stayed there and watched for a long time but hunger took over.

We visited a restaurant mildy off the main road in an effort to find something less touristy. Although we seemed to be frowned upon ever so slightly when entering the place due to our lack of ability to speak German, we quickly warmed up to the very good beer and food. I figure if the three of us have 1 goal for this trip, it should be to be able to order beer in all of the languages of the places we visit. Seriously.

After the food we walked down the road to the Hoffbrauhaus which is a huge touristy beer hall where they serve… beer. Shocking. Its very loud and reasonably atmospheric but the idea here is beer. When I say beer I mean big fuck-off liters of beer. The three of us all went in and did one. Given our lack of sleep and sub-par nutrition due to traveling we were all pretty wrecked at this point so we headed back to the hostel which has a bar that is open to 4am. We had waters here and then decided to go to bed. Tried to sleep well but it was hard once the buzz went away. Bitch ass dude kept snoring. Put iphone headphones on and listened to Mozart for an hour to try and make it to sleep.

Notes:
- travel pussy – (condom brand in the beer halls… awesome.)
- t – Punkt (T-Mobile in Germany)
- Christ (some shop that is everywhere… everytime I see it… I think… oh nm)