Day 16: Munich- Floating Down the Crazy River

So unfortunately I have zero photos from what ended up being my favorite day of the trip so far, because cameras don't really mix well with floating down rivers. BUT, I walked by the same area again the next day and had my camera with me, so I'll just substitute some of those pics here. No action shots of me in my bikini though, bummer huh? I was supposed to meet the Seattle boys in the lobby at noon, but at around 12:15 I showed up to their room and one of them was still asleep. So I hustled over to KFC to get a fountain soda because it's one of the few places in Europe I've found that actually serves soda cold with ice! When I got back the boys were ready and we headed out. They found some non-Croc-brand Crocs for the river, dropped their old shoes back off at the hostel, and headed out again. We went to the English Garden, which is a huge park that is supposedly twice the size of Central Park. It's mostly big grassy areas, with a few little rivers running throughout- one shallow and slow, and one deeper with a stronger and faster current. The park is right by the University, and there are two beer gardens there as well. So between the beer and the water, I think it'd be really tough to be a focused student here! Most of the crowd is young, about my age, just hanging out and drinking beer (this was a weekday, s many there are more families and working people on the weekends?). But there's another population at the park that you definitely can't ignore: the old naked German guys. Yep, naked and proud. Reading, talking, playing games, sitting in circles with each other... Just chill in in their birthday suits. It was a pretty hilarious sight. We'd bought a few beers, so we hopped into the shallow slow water and just sorta waded down the river, drinking our beers and enjoying the scenery and people watching (not the naked guys so much, though).





After we'd finished all our beers and conquered the "lazy river," we were ready for the "crazy river." The receptionist at our hostel had told us not to go in because people die... We figured she was just trying to avoid liability if we got hurt (see what law school does to my brain?). Tons of people were floating down, although floating doesn't really seem like the appropriate verb to use here because the current is so fast and strong that you can't possibly swim upstream. At the head of the river is Surfer's Wave, where guys and gals line up and try to surf a small stretch of waves for as long as they can.





We jumped in right after that point, next to a sign that I'm Pretty sure says "swimming forbidden" in German.








So you just float along, lifting your legs up when you come to crashing waves so you don't get hurt by the rocks below (but you usually get hurt anyway). Then you come to these bridges, where you try to jump up and hang on for as long as you can without the current taking you away.








Ahhh it's just so much fun! It was almost addictive, I'd say we did it 6 or 7 times. Every time we'd say "ok, this is the last one..." but it was so much fun that we couldn't stop... Even though we were getting more scrapes, scratches, bruises and bumps every time. It was like a big, long, fast, scary waterslide that you had to get out of before you came to the next dam. Getting out was tricky too, because the current was going so fast that it was hard to grab on to anything and the rocks on the side were super slippery. Eventually we gave up, totally exhausted and starving. We came back to the hostel and changed clothes, and went to dinner at a place called Sushi Sano. I'm not sure if it was because we were so hungry and the sushi was so cheap (€1 per roll) or if it was really that delicious, but it was a fantastic meal and we were stuffed afterwards. It was the guys' last night in Munich, and also the eve of Brad's birthday, so we headed to Hofbrauhaus even though our bodies were telling us to go home and pass out.











After our one-liter beers, we were ready for sleep. But on the way back there were some awesome street musicians playing in Marianplatz (the main square) so we decided to stick around for a few minutes, which turned into more like an hour.


These guys were SO good, playing Pink Floyd, the Eagles, and lots of others. I even got them to play "Happy Birthday" for Brad. He seemed less than thrilled about it, but deep down I'm sure he was stoked, I mean who gets Munich street musicians singing and wishing them a happy 24th birthday? Right? Not too many people. AWESOMEEEE.
I was so happy sitting there with beer and sushi in my tummy, my body exhausted from such a great day in the water, and hanging out with these guys who had been so much fun to be around. But of course it started raining, which is probably a good thing because it forced the musicians to stop playing and otherwise we might have never left. Funny enough, it was happy hour when we got back to the hostel so of course we couldn't turn down €5 pitchers! I was tired, but glad to spend a little more time with the guys- they had to leave at 5:30 to catch their flight the next morning. We hung out with a couple of girls from Boston, drank our pitchers, and called it a night. If I have another day on this trip that's as fun as that one, I'll consider myself waaay too lucky.

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