A Life in Waiting

I really need to begin writing more often, as too much happens in between writing episodes and I end up forgetting most of the things I want to write about.  My phone has a voice recorder, I wonder if I should begin using it to help myself remember my thoughts and feelings as my days progress.  Awfully ambitious, doubt it will ever happen.

I seem to spend most of my days traveling.  I haven’t actually left Munich yet, but getting from one place to the next seems to take me three times as long as it should.  This is not to say that the public transportation in this city is bad, it’s just written in the wrong damn language.  It’s actually quite intuitive once you get the hang of it.  I am now well versed in the (U) underground subway system, the (S) next level up and the above ground tram system.  The tram is where I am most comfortable, as it is quite similar to the tram system in Helsinki, the only way I’ve traveled in that city thus far. 

But walking has been the main source of my getting around, and I actually love it.  My feet might disagree, but walking all over every inch of this city has been a pleasure.  Sure it’s not so wonderful while walking a mile in the wrong direction, but it is a great way to really get to know a city well. 

So now as I am getting more comfortable here, I have begun researching my route a bit.  And everyone has still claimed that the Alps are no place for a bike in December.  One of the people most helpful in this, is a gentleman by the name of David Steed.  He is yet another couchsurfer that is very active in the motorcyclist section of the site.  He has offered lots of information and happens to dwell in Munich to boot.  So we decide to meet up for dinner on the evening of the 6^th.  He was actually in the middle of hosting his own couchsurfer, so I ended up meeting with both David, who was originally from the states, and Toomas from Talinn, Estonia who was in town for German language lessons. 

We go to what I am told is one of the more authentic and traditional German restaurants, Augustinas.  After a rather lengthy walk where we all get to know one another, we arrive at the restaurant.  Beautiful architecture, it sits all by itself proudly.  The atmosphere inside is lively, as guests all sit at long wooden tables in lines down the restaurant.  Klaus ends up joining up with us and we enjoy a great meal over some lively discussions.

Friday morning Klaus informs me that I do not need to leave today as originally planned.  Turns out that he changed his plans so that he could take me to an alternative festival called Tollwood with his friends. The festival is held at the same site as the world famous, Oktoberfest.   Wow.  So we meet up later that day at his flat and head to Tollwood.

Tollwood is an alternative Christmas Festival.   Full of bright lights, food and beer tents and vendors all over selling stuff like any other market place.  The only major difference is that Tollwood is almost 100% organic as I’m told.  We meet up with Klaus’s friends right outside the entrance.  Hannah, who grew up with Klaus in a smaller village up north, and her boyfriend Uli.  The four of us bounce from one tent to the next sampling beers, food and Glühwein.  Glühwein is a German hot spiced wine that is common to these festivals.  After we all have a pretty good drunk on, we decide it’s a good idea to hit a local club, called The Gas Station.  I’d tell you more, but my hangover won’t let me remember anything else.  Though I’d bet it was a great time.

The next morning hurt.  Bad.  And of course it was the day that I had to leave Klaus’s flat as he was heading north to see his family.  So with a stubborn hangover, I trek back into the city with all my gear.  As I roll through the central station lugging my 20kg bag, I decide to throw it in a storage locker for the afternoon as I still have not found a place to stay.  By far the best 3Euros I’ve spent so far on this trip.  I contacted a friend of David Steed’s (the CSer with whom we had dinner with the other night) who also happens to be a global ambassador for the world of couchsurfing.  She informed me that she already had a guest in town, but if I wanted I still could stay with them.  With that security blanket, I decide to take a trip out to the BMW dealership to inquire about storing the bike for a bit.  I make my way out to the dealership only to find out that they do allow storage, but the service department doesn’t come in until Monday, so I would have to wait until then to find out anything more.

Still feeling quite under the weather, I head back into town to get some work done on the computer.  I contact Brie one more time to make sure it’s ok for me to crash with them, then head to the train station to grab my bag and to get to Brie’s flat before too late.

After reading up on my host to be, I am feeling quite comfortable about where I am heading.  Her profile is one of the deepest on the site with rave reviews and once meeting her, I can immediately see why.  I buzz her intercom and am invited up.  She’s lives on the third floor of an extremely nice apartment building a little southwest of the city center.  We introduce ourselves and she offers me a place to sit while she finishes up cooking her dinner.  The overall feel of the flat is so warm and welcoming.  Paintings and other cultural objects adorn the walls and cabinet tops collected from years of travel.  After finishing with her cooking, Brie sits down and we just talk about everything. 

About a half an hour later, the intercom buzzer goes off and in blows a teenage whirlwind of energy and excitement.  The couchsurfer who has been staying with Brie these past few days, has just returned from dance academy.  She came to Munich from San Francisco to spend a few weeks studying with a dance company before heading up to Berlin to audition for another.  Brie offers me some of her dinner as Chloe reveals she has hidden a whole chicken in Brie’s vegetarian refrigerator.  We all laugh about it and have a great night.

Next morning Chloe leaves early for an overnight trip north of Munich and I head back out into the city.  It’s now Sunday morning and I need to figure out how I’m getting to Finland.   The night before we find out that there might be a laundromat nearby that has free wifi access.  Great, I have been looking for free internet access since I arrived and not to mention a pile of dirty clothes.  So I grab my computer bag and the laundry bag and head out.  If I had bothered to look outside before I left, I would’ve realized the rain storm outside and probably would’ve forgone the bag of laundry part.  To top it all off, I spent the better part of an hour walking up and down the wrong street, looking for the laundromat.  I finally give up and decide getting strange stares from all the uppity patrons of the coffee house was better than continuing to walk in the rain with my now wet and dirty bag of laundry.

At the day’s end, I head back to my most recent couch and find Brie there hard at work.  She had offered up a game a pool at a local pub and I was quick to accept.  He head down to this great little corner pub, with low ceilings, smoky atmosphere and the quota of futbol fans intent on the game on the TV.  As I demonstrate that billiards is not my best skill, I end up losing 5 games to 3.  Fortunately Brie wouldn’t be the kind to hold that over my head for months to come. 

We head back to the flat a few hours later drunker, smokier and a bit more relaxed.

One Response to “The Things That Bring Us Together”

1. Tim KP Says:
   December 16th, 2007 at 10:56 pm

   Oh, I want to hear more about the dancer. I hope her character surfaces later on in the story.

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