Europe Trip: Day 10, May 30th

Since it was Saturday, we slept in at Robert's place. After we were both up and ready we discussed where a good place would be to go. My original plan had been to go to Neuswanstein castle, which is the fairy tale one that Disney used as its signature. But when we looked at how long it was going to take us, almost 3 hours by train. And when we looked at how much it would cost me, something like 40 euros to get there, plus you have to be in a tour group in order to get access -- more money.

So instead of the fairy tale castle, we decided to go to a monastery. It was much closer, only an hour or an hour and a half away by S-bahn. Also, I will admit that Robert said it was famous for brewing beer and he thought I had to go.

Once we got to the town we started asking locals how to find the trail up to the monastery. The first group of locals pointed us in the right direction, and the next person ended up being someone who worked there, a Turkish guy. He was kind enough to drive us up the 4-5 km (about 3 miles) we would have to hike.

After getting some food and a half liter of dark beer, we sat down next to a Lithuanian guy and two British girls who he was showing the place. We ended up talking a lot and spent the entire afternoon with them.

We ended up splitting up once we got back into the town, because we got confused and exited on different sides of the track.

So, back to being by ourselves, Robert took me over to a place to eat and said I should try some traditional Bavarian food. I ended up getting something akin to macaroni and cheese with onions on top. After eating and talking for a couple hours we headed back to his place.

Over all quite a simple day, meeting some nice people -- once again it showed me that it can be quite comforting just to meet some fellow native speakers. Nothing against my hosts, who spoke very good English and have shown me such kindness, but nonetheless it is nice. Maybe I am getting pathetic and showing homesickness, who knows :)