Bonjour!

I never thought I would say this, given the general attitude towards Americans, but, I believe that we are a much more respectful people on the whole than people give us credit for. We respect personal space, we respect others rights and opinions, we are respectful to our elders. I say this because this weekend in only a few short hours, I observed total disrespect on two separate occasions by two totally different sets of individuals.
While in Munich this weekend, we chose to take an afternoon trip to the legendary Neuschwanstein Castle, the model for the Magic Kingdom’s castle at all of the Disney theme parks. We arrived at the train station about thirty minutes before our train was scheduled to leave and as I was wandering around killing time, I was elated to discover a bookstore that still had copies of the newest Harry Potter book in English! Ready to settle in and begin my book on the 2-hour train ride, as soon as the train pulled in, we hoped on and I began my book. Several stops outside of Munich, on our way to the small town of Fussen on the German/Austrian border, three boys boarded the train and sat in the bank of seats behind Zach and I. I was completely absorbed in the trials and tribulations of Harry Potter and did not realize the disturbance these 12-ish year old boys were making until they began physically beating on the back of my train seat. Zach, who had been attempting to sleep, since he was being ignored by me, had already been being aggravated by these kids for quite some time. I turned around to observe the boys and realized that they were having what could best be described as a body-slamming wrestling match in the seat behind us. Their screaming and cussing, on top of the pounding on my seat, had begun to totally inhibit my ability to continue with my date with Harry, and so my level of aggravation was also mounting. After dealing with their behavior for nearly thirty minutes, Zach finally snapped and decided he would have to do something, since these children obviously were not accompanied by any sort of parent. Knowing that these kids didn’t speak English, Zach chose to simply stand up and in his most authoritarian voice asked the kids to stop. They obviously got the message and moved to another cart of the train to reek havoc on some other travelers.
When we reached Fussen, we took a bus up to the ticket office of the castle and purchased our tickets. Since the bus didn’t continue to the summit of the mountain where the castle was situated, we were left with two options : walk straight uphill for nearly a mile, or take a horse drawn carriage ride…Wonder which one I chose? The horse drawn carriages each held about 12 people – 10 in the actual carriage, with two sitting next to the driver right behind the horses…Being the first ones on the carriage I chose to sit next to the driver behind the horses so as to have a better view. And what a view it was. Our ride through the mountain forest was enchanting, until I realized that the sounds coming from the horses directly in front of me was not their harnesses rubbing against leather but was instead an extreme case of flatulence. The smell became unbearable; the people in the back of the carriage were now beginning to wonder what the sounds and accompanying smells were. And then, nearly at the summit where the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle was about to come into sight, first one and then the second horse decided to release their, um…load? What a lovely ending to our horse drawn carriage ride…Not surprisingly we chose to walk down the hill on the return journey…
After our tour and exploration of the fairytale castle built by King Ludwig 2 of Bavaria, whose insanity lead to his removal from the throne, we headed back to Munich, again by train. The return train was quite crowded, but Zach and I did manage to find two seats together and I again settled down with Harry. However at the train’s first stop, my concentration was immediately broken as two young men boarded the train. One had a long greasy black ponytail and was wearing a leather studded jacket, tight black pants and intimidating steel toe boots. The second, was quite a bit more colorful. Wearing red and black plaid pants and a similar black leather bomber jacket, this fine example of the term “Euro Trash” also had a sharp and spiky red Mohawk nearly three inches high. Between the two of them they had probably 25 piercing on their head and face alone, including large gauged ear piercing that I am quite sure my pinkie would have fit through. Luckily for Zach and I these studs decided to sit down right behind us! I had returned to Harry Potter for not even 5 minutes when from behind us came blasting angry German, head banging, “hate the world” music – I think you understand. I really couldn’t believe their total disregard for everyone around them. I know that their message had to be some typical “you can’t tell me what I can and cannot do”, but frankly they shouldn’t be able to force me to listen to their music if I don’t want to, that’s a violation of my rights. I thought that Zach was going to jump out of his skin, as he was again planning on napping on the train. I amusingly reminded him that these were big boys who he couldn’t intimidate with a loud voice, and that his Swiss army knife didn’t stand a chance against whatever they more than likely had. We stayed our ground and didn’t give into their attempts to make everyone move, and soon an elderly woman feebly crept over to them and asked them, nicely, in German to turn down their music (or we assume). One of the creepers had the audacity to shout, presumably “no” to her, and then spat at her. Again total disrespect. When one of them staggered off to the bathroom a short time later, I used it as an opportunity to steal a glance, at them and their hideous music machine, which to mine and Zach’s amusement was an old school boom box that only played Tapes! When was the last time that a solely tape player has been in production? 1995? Their angry “hate the world” music wasn’t even on CD! We continued to bare the music for a good hour and a half until we were nearly back to Munich, for when, again to our amusement, their ghetto tape player, ate their tape. One of them kinda roared and hit his head as the other attempted, unsuccessfully, to re-spin the tape. Zach and I were dying laughing as other random people on our train cart began a scattered applause. As we were getting off the train I bent down to one of the angry Germans and simply quipped, “Maybe its time to upgrade to an Ipod?” He flicked me off, but I felt really proud of myself!
This weekend we are heading up to Trouville, a resort town on the beaches of Normandy, for a little rest and relaxation before Exams next week. In reality, Zach wanted a low-key weekend with no sightseeing to study, he thinks he might get a 4.0 this semester – I’ll believe that when I see it. Sadly no debauchery planned for my 21st on Sunday, seeing as I have two exams on Monday morning…that’ll have to wait till I’m back at Clemson…My pictures from Munich are up on my Webshots as always, at <> in an album called Munich!
Lots of Love,
Hillary


P.S. I have finished Harry Potter, anyone who cares to discuss, feel free to email or IM me!



Munich!