LIFE!!!

So, I did live on my fantastical journey to Deutschland and Osterreich. Below chronicles everything I did and looks ahead for the next 20 days:

Friday, Nov 21:
Flew from COS to Houston in a tremendously small plane. A hobbit plane, because it was designed for short people with small feet. I am the opposite. Fortunately, it only lasted two hours....
Flew from Houston to London. Again, the problems with the feet. Basically, I was wearing boots, size 13, in a space designed for size 9 feet. Due to my utter terror at causing anyone else any kind of discomfort, I refused to lean my chair back, thus leaving me in the impossible condition of not sleeping on an 8 hour flight upon which 6 time zones were crossed. I also was stuck next to the make out couple from hell, which was quite annoying. In one of my feeble attempts to sleep, I apparently missed dinner. I had my eyes shut, head aside, and I heard the trays coming by, but I was too tired to try and actually awake from my demi-comatotic state. So make out man pokes me, to which I make no response, and then the flight lady says "Don't worry about it, we'll feed him if he wakes up". Dear flight attendant: I am NOT an animal at the zoo that you feed, and I did plan on waking up.
Whatever. I was incredibly distracted the whole flight, unable to do any homework whatsoever, but also inattentive to the plane's attempts at amusing me: movies, games, music, all were pointless. Basically I spent 8 hours in a stupor.

Saturday, Nov 22.:
I finally pull myself out of a stupor at about 4 AM. I checked the flight map (which the plane also apparently provides on screen) and we were about 200 miles from Ireland. My mind finally was gaining some focus, but not a whole lot. I COULD have worked, either on German or thesis, but again, turning on a light might have disturbed some cosmic element. I was damn thirsty, and fortuantely, I had bought water in Houston that kept me afloat. So I listened to my iPod, and unfortuantely returned to my stupor until we flew over Ireland, at which point I got INCREDIBLY excited. Unfortunately, it was pitch black, and cloudy. So I spent the hour we were over Ireland looking for lights to no avail.
We at 5 AM promptly received "breakfast snacks"--this croissant-like thing and five pieces of fresh fruit, and my ever beloved coffee. I know this sounds strange, but that breakfast snack was treasure to me. I knew I wasn't getting food in London (the whole pounds thing) and I heard British Airways provides no food for continental flights, so I absorbed every ounce of what I ate. This is coming from someone who normally has 3 meals a day. I can't imagine what it's like for people who might get that many a week...
Anyways, London. TERRIBLE airport. Never ever ever ever ever ever land into Heathrow. For anything. I got frisked thoroughly for setting off an alarm. When I say thoroughtly, I mean every square inch of my body, bits and all. When they waved me over for frisking, I actually went to the woman first thinking that frisking by a woman wouldn't be all that bad (hey, I don't indulge in horniness, but I know I would rather be frisked by a woman than a man). No luck. Creepy guy instead.
Heathrow also has this annoying habit of not announcing your gate until ten minutes before boarding starts. So I get to my gate and it's delayed (joy). I now know why Heathrow is the most delayed airport in Europe, by the way. While waiting, I am absolutely exhausted, nearly falling asleep several times in my chair.
So ya ya, flight to Munich. British Airways provides everything, but I get an exit aisle, and am harrangued by the staff, insisting that everything not on my body goes into overhead, even the coat I had as a blanket. I spend the rest of the flight trying to ignore bitchy make out, breat rubbing with head, Brits next to me. When the flight attendants came for food and snacks, I turned everything down, again harking to my obscene personal thing with not inconveniencing anyone unless desperate. I tried my French with one of them (who had a French flag), and I ended up speaking so softly that she didn't understand, so I had to ultiamtely say she was the first person I ever met who was not in school who spoke French, betraying my inherent Americanness, and desperately I spent the rest of the flight looking at the badges of the attendants, assuringmyself that none of them spoke Spanish, giving me one source of consolation of not being totally ignorant.
Landed in Germany at like 3 PM, took all of 5 minutes to go through passport control (no customs). Desperately hoping for practice with my German, I insisted on using it with them. When asked "What is your purpose in coming to Germany" I said "Ferien" which was responded with "how long?" "eine Woche" "Very good, thank you and welcome to Germany". I was highly discourgaged.
The rest of tha afternoon was spent desperately trying to stay awake and being a gracious visitor. My cousin met me at the airport and took me to my hotel, where the keeper spoke atrocious English, only terrible enough to match my German. When I got to the room, it was incredibly small, but perfect sized for me. Seeing the bed, I desperately wanted to sleep, but my cousin promised an eventful night at Munich's most famous restaurant. So we went to the Augustiner (est. ca. 1400, I think). Hard to imagine I went to a restaurant that historically is older to Europeans than the continent on which I live.
Anyways, ordered in German, and was totally understood, thank god. We shared a table with these two Americans who spoke absolutely no German, and although my cousin asked for menus for them and such, I was glad to know I could have done the same had she not been there.
Dinner was pretty good. German beer lacks something that Irish beers have, so I was not terribly impressed. I have a tendency to like very strongly tasting things, and Irish beers are the best there. The food, while good, was bland, meaty and fatty, which is again different than what I am used to. It was only 20 euros for both of us, so that was good.
We then marched to this subway cafe had had ridiculously overpriced coffee and cake (like 3 euro for one of those tiny cups!). I had the traditional obstkuchen that we have here for birthdays and I found ours far superior. Theirs had this gelatinous top that left much to be desired, and I wished I ordered what my cousin got.
We walked through a few shops of clearly overpriced tourist items, and then went back to my hotel room. I slipped into a coma.

Sun. Nov 22:
I got up at about 6 AM and found that it had snowed most of the night. I decided to show myself some of Munich before I was supposed to meet Mary at 10. So I shower and get cleaned up, and go out, teaching myself the S-Bahn (absolutely AMAZING invention. We absolutely must get S-Bahns in the US). I then went to Theresawiese, a park dedicated to this Bavarian queen. It was a nice park, and had a statue of the Bavaria, some old Germanic goddess of war. I got a few shots, but I was more alarmed by the German people than anything. Here in the US, it's considered rude not to say "good morning" or "hello" to someone when they walk by. There, I mustered up my courage to talk to the first person I came across, and as I was about to say "Guten Morgen," her eyes averted. The next ten people did the same thing.
This is something I found in all of Bavaria and Salzburg. People just don't say hi at all. I don't do it with people I do know, but I will say it when I'm just going for a walk. But there, no one talks to each other. At all. It makes me wonder how they survive....
I did manage to say it to a couple of people whose eyes averted towards me, and especially the older people lit up when I said it. I think it's a WWII thing. The Germanic peoples know they were responsible and they lost, and no one ever told them the obvious. Before Hitler, Germans were probably more open people, but now, they are in a position of second rate power, torn between the ideological war of US and Russia.
Speaking of which, there are almost NO German flags that fly. Shipmen all flew their Bavarian and German flags proudly, but very few buildings have either flag. Same in Austria...
Anyways, I did my walks, and went with my cousin, slightly late (nearly causing an international incident). We first went to BMW Welt and The Olympic park there, both of which were nice, obviously tourist, but still quite nice. We did the tour in German, and I understood about 10-15% of what she said. Absolutely amazin architecture on BMW Welt, except for the utterly stupid thing where they have these deep recesses in the roof where water collects. We headed up to the Residenz, which was the Palace of Ludwig I, and was an incredibly overpriced venture to see a terribly small national theatre, but also an incredibly interesting national art museum. I wish I had pics, but alas, the lighting was TERRIBLE, and no flash photos were allowed.
We followed that up with dinner at the Hofbrauhaus, which is young than the Augustiner, but more of a tourist place. I actually found it loud and and annoying, and my German was nicht so gut there. Afterwards it was cake and coffee again, where I slaughtered German, trying to go with making accompanyment with what my cousin said, yet I failed. The Apple cake was amazing (despite the seeds?), and the coffee, again, overpriced.
Having finished all of that, we parted ways for several days, she with the Luftwaffe to Sardinia, me to survive Germany alone.

Mon, Nov 23:
Train ride to Prien a Chimsee. This was probably my most confident German speaking day of the tour. I forgot which train stop my DB left from, and I successfully asked "Welche ist die Gleis fur Prien" and understood perfectly the response. I again attempted cordiality with the ticket collector, but again, spoke too softly, and had to repeat my requests of "Wie geht es Ihnen" several times. All in all, not bad. The train ride itself was gorgeous, and anyone who hasn't seen Southern Germany yet must make it a priority. The Alps are just STUNNING in contrast to the rolling flatlands of central Bavaria.
Getting into Prien, I successfully not only asked for directions in German, but understood everything I was told. (Geh zum bahnhof zuruck und wander etwa 5 kilos zum See--something like that) The docks were gorgeous, the lake was moreso with the dramatic drop over the Alps, and with the old Augustinian convents on the two islands. Major downside: massive group of 20 rude and loud Chinese people on the boat, irritating my serenity by non-stop photography, throwing food (like whole apples) at the birds, and preparing themselves to see some old palace that a crazy 19th C. king built for himself. Getting to Herrenchimsee, I asked for the German tour in not so good German, if only to separate myself from tourists. Unfortunately, my German was so bad that I could not understand what the tour guide was telling me to do after I fed my ticket into the machine. She started yelling at me in English, and I had to tell her that I didn't speak English either, but rather Spanish, and that my German was far better than my English. She was unimpressed, and treated me like an American anyways. So I went on this German tour and understood again, about 15-20% of what she said. Back in the palace coffee shop (I'm sure Ludwig did not have a coffee shop in Schlossherreninsel, but that's another thing). I nearly created another international incident. The waiter asked me if I thought everything was ok in German (I though he asked if I wanted something else, the way he was gesturing with his hands), and when I said no, he started speaking to me in English, aware of my total ignorance of German.
Here, I was starting to get discouraged, but I went to the monastery. Frustrated with German, I asked for an English written guide to accompany me, even though I understood most of what the signs said. Oddly, despite the fact that this monastery was the base of the conversion of Hungary and Poland to Catholicism, very few people visited it, yet odder still was the scarcity of middle age artifacts. My guess is that most of them lay with the brothers, of which, I saw none because they stayed in seclusion.
Anyways, this monastery housed Ludwig I and II for some time, and they left their mark. Most interestingly though was that it was the sight of the signing of the modern German constitution. History was in those halls, and less than ten percent of all people who came to the island went there. Sad.
The sort of security lady was amazing, and she and I had amazing conversations in Deutschglish. She knew quite a bit of English, and could fill in when I could not understand, but she was very complimentary of my German.
We then sailed to Fraueninsel, which was very private. No people were out, and the nuns, like the brothers, stuck to seclusion. I bought a few things, butchered more German (coming across as rude, I think), but then sailed on. Again, I caused a near-international incident. Apparently, one was supposed to pay for tickets on the boat, but the ticket stand, when I first boarded, was closed. I took a second boat to the other isle, so then I was back on the original, and as we reach shore, all these people pull out tickets. Oh shit.
I didn't get off the boat, butchering more German to assure myself that it returned to my original port of call, which it did. On the way back, I tried to buy a ticket, but they asked where my original was. I somehow had to say that I dropped it on the first island (total lie), which took like 15 minutes with my shitty German book. The boat man was very nice at my terrible German and told me I didn't have to pay for another. Well, since I never paid for one, I left money on the counter when I got off the boat.
It then was time to return to Munich, and I had to find my second hotel---loads of fun. I got lost, and wandered through the city for almost two hours. The whole incident started when I got off the S-bahn and got to the outside. I checked my map for directions, and as I was checking street names, this guy started coming up to me with evil in his eyes. Desperate to no look the tourist, I just picked up my bags and went in the first direction that came to mind, and unfortunately, it was the wrong one. I had heard not to stop walking in the city at night for risk of being pocketed or assailed in some way, so I just kept walking, looking for the street name I needed. Turns out I walked almost a mile to the north when I needed to go south, and about the same amount East when I needed to go west. So that was loads of fun. 7 PM, made it to hotel, INSTANTLY went to sleep.
My diet for the day was half a bag of carrots and a chocolate bar. By night, my confidence in German was gone and I didn't want to ask for any food from a restaurant.

I'm getting tired, so I'm going to finish the rest of my trip tomorrow methinks.