Munich, Germany

Well... this stop has been more or less a waste of time; thanks a lot for hating on me, body. It's amazing how many things can go wrong all at once. The first night, at Jaegershostel, was actually pretty good. I got my laundry done (and the dryer actually worked, unlike the one at the laundromat I used in Paris) and got to bed around 22:30; I was in a four person room, and the Icelandic couple I was sharing it with had to get up early too, so they weren't up too late either. I did get woken up several times during the night, though: once around 01:00 when our other roommate showed up & made a bunch of noise; once some time after 02:00 when some drunk guys pounded on our door yelling "polizei!" before giving up when nobody opened; and once more around 05:00, when the bunk above me started producing shaking & moaning. Good times.

I got up & checked out around 09:00, dropped my bags off at the other hostel (4 You München, not nearly as nice as the first place), then walked down to Marienplatz for the free city walking tour. Once again our guide was entertaining & informative, and this time I made sure I had a €5 to give her. That ended at 13:00, so I still had a few hours to kill before I could actually check into the hostel. I broke with tradition & bought a beer mug instead of a shot glass (I am in the beer capital of the world), grabbed some lunch back at the train station, then checked into the hostel & spent the rest of the afternoon on the net, catching up with emails & Facebook posts.

Around 17:00 I made my way to the biergarten at Hofbraühaus for what would end up being the only beer I had at Oktoberfest, or wiesn as the locals call it. At least it was a good beer. Those liters will get your bladder pretty quick too; I went to the bathroom right before leaving the biergarten, and was just about ready to explode by the time I finished the 15 minute walk back to the hostel. Spent the evening writing postcards & surfing the net again, then went to bed about 21:00 in an attempt to get rested up so I could meet Dave for some beers before my night train to Rome tonight. Alas, it was not to be. I slept fairly well until about 01:30, when I woke up with a terrible cough & a need to empty my bladder & refill my water. I'm very glad I ended up in the bathroom, and very glad that I brought a few Kleenex with me; I ended up coughing so hard that I puked up some phlegm & set off my bloody nose again. Crazy stuff. I wandered down to the lounge with my nook to send an email to the folks & get their opinion on coming home early... I was very close to giving up again. Back to bed, then up again around 03:30 to cough some more (I was basically fine unless I changed position, at which point all the phlegm shifted around) and check for a response; they recommended against flying in my condition, and spending a day resting up & trying to find a doctor. The second part worked out... the first part, not so much. The English guys staggered back into the room sometime after 05:00 & found an Asian guy curled up in the fetal position retching. Luckily they were able to poke him into the bathroom before anything came up. Can I just say that I'm getting really fucking tired of drunk people? They're loud, and obnoxious, and inconsiderate, and often downright rude. Oktoberfest is something I'd like to come back & do again, but not without a (reliable) group of friends that can book a room all to ourselves.

I finally gave up & got up around 08:00, took a cold shower and had some breakfast at the hostel before checking out; it's advertised as free, but it did have it's own line item on the receipt. Most places with early checkout will allow you to keep your bags in the luggage room, but theirs was full so I had to pay (€5) for one of the storage lockers at the train station. It could end up being more, since I have no idea how long that money will last. From there I made my way to the doctor's office a few blocks away; I ended up dropping about €140 on that, some antibiotics, and some Alka-Seltzer type things to help clear up the phlegm. I really didn't want to spend all that money, but if it helps me to get functional/better for the rest of the trip, it'll be worth it. Plus, that's probably about the same price it would have cost me in the States, even when I had insurance. Socialized medicine is great, as long as it's somebody else's [ed: some other country's]tax dollars going to support it.

Since then I've been chilling in the waiting room at the station, and I've still got another (almost) 8 hours before my train leaves (13:10 now), so I'll probably at least attempt to get a nap in. Wish me luck!

15:55

Well that was a fail. I was able to sort of snooze about 45 minutes with my arms & head on my knees. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but meant I spent several minutes coughing when I sat back up. Right now, time to rehydrate. Also, really German guy, you couldn't make it to the toilet, or at least garbage can, before puking? Sheißkopf.