Almost

After we got back from Dachau, we were exhausted and didn't want to do much of anything, but we still needed to pick up a few things in town before heading back to the hostel. Turns out, everything in Munich closes for Easter. Everything. Most restaurants, all the little shops that have great German made things, clothing stores, even the McDonald's. All closed. So we were a little concerned and off put because we couldn't get the things that we had planned on buying and we were worried that nothing would be open for dinner. We headed back to the hostel and decided to put a load of laundry in the smaller washer we had ever seen and catch up on emails and whatnot. After the wash was done and we put it in the smallest dryer ever (seriously, this is a hostel with probably 300 people in it and the washer/dryer was the size of a 5 gallon bucket. Poor planning!)  and ran out to get some dinner (a "kebab", which is actually a sandwich made from meat that they shave off of a huge chunk rotating on a stick. Weird but so very tasty).  Not wanting to be terribly anti social, we down in the common area to eat and met three girls that had just gotten into town. We exchanged our life stories in about half and hour before they needed to go to dinner, so we suggested Augustiners and we ended up deciding to go with them to get a beer and hang out. 

Here is the first "almost" of the next twenty four hours. Since it was raining, we had to run upstairs to get our jackets and on the way up, I happened to remember our laundry that had finished drying about fifteen minutes ago. We grabbed it, spread it on the bed to finish drying (shocker...the small dryer wasn't good at drying clothes!) and had a good laugh. What if we had left the next morning without all of our socks and underwear? Haha! 

After a beer and more pretzels, we said our goodbyes and went back to pack since we had a 6:45am train to catch to Brussels. Skip to 6:00 the next morning and me groggily waking up, checking my watch, checking it again, counting the place where the six hand should be and finally realizing that it really was 6:00 and that I should probably wake Katlin. I leaned over my top bunk into hers and we had this conversation.

J: Katlin...Katlin..psstt...Katlin!
K: Whatt? 
J: what time is it?  (you see, I was really paranoid that I was so sleepy I was unable to read time and it was really like 4:00or something and I says panicking for nothing)
K: 6:00. 
J: isn't our train at 6:45?
K: yes Jordan, it is. 
J:but its 6:00 now?
K: yes. Oh..oh! Crap!

Que frantic last packing, and running downstairs to turn in keys, and more sprinting through the streets the three block to the station. ( We had guys out in the street that we're cheering us on!) we get to the station and our train is not on the big board of departures. It's  now 6:18. More frantic running to find a info stations. We find one, ask the guy why our train isn't up there and he says we have to board one that is going to Frankfurt, then transfer. Ok, we say, what train it that? He says, well there is one leaving from platform 2 at 6:22. We look down at our watch...it was literally 6:21. We (again) sprint t o the train and jump on as the conductor is blowing his whistle and the doors shut about 10 seconds after our bags clear the threshold. (two things  about trains. Yes, a conductor really does blow a whistle before the doors close and they leave exactly when they says they are going to, not a minute later).

Great, we think! We made it! We have a great laugh about the morning that we have had, one of those laughs that is only possible because you are where you need to be. Its only funny because we made the train after having an alarm clock mishap! Haha! Yay for us! We almost didn't make it! W assay a quick thanks to the travel gods and settle in for the next six hours on a train, thankful that the way to the hotel in Brussels is just a hop on the metro. 

Skip to getting off the train in Brussels and heading to the metro gate. We find it, but strange thing is, the metal door is pulled down and there is a line of police offers blocking it. I immediately  just know, there is a strike going on. A strike! What luck we have! The whole public transportation system is on strike after a workers death that morning. We shake it off and go to an info station to find about other options, which there are none. A taxi it is then! We go outside to hail one, but they are all full. We walk around to where they are coming from and there is a line about thirty people deep, waiting for taxis, in the cold drizzly rain. Oh joy. We eventually get in a taxi and make it to our hotel, but the ride was not a comfortable one (the idea of a taxi in general make me nervous...you don't know where you are, where you are going, in this case we don't really speak the same language. Not a fun situation).  

Anyways, it was a travel day from hell. But, we can look at it now and laugh because we made it safe and sound to our hotel (an elevator! Comfy beds! Doors that lock! A shower without shower shoes! A real pillow!). That hole day again reinforced that we are actually great travelers and that we have learned to adapt more than I thought we ever would. It also should be said that we got through that whole day with not one short word with each other, even though it was the most stressful day that we have she yet. Huzzah!