Munich mishaps

Oh, Munich. My stint here has been very interesting and fun. This will be a long post, but read on, I'll try to make it entertaining but I am really tired and am lacking humor at the moment. Let's start from the beginning.

Val and I arrived here a day later than we planned because we included Cinque Terre and Madrid in our trip. When we arrived here Tuesday evening, Benjamin (our host) and his friend picked us up at the train station. Val and I know Benjamin through Val's old roommate. We met him when he was in Kansas a couple months ago and we made plans to visit him in Munich then.

A little background on Benjamin -
1) he looks like Justin Timberlake and is incredibly gorgeous
2) He is a model and has done some print work, which we saw
3) His ex-girlfriend is a Playboy model and now lives with Hugh Hefner in the Playboy Mansion in Hollywood
4) He lived in NYC for 3 months last year and is planning on moving there permanently and becoming a U.S. citizen
5) Until he gets his paper work cleared, he is living in Munich and will be attending acting school later in the year

Back to the story. Val and I were both under the assumption that we would be staying at Benjamin's apartment. Turns out, he has no apartment because he lives with his mom. So we were going to stay at her house, but Benjamin doesn't get along with his stepdad and there wasn't a lot of room. Instead, we stayed at his 74-year-old dad's apartment, while he stayed at his "girlfriend" Edith's. Apparently, Ben's dad never got divorced from his first wife, which he hasn't been with in a very long time. So basically, we kicked his dad out of his house, but he was really sweet and hospitable. If we would've known all this would happen we could've stayed at a hostel.

The first night we hung out with Edith and Hans (girlfriend and dad) and Ben. Edith made us pretzels and we looked through family photos and watched a video of a tv show Benjamin was on when he was younger. We finally escaped the time warp and headed out to the streets of Munich to eat traditional Bavarian food. I'm not sure what I had, but it was good. We also hit up the Hofbrau Haus, the oldest beer hall in Germany. It was packed with tourists, and the two locals we were with had never even been there.

After this, Benjamin and his friend took us to this great club called 8 Seasons with amazing music and paid for everything. We were dressed in very casual clothes, and this was not a very casual place. Benjamin pointed out the "who's who" of Munich to us. One of the bartenders was an up-and-coming singer, some other people we met owned some of the nicest houses and ran important businesses in Munich.

Being as I was underdressed and wearing sandals, I cut my foot on a piece of glass while at the club and didn't realize it until we were at the subway station where Val dared me to run up the escalator the wrong way, so I did, and I tripped and also busted my knee. Both are doing okay now and the entire situation was hilarious.

The next day Val and I got to meet Benjamin's mom, who took us to a beautiful beer garden for lunch. I had schnitzel and I chipped my front tooth trying the spare ribs during this meal. It looks lovely, let me tell you - very Lloyd Christmas from the movie Dumb and Dumber. His mom was incredibly nice and we made plans to meet her at the bar Benjamin was working at later in the evening.

I finally met up with Megan after lunch, which was incredibly difficult. I began to worry when I hadn't heard from her, especailly because I knew my cell phone was about out of minutes. However, it is in Italian and I cannot decipher what exactly it means. Her tour group was in Munich yesterday morning, and they left her in the care of the tour director's friend, Chris, because she was unable to get ahold of me. Megan went to high school with Chris, who graduated from KU and it turns out we have a couple friends in common.

The three of us, Val, Megan and I walked around Munich all day waiting for 8:00 to come so we could go to Benjamin's bar and meet up with his mom. He made us reservations, which is the only way you can get in. At about 7:15 we sat down in front of the parliament building where the bar is and relaxed until it was time to go in. We questioned if this was the right place or not, and decided we would go ask at 7:50. Turns out we were at the Opera House, not Parliment. Oops. So.......

We spent the next 2 hours looking for this bar Benjamin works at called Nektar. www.nektar.de We asked locals, taxi drivers, more locals, more taxi drivers, and then finally called Megan's friend Chris to get directions. We then found a taxi who knew where we were going and he dropped us off, but at the wrong place. It was the winter location for the club, and they move to the parliament building during the summer. So, we took another cab to the address that was on the door and he dropped us off in the "vicinity". We had no idea where we were, but turns out we were just on the back side of the huge monstrousity of the building. We saw the red lights coming from the balcony, which Benjamin told us to look for, and we rejoiced jumping up and down in the street, even though we were two hours late for our reservation.

By this time we were so incredibly dirty, it was disgusting. Val and I contemplated showering that morning, but she decided we shouldn't b/c we'd have time later...and we didn't. Not only was I dirty, but I was wearing cargo pants, a tank top and flip flops. We were the most under-dressed people there. Everyone who was there was beautiful and dressed to the nines. Meanwhile, Meg, Val and I are obviously standing out as we were getting stares from people.

On the way in, we ran into Ben's mom who was waiting for us. We felt so bad that we got lost and missed seeing her. She checked us into the club, and they were expecting us. The hostess turns to val and says "Oh, are you Valerie?" in a very, "we've been expecting you and you must be important" manner.

Benjamin took good care of us once we got inside. He supplied us with free drinks, each that cost at least 10 euro each (12 U.S. dollars). A while later he brought us some food, which had to cost at least 120 euro. (side note- when we were asking locals where Nektar was, they looked at us like we were crazy and warned us of the really expensive prices).

There was a "show" at Nektar also. It was kind of opera/drag/Madonna "Vogue". A man came out singing dressed like he had just been plucked from European Royalty in the 1500s. He had on the long socks, puffy pants, an embroidered jacket, the white wig, and so much makeup that it was hard to tell if he was really a man or woman. It was a really interesting show. He started off singing in opera style, then transformed into 1980s Madonna. I enjoyed it.

There were no bar stools or tables at this club, it was all beds on the balcony of the parliament building. They had a few nice bean bag chairs, but for the most part you make your reservations and you lay on really nice white beds. They also gave you blankets and pillows. On the inside there was a woman giving massages and more white beds. This was the swankiest place I have EVER been to, and I was dressed like a slob. Oh well, I'll probably never see those people again. Benjamin introduced us to his friends, co-workers and the owner. Apparently they had already heard a lot about us, especially Val It was a really great night and next time I hope I'll be wearing more appropriate attire.

Val left this morning for Paris, then she flys home from London. I miss her already. After spending almost 3 weeks with her 24/7, we still didn't fight or get too sick of each other... travelling is the true test of friendship and we survived!

Megan and I are at Chris' apartment right now trying to plan out the next part of our journey. We're thinking Prague next.... I'll keep you informed.

ciao ciao.