Pictures: Day 5 Munich

Day 5: Munich, Germany

The past 24 hours have been quite an emotional roller coaster.  Departing Venice late last night, we all expected the worst to come of the train ride; however, for most of us it turned out to be an experience unlike any we have had prior to this point. The trains were reminiscent of the Hogwarts Express, the euro11 crew would meet many characters on board. By the time 6 am rolled around and the train had come to its final stop, most of us had slept little to none which would set up for an interesting day in Munich.

We departed from the train station and committed the next few hours to setting up our stay in Deutschland (train/bus tickets, Hostel reservations, etc...), which would lead to many of us falling asleep in various locations and positions as we awaited the excitement of the day to come. Unfortunately when we left the train station, we found out the reality of the harsh weather of Munich, close to 40 degrees plus rain and wind made for one miserable combination.  After seeing the main square and a few magnificent gothic cathedrals, we headed toward the Allianz Stadium, home to the current best club soccer team in the world, FC Bayern Munich.  

Riding buses and metros to our destination all of us were very anxious and excited to see the stadium, that is until we reached our final stop and realized that we would have a mile long walk ahead of us from the bus station to the stadium.  Once we reached Allianz though, all of were stunned by the magnificence of the facade and inside. The tour guide was our boy Felix, yes, and was just a really great guy.  However, when the tour ended the walk from hell would be awaiting us back to the bus stop.  

Just as we left the stadium the heavens opened up and we were taken down by a torrential downpour, which would leave us all completely soaked and frozen for the rest of the journey home to the hostel.  Once we reached the hostel we all got a nice hotshower and power nap. Although broken down by the day's events, we came to an executive decision to go out to eat for a European style late night dinner, which would more than soothe the pains of the day.  Finally we came back to the hostel where I am writing this from in the lobby with my best friends Cossar, JohnA, Harrison, and Joe Anne Gilbert Gathings at 1:30 local time(everyone else has gone to sleep at this point). Coss will follow up with some pics...

-Robert

Venice, train, and Munich

Well the past day and a half has been very memorable. It started Thursday morning with Myself, Cossar, and Tramel sleeping late and almost making us miss our bus to the city if Venice as we stayed 30 minutes outside the city contrary to what the website and workers said. Our site seeing continued from the day before and we shopped on the side of the road that was lined with booths set up. We went to the Doge Thursday afternoon which was a good artistic and historical experience. The amount of time, effort, and detail put into it was incredible. We were obviously the tourists in there though as we took pictures when we weren't supposed to, we were loud, made jokes of the revealing paintings, and layed on the floor to look at the paintings on the ceiling. Although the security people had to correct us many times it was still a good cultural experience that we will never forget. After the Doge we went to eat again then got on the overnight train. This train ride was also something we will never forget. As the 9 hours began we made a friend named Hanna from Vancouver. We stayed up till about 2 talking to her then we all went back to our cabins and slept or attempted to sleep. We arrived in Munich at 6:15 on Friday morning. We say around to see the train schedule for the next couple of days. As the trains did not fit our schedule we made a decision to stay in Munich an extra day and cut out Interlocken. It wasn't the original plan but the amount of travel that would have taken place for us to only spend a couple of hours doing things in Interlocken just wasn't worth it. We got our bags and headed to the hostel. We had to get another hostel for the extra night and are back at Starbucks to have a team meeting about what all is going down the rest of the day and the rest of the time in Munich. 

From Euro 11 to you have a nice day. 

Pictures: Day 4

Murano and Venice, Italy

Pictures: Day 3 Italy

Day 3: Venice, Italy

If there was a word to describe Day 3 it would definitely have to be "grinding". From the moment we woke up at 4 am we were completely on the go. We began our day with a walk from our hostel in Barcelona to the nearest subway for a ride to the bus station where we caught a ride to the Barcelona airport. After many moments of waiting in line and checking our bags, we boarded another bus that took us out to the plane. We boarded the plane and headed for Milan where the train ride from hell would be awaiting us. 

    After grabbing a quick bite to eat in the Milan train Station and sorting a few things out with the eurail pass, we were set to board the train that would take us to Venice, Italy. The ride time was 3.5 hours and I planned to pass the time by playing a plethora of iPhone games. People like Wic, on the other hand, took a more intellectual approach and decided to read a book. Anyways, the passenger train was about 80 degrees and we knew from the get go it was going to be a rough ride to Venice. I took the traditional American method of falling asleep by dipping my cap over my eyes and putting on sunglasses to help ease the incoming sunlight. Big John took the same approach as well. While others used other mixed methods. We all were sleeping fine until a random Italian Guido began yelling and singing up and down the train. It added to the misery of the hot train and we were all happy to arrive in Venice. 

   We knew Venice was special the minute we stepped foot out of the train station. The first thing we saw were gondolas floating up and down the main river through town.  We saw Venice's uniqueness right away. After this, we boarded a bus to our hotel about 20 mins outside of the city. We got situated and put our bags up and then headed out for a night on the town. 

     Aileen used her experience and familiarity of the town to guide us all around. We went through all the narrow streets and bridges of Venice. It was as good as advertised as canals served as streets all through the city and gondola rides were available throughout. After touring around the town a little bit, we decided to grab a bite to eat at a local Italian Restaurant. It was Definitely a starch filled dinner as each of us got pasta. Tramel wins the Award for the best meal as he got a dish consisting of Fettuccinni and salmon. John G was a close second with the carbonara dish. It was one heck of a meal. After dinner, we listened to some live music then headed back to the hotel to regroup for tomorrow   It was definitely a cool place for sure. We currently are hanging in the lobby at 12:30 local time. Thanks for reading, Harry P 

  

Pictures: Day 2