Stop 1: Madrid to Paris
Check!
Stop 2: Paris to Frankfurt
Check!
After 7 hours I had made it to Frankfurt. I then took the shuttle to the train station and had a 5 hour wait ahead of me until my train came. I went to the bar, which was closing and ordered a glass of wine hoping it'd make me tired, so at least I could sleep. I then sat restless and shivering outside of Starbucks, using the 30 minutes of free wifi I had.
Time was ticking slowly and the temperature was dropping quickly. I went into my bag put on a sweater, a jacket, then my rain jacket and a scarf.....still didn't help. The station started to quiet down, luckily I'm a pretty patient person so it wasn't too bad.
I lied, it was pretty bad.
Finally, 1am had come. Only one more hour left. I took out my ticket to double check and looked up on the board and everything seemed to be good! As 2am approached I walked down to the station and waited patiently with the others. I asked multiple people, "Does this go straight to Munich, no train transfers?" They all said yes. As the train approached I asked one of the train conductors to make sure, he told me to stay on and at 7am I will arrive in Munich. Perfect.
I got on the train and held on to my backpack and closed my eyes. The train stopped every 20 minutes...No sleep for me. I waited until I heard Munich over the intercom, nothing. Suddenly we were at a stop, but this time is was longer than usual.
A train conductor came in and asked me where I was heading. I told him Munich. He told me that this was the last stop and that I'd have to take another train. Hoping I was close by, I asked him where I was.
He said, "You are in Switzerland ma'am."
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If all could go wrong on this trip, it happened. He told me I had to buy another ticket to Munich, which would be another 5 hours. This was a joke. I went to the front desk and the lady told me I'd have to buy another ticket for $180 euros..! I asked her if there was anyway I could get a refund because I had already paid to go to Munich. She told me to go to Bahnhof train station where I got my ticket from and see what they could do. Of course Bahnhof wasn't close by and it required me to travel around Switzerland and take two buses there. Oh the joys of traveling alone.
Of course, I get lost. I asked numerous people for help and of course their answers would be in German, French, Italian and god knows what other languages. My phone was dying, I hadn't eaten in 15 hours and I looked like a hobo. Fabulous. Thankfully someone who spoke English approached me asking if I was lost. He was about to head on his bus, but missed it to help me out. He led me to where I could catch the bus and told me where to get off at. ----To whoever you were, thank you again!
Finally, I had made it to the Bahnof train station and told them my dilemma. I got on my next train and finally after 2 trains and 5 hours made it to Munich, 24 hours later...
Prost!
Oktoberfest also known as Wies'n dates all the way back to 1810. It's a 16 day festival running from late September till the first week of October with more than 6 million people from all over the world attending it.
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| Dirndl The history of the Dirndl dates back to the 18th century, it was the dress that women peasants wore. In the 19th century people started to wear it for special occasions and holidays. During Oktoberfest you see women dressed in dirndls and men wearing lederhosens. |
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| Lost in Basel, Switzerland. At least I got to explore another country? |
After traveling through four countries and finally arriving in Munich, this was probably one of my favorite weekends yet! Well worth it and it was a good learning experience. This definitely won't be my last time visiting Germany, I'll be back soon!
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