“we can do hard things”

Oh what an adventure our 3 day, 2 country stretch of this trip was. Between canceled trains, birthday wishes, less than pleasant encounters with birds, and rain at every corner, we got very familiar with the term “adjust.”

One of the hardest parts of travel, yet arguably the most important, is being flexible. Let’s just say “flexibility” flirted with the line of pure defeat these past few days. Instead of accepting this defeat, we looked at each other, laughed, and said our new favorite phrase, “we can do hard things.”

After the best 3 days imaginable in the ‘dam, we walked on cloud nine over to the train station for our 13 hour night train to Munich. Within seconds on walking onto this train, shit hit the fan.

Walking down the aisle to find our cart, I heard a child screaming. Crossing our fingers and saying hail mary’s that this child would NOT be our bunk mate, sure enough, cart #21 was also home to a family from Delhi, India, whose child happens to be the chattiest and brattiest little human of all time. For the next 13 hours, we barely slept a wink, enjoyed the constant ambient noise of snores that this entire family had the pleasure of offering us, and discomfort beyond belief. Will we forever laugh at this HELL of an experience? Absolutely.

The announcement of “Munich HBF” was sheer bliss at this point. Ready to do anything but be on this damned train, we sprinted off to take on the day.

We got the the Euro Youth Hostel at the ripe hour of 7:30 am. Running off of 30 mins of sleep, they let us take showers and store our bags before checking in at 2. This was GAME CHANGING. From there, we went for a very mid breakfast and coffee and started to crawl our way around Munich.

To be completely honest with you, we were in a DAZE. The churches were absolutely breathtaking and the vibe sent you straight back to a page in your history book. We enjoyed walking around Marienplatz square, the Viktualienmarket and adored the river surfers. Seriously, we could’ve watched them effortlessly destroy this nature-made wave all day long.

We then took a long stroll through the park to the Chinese Beer Garden. Being Munich staple, we were pumped. We met up with Izzy’s cousin, William, which is INSANE to us, and together enjoyed beers and bratwursts in the garden.

Pro tip- if you don’t want to walk home, rent scooters. It was both an efficient and hilarious experience.

To us, Munich was all about the people and the food. The culture there, just as we’ve seen change in every place, is so unique. Men and women dressed in Oktoberfest attire to serve us dinner and countless men, larger than life, who would drink any frat boy through the floor. We headed to Augustiner am Platz and got one of the best meals thus far: a traditional german dinner of pork, sausages with sauerkraut, and cheesy spaetzle. Good LORD. We devoured it and wanted our waiter to be our best friend. He personally sat down at our table and perfectly curated this meal out for us. By the end, we saw pictures of his daughters and left a generous tip for the goat.

The next morning though, we are gone, and Izzy was turning 20. The one day of the trip I truly wanted to go perfectly, ended up being the one that went the worst. Of course!!!!

We woke up at 5 am ready to trek over to Lucerne, Switzerland and get my girl to the alps for a hike. Walking confidently into the train station, I slowly morphed into panic mode as I realized that our train simply did not exist. Finding friends who were in the same boat, we got thrown into a route that took an extra 3 hours, hence, no hike. After train number one, we had made it to Stuttgart, Germany. On the desperate hunt for spoons to eat our yogurts, I felt something warm drop on to my arm. Before I even looked down, Izzy was in tears laughing. A BIRD SHIT ON ME. IN THE STUTTGART TRAIN STATION. ON THIS DAY. Turns out it was all over my sweatshirt and backpack, because what else would go wrong?! I mean, at least I gave the birthday girl a good laugh and, apparently, this is good luck. I don’t know how much of that I believe but I am surely running to the hills with it.

“we can do hard things.”

After 2 more trains, missing our cable ride tickets to the mountains, getting kicked out of accidentally sitting in first class, and more travel than should be consumed in a matter of months, we made it to Lucerne! In an attempt to pull us out of our funk, we decided to go for a little run around town before dinner. We got changed and looked out to the pouring down rain. Feeling absolutely defeated at this point, we sat in silence about the horror of this day, and 20th birthday. But, refusing to give up, once the rain turned into a drizzle, I dragged Izzy out to the street. The minute we got .10 from the room in the WEIRDEST part of town that we were calling home, the day took an immediate shift.

“we can do hard things.”

The sun began to shine and once the clouds passed, we found ourselves 2 miles away and at the top of a hill over looking Lake Lucerne and the mountains. We stopped, gave each other a hug, and realized that sometimes life throws you curves balls and you have no choice but to punch them in the gut and get through it. We walked around town and ran into a local “futbol” team in need of a picture to complete a “challenge.” Confused, yet intrigued, we became the middle of a pyramid picture and laughed the whole way home about wtf had just happened and how I got it sent to us on WhatsApp from a Samsung.

We showered and got ready for dinner with a glass of that delish wine we had been carrying with us since night one of pairs. We walked across the Chapel Bridge and found a little Italian spot for a proper celebration.

A bottle of rose, charcuterie and bowl of carbonara later, we were in the best mood imaginable.

It may have been a far from perfect birthday for my girl, but we realized that sometimes all it takes is a FaceTime with your family, a yummy dinner, and a sunny run.

The next day, we decided to spend our second and final day in Switzerland hiking Stoos mountain. We rode 50 mins of trains until getting to the steepest funicular in the world. If it wasn’t for the full sky of clouds, my fear of heights would’ve left me in a pool of sweat.

We looked at the map and, in classic Iz and P fashion, chose the expert route. Why? I truly wish we could tell you. How did it go you ask? Oh….

We spent 3 hours with no signs of life except for cows and views filled with clouds. Nonetheless, it was stupidly fun. We got lost in the Swiss alps, when will we ever be able to say those words again. We made friends with huge cows, saw gorgeous mountains, and laughed at the fact that we’d hiked 6 miles to the top of a mountain with a view so amazing, and so not present.

“we can do hard things.”

At the top, we got a severe weather alert. Now realizing that we in fact, should NOT be lost on a mountain in the middle of a servere thunderstorm, we quickly began to have one of our, many, minor panic attacks and picked up the pace. Luckily, we are alive, I mean no shit or else you wouldn’t be reading this but, woohoo!!!!

It took us over an hour and a half to get home because we took the entirely wrong bus, missed our train, and were stranded in Stoosbraun at yet another train station.

Moral of the story, these three days of our trip were exhausting, stressful, hilarious, and something we will never forget. We learned how to roll with the punches, be “adaptable” and do all the hard things. Maybe one day we will go back and experience that view I wanted her to spend her birthday seeing. Maybe we will have slept in a bed without a snoring family next to us before running around germany. Who knows, but I wouldn’t take it back for anything.

Xoxo, P