Beer and Brats

Munich began our couchsurfing adventure! We arrived at the train station of a small suburb 20k north of the city centre and Frederic picked us up. It was late, so we greeted his wife Edyta and crashed in their quaint guesthouse. In the morning, we trained it to Munich and wandered around as has become our custom for the first day in every city. Joe's sister used to live in Munich so we met up with her old coworker for beer, pretzels, and sausage at Hofbrauhaus, one of the older beer halls in the world!

Can you guess what that design was used to cover up?

Throughout the week we spent a lot of time just hanging in beer gardens, literally large public parks with long community tables, where the only options are litre or half-litre. Apparently it is very common to drink weissbeir (wheat beer) for breakfast, which explains why their coffee was the worst we tried throughout the trip.

We were lucky enough to get invited to hike the Alps around Neuschwanstein, the gorgeous castle that inspired Walt Disney's trademark logo. Frederic and Edyta took us straight up (and I mean straight), but my converse shoes barely have enough traction for a basketball court, let alone a mountain, so I had to turn around and backtrack to the easier trail.

During our week, we stayed with three different couchsurfers. Olof is a student from Stockholm who graciously let us sleep on the floor of his dorm studio and share his tiny kitchen. Hagen literally gave us his room and bed while he slept on his couch for two nights! He took us to this awesome culture festival that had food and music from around the world and of course, steins of beer.

Couchsurfing is a community that not everyone understands or feels okay about. Of course it is an odd notion at first, asking a random person online if you can sleep in their extra space without anything expected in return. But is it a system that works based on mutual respect, courtesy, and trust. The hosts are not required to open up their home, but the 'do unto others' philosophy radiates in each person. Everyone knows you get a better feel for a city through local eyes and the couchsurfing community fosters cultural exchange as well as simple hospitality. There are always reviews you check on both hosts and guests before any agreement is made, to eliminate those who abuse the system. It is an incredible way to travel and I have met so many great people through surfing, hosting, and meeting up with fellow Couchsurfers. Don't knock it until you try it :)

Floating Through a Sinking City

So I've decided that I am skipping Milan in my blog for now because we visited the city for the World Expo and my phone died halfway through. I want to give the experience justice and need pictures from Joe's phone to do so. Onto Venice (which apparently is slowly sinking)!

I had booked a "mobile home for 2" at Camping Villlage Jolly because it was the only thing in our budget that wasn't an hour away from Venice (which I just found out is an island). We arrived way late and found our allocated camper uncleaned and sheets unchanged. Joe took charge and spoke with the attendant who decided it was easier to just upgrade us to a deluxe room for the whole week. It was swank (for a mobile home ha). 

This little gadget makes the smoothest coffee I've ever had!

We spent most every day sleeping in, drinking an espresso (or three), catching the bus to Venice, then wandering the canals. We toured the secret back area of the Doge's Palace and got to see the prison cells (even Casanova's) and high officials offices. We also were able to walk above the largest room in the building, 53x25 meters, without a single column supporting it!

We took ferries to the cemetery island, the glassblowing island, and the lace factory island. I never knew there was such random specialized artisans in Venice! Joe bought a beautiful Venetian mask, I bought a lot of gelato. We tried a Spritz, the classic before dinner drink, which consists of Aperol (or Campari) and prossecco. It was as bitter and terrible as it sounds.

Joe loves tiramisu! I love $4 half liters of wine!

Two things I still don't totally understand though:

1) No one pays for the buses in Italy. At least in both Venice and Milan, none of the locals even cared to tap on before just taking a seat. Makes me wonder if the officials are too lazy to enforce it or if the locals just started refusing to pay for their short bus trips. Either way, we ended up paying about $20 for two weeks worth of daily round trips. Not bad.

2) Why do we change the names of foreign cities in English? In Italy, Milan is called Milano and Venice is Venezia. I think it is disrepectful to change immigrants names to something easier to pronounce and I believe it a similar dishonor to change the cities. They are usually named after a historical figure or tribe and it seems audacious to just switch letters around to ease our tourist minds. Just my two cents.