The Hills Are Alive!

Guten Tag!

I'm sitting in our hotel in Munich eating my Nutella & Go! and thinking that today is going to be a lovely day! Because guess what I'm doing today??? Absolutely NOTHING! Sarah and her friend are taking the train to Salzburg (the town in Austria where the Sound of Music was filmed), and I was supposed to go with them, but I have experienced a bit of a setback. When Sarah and I got to the Krakow airport on Thursday morning to check out baggage in, I was informed that mine was over the weight limit. Apparently, Lufthansa has changed their weight requirements, and I had to pay 315zl (or 130 American Dollars) to check both of my bags. So, now I'm going to have to pay to check my baggage with Lufthansa on the way back to Warsaw when we leave to come back to the states.... So that puts me here, in the hotel room, doing nothing today.

I guess it won't be that bad, the Hauptbahnhof (main bus station) is a two minute walk and there are tons of places to eat and buy stuff, so I'll probably wander down there during the course of the day. I'm not sure that I trust myself enough to take the S-Bahn down to the Marienplatz. We all know how well I do with directions. So, I'll stay here, surf the internet and read. It'll be a nice relaxing day.

Today will actually be the only day that I have internet access, I had to pay 17 euros to use it for the day! Ahh! That's $26 American dollars. What a ripoff, but since I had nothing else to do today and I actually have a small paper that needs to be turned in for one of my classes, I figured I sort of had an excuse. So, Dad, feel free to donate some money to the "Give Mariah the Internet Foundation", cause this is the only way y'all will be able to talk to me while I'm here...

The weather is nice today, which means it isn't super-hot like it has been since we got here. So, I'm hoping that I won't die of heat exhaustion in our hotel room. They don't have air conditioning here, and I think we'll all gotten used to it; the weather has just been unnaturally hot.

And, I'm so proud of myself... I've done really well with my German since being here. I can at least recognize most of the words on the signs, and I've been able to order food and ask for directions-- all without the person I'm speaking to realizing that I'm an American. Once the people figure out that you're American they'll talk to you in English, and that totally defeats the purpose. Now if only I could master the subway system.

I also thought I would mention that I have not eaten American food since I got here-- only German food. Which is AMAZING! I really didn't think I would like it, but everything I've had so far has been Sehr gut! Today I might break down and go to the BK in the Bahnhof; they have so very interesting things on their menu that just look to weird to pass up! haha

I'll try to upload the few pictures I've taken since we got here, and the rest will just have to wait until I make it back home. Thanks again for letting me share this incredible experience with y'all. This will be the last email, and I hope that you've enjoyed them. Much love!

http://picasaweb.google.com/sherlock272


Aufwiedersehen und Vielen Dank!
Mariah