Munich

The train ride up to Munich was long but pretty cool.
My sleeping compartment for about 11 hours of the trip was split with an Italian family and an Italian girl who spoke very little English. Though the family after dinner wouldn´t take no for an answer when offering me some homemade biscotti.
The trip from northern Italy up to Munich was quieter for most of the trip, though a bunch of Italian snowboarders were picked up on the edge of the Italian Alps and traveled up to Innsbruck on the train. At which point 2 Americans from Oklahoma sat across from me. It was fun to speak English with someone who was not Miriam for the first time in about 2 weeks (not that there is anything wrong with talking to my little sister, but it was fun to talk to others).
The train stopped in Munich and I walked to 2 blocks to the hotel and met up with my travelling companions for the next 19 days, Dar and Beanz. We called and met up with a friend of my former roommate Cindy, named Michel, who showed us through the main City center of Munich, and gave us a quick tour of some of the outlying bars, restaurants and shops.
Dinner at Augistiner brewery of 1 liter beers and a roasted 1/2 of a pig´s leg and potato dumplings for me, and it was time to pass out.
For New Year´s Eve we went down to the city center and wandered around some shops, bought a 2€ hat at H&M and then headed back to the hotel bar to start off the festivities. We took what appeared to be a short walk on the map that took about 40 minutes or so over to the strip where the best fireworks apparently took place, and we bar hopped a bit before sitting down in an Indian restaurant at about 11:45pm.
For New Year´s in Munich, there are fireworks all over the city, and Leopoldstraße certainly appeared to be the epicenter. I have never seen anything like it in the states, with fireworks going off all over the place, from the sidewalks, streets and rooftops.
Some New Year shots from the owner of the restaurant and some good Indian food, and we headed back to a hostel bar about 1 block from our hotel to finish out eh night a little after 3.
New Year´s Day most of the places were closed, so we had our free hotel breakfast and headed out to the English Gardens, which is sort of like the Central Park of Munich. We hit a college bar for a sandwich on the way back to the hotel before taking a break before heading out to see what is open tonight.
Happy New Year to everyone. Hope yours was as fun as mine.
Tomorrow, it is off to Vienna.