The rainy days....

Our trip to Luzern took us through quite possibly the most beautiful parts of Switzerland. Each time the train came around another bend we were surprised with waterfalls and snow capped peaks. In the likeness of rick steves we both had our heads as far out of the panaramic windows as possible. Until in typical fashion it started to rain.

We arrived to Luzern in the middle of the afternoon and the begining of the thunderstorms. As we got off the train we immediately went to our packs for our rain coats. After what seemed like ten minutes of digging they finally curlded their way to the tops of our packs. We quickly threw them on took off on foot against our hostels directions advice. In no time at all we had found ourselves at 71 zurichstrasse Lion Lodge Luzern. We quickly came to know it as Spider mansion. the nicest albanian man in all of Switzerland checked us in bright eyed and bushy tailed. After the cordial conversation we marched our soaking wet packs and bodies up the 4 flights of stairs to room 32.

Our roommates were the nicest little Asians ever. Literally, little like 4 feet 10 inches, little to no english, lone travelers. The first from South Korea and the second from China. We talked about Chris Jo and Yao Ming, they hadnt heard of either.

We spent the first night cooking a light meal and enjoying a bottle of wine on the 2nd floor balcony,really the third floor, until Mal was viciously attacked by a hybrid brown recluse with black widow like speed. Fortunately, she wasnt harmed in any way nor did she see the spider at all but she swears it was there.

We cooked a travelers breakfast in the morning. We guarded each other while we stole other peoples milk out of the common refrigerators. Once all preperations had come to an end and we were ready to begin it happened. As mike was about to put his eggs on the burner he looked up to a spider with black widow teeth, terantula legs, a body the size of a large wasp, and an egg sack that according to mal housed 10,000 babies. Mike was put in the perfect boyfriends delimea, I can´t kill the spider and risk eating spider babies in our food and I can´t let it be cause Mal is freaking out constantly. Eventually, the spider fell to the ground, Mike gave up all hope and went on with his cooking in hopes of being attacked and taken from the scene. Mal did her cooking from a stool at an arms length from the stove. We ate in peace, like the russians vacationed during the cold war.

For the first time in a long trip across the pond our bodies finally caught up to our location. With the awful weather we both felt our bodies begining to weaken. We only spent a few hours wondering Luzern in our two days there. We spent the afternoon wondering Lake Luzern, visiting the bridge, and enjoying the company of 14 Asian tour groups at the Lion in the wall. For dinner, at Mals discreation, we avoided cooking and had a salad.

We left Luzern in the same state we found out, rainy and somehow still beautiful. Munich, had everything we could have ever imagined. In Mal´s best description a January summer and Canadian roommates, perfect. By this point Mals cold had reached full potential. We decided to do a pub crawl. The advertisement had said all the free beer and stew for the first two hours. We indulged ourselves in as much spam stew and munich beer as our bellys could handle. The tour took us to our first and what would become our last stop of the tour, Cafe Americanos. If we have learned anything at this point in Germany it´s that they have worse techno than they do fashion. To the tour guides advice we tried a shot known as a porno wodka. Ingredients are as follows, one shot of bad vodka, one packet of german version of fun dip/ pop rocks. Insert fun dip and dump the shot over while enjoying the fizzy sensation that follows. America needs this as we were both pleasently surprised by the aftermath. While the rest of the pub crawl danced like Hans and Veder to Lady Gaga´s poker face Mal and I made our second attempt at shots. In our best German we politely picked up the menu and pointed. Mal ordered straight jager with a lead pencil finishing taste. In true european road trip fashion we realized we had both spent 5 euro at the bar and persisted on going home. Apperently, everyone else in the world wonders the streets of foreign cities until all hours of the night, it wasnt in our agenda.

we awoke the next morning to more rain. Mike arose to an even more pleasent sound of a stuffy nose and sore throat from the bunk above. Being the good boyfriend he immediately jumped out of bed wondered the streets of Munich in serch of any grocery store that sold OJ. He struck gold like Hasselhof brought down the Berlin wall. Aldi Sud as it is better known by in Munich, is like costco for countries who have been shamed by the rest of the world. Orange juice, ramen, jam, and two giant bear claws was a wopping 3.50 euro. Mike could barely contain his enthusiam upon his return to the sickened and battered top bunk of room 401. While Mal enjoyed 1.5 liters of heavy pulp oj, Mike had ramen and bear claws like it was going out of style.

We spent the day wondering the streets of Munich. We saw all the major sites that normal tourists do but our favorite part wasnt even on the map. Apperently, the population of Munich realized the nearest ocean is more than 1000 km away and in doing so had jimmy rigged a wave in one of the major rivers outside of the main park. Alongside one hundred other spectators on this cloudy monday morning we watched person after person ride the waves. The evening was had in one of the many beier gartens Munich posses. Although the weather was the major factor of hindering our adventures in Munich, we persevered and enjoyed the january summer as much as one can.

things we learned in Luzern
1) Lion Lodge Luzern houses a spider worth seeing more so than any tourist spot in the city.
2) Richard the bird duck does in fact have two legs. Not one like the pictures will show.
3) Karma does play a role in this life. When your roommates recomend closing the windows and stopping all air circulation what so ever in the room and you can actually count the minutes to your 6am wake up from them, you realize you did something wrong in the city before.

Things we loved in Luzern
1) Richard the bird duck has two legs.
2) the swans
3) Lake Luzern

Things we learned in Munich
1) all you can eat stew and beer is a hoax.
2) June=January in Mallorys book.
3) Germany runs on techno and red bull.
4) surfing is possible, we have video to prove it
5) Our hostel´s basement could have housed a neo nazi meeting if necessary

things we loved in Munich
1) the history
2) the beer gardens
3) the black footprint
4) everything is cheap


much love and we´re still treking... Look for the Berlin installment ASAP.

Much love m&m