Travel ADD ::: Prague, Munich and Innsbruck

When I got to Prague on Friday, it seemed all historical and lovely, like every other city I've just been to. Not feeling like visiting churches, museums and more canals with more freaking swans, I jumped on a train the next day to Munich to experience Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest is quite the circus. The beer tents are massive. Everyone is singing and swinging liters of beer. All the men are wearing lederhosen and the women are wearing long dresses that show off maximum amounts of cleavage.

I wish I could say that Oktoberfest had been a good idea. It was an experience for sure. But it was, honestly, pretty lame. Like a big frat party where everyone is stumbling around drunk, puking and peeing on everything.

When the beer tents closed at 10:30 (I think I had my first beer at about 9:00), I had really no other choice than to head back to the train station and sleep there until I could I figure out where to go in the morning. There were a lot of other people doing this, except most of them were very drunk and I was very sober. I found a nice, sober boy to hang out next to, so that I felt at least somewhat like someone had my back.

The train station was freezing cold, and the police woke everyone up at 5:00, forcing us to get to our feet. Of course, very few trains leave that early in the morning, and my luggage was stuck in storage until 7:00. So I spent the early part of the morning shuffling around the station, cold and exhausted, with many hungover people and obnoxious men still drunk from last night.

I jumped on the train to Innsbruck, a short 2-hour ride, and fell asleep. When I next woke up, the train was traveling through the most beautiful countryside, which totally puts the previous day's train ride from Dresden to Prague to shame. I immediately cheered up 1000% and felt like busting out my best Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music impersonation, running through the green fields along the mountain slopes.

The Innsbruck train station was quiet and clean. The woman at the tourist counter was incredibly kind, completely unlike the angry people I encountered less than 24-hours earlier in the Prague station. She found me the perfect room for cheap just down the street, and gave me several maps. When I stepped outside the air was crisp, the sun bright, and the sky was for the first time since leaving Barcelona, a color other than gray. And when I got to the Pension, the proprietress even carried my luggage for me up the stairs to the registration office, despite my many protests.

I showered and went to bed thinking that Switzerland is heaven-sent, and I may not ever want to leave. Except of course, that I am actually in Austria. I discovered my mistake later, realizing that I had meant to go to Interlaken in the Swiss Alps and not Innsbruck in the Austrian Alps. I will correct this tomorrow, when I travel again for the fourth day in a row.