In the midst of my college graduation, I received the opportunity to accept a seemingly chaotic two-week itinerary through Europe. This would take place less than a month before our family's planned departure to South Africa, so it would seem to imply that I would not be able to spend the summer with my friends, seeing how I would be gone practically from early-June to late-July with both trips combined. This trip would happen with my dad, who was already traveling to four countries in Europe on business. This meant two things- that on the one hand, I would be traveling solo for most of the trip, and one the other, that I would have to spend a minimal amount of travel expenses as my dad's company financed most of the hotels that he and I shared. Additionally, the flights were largely paid for with points. As such, I was confirmed to visit Munich, Istanbul, and Paris. That being said, this presented me with an unprecedented opportunity: to surprise my grandmothers. Just prior to the confirmation of the trip, I had told one of them that I unfortunately would not make it to Germany this year as travel was too expensive. She expected to see my dad and only my dad at the train station, so why not make her month and flip the script a little?

The spontaneity of the trip meant that there were limited flight options for me to get to Munich, as the direct connections were not bookable through miles. This, however, allowed me to cross another bucket-list item off- fly on an A380 through LAX to Munich. So that's exactly what I did. The travel plans were off to a shaky start. A delay in the aircraft that was supposed to bring me to Los Angeles meant that my two-hour layover for which I needed to walk to the other side of LAX, now turned into a 45-minute layover, with further delays likely. Frantically, I managed to grab the last available seat on the only other United service to LAX that morning, with the catch being that departure was two hours out from the time of booking. In the car I tied up the last few loose ends relating to my recently-obtained Global Entry and TSA Pre status, and off I was.

No one on the connecting flight opened their windows, so I had little idea of where we truly were as I watched Napoleon Dynamite on the screen in front of me. At LAX I enjoyed the United lounge and allowed myself to relax a little bit from the unfolding stress of that morning. At the international terminal I scratched my plane-spotting itch by gluing myself to the window and watching heavy aircraft depart and arrive from all over the world. Boarding onto the A380 was shockingly efficient. I found it to be a faster boarding process than most single-aisle aircraft. My jaw was on the floor as I watched our whale of an airplane soar into the skies over Long Beach. There were enjoyable things and less enjoyable things. The space against the wall? Great. The smoothness and quietness of the flight? Fantastic. The fact that the recline was so significant that watching a movie became uncomfortable? Less ideal. The food? Alright. 

At the airport I continued a past tradition to hike up the top of the visitor pyramid at Munich airport and watch some air traffic in the dreary weather. Once I had my day ticket purchased, I was on my way southbound by train. My hotel was not actually in Munich. It was in Unterschleißheim, a sleepy town halfway between the city and the airport. Why there? Siemens was having a large event at the corporate Infinity hotel, and employees from around the world were staying there for two to three nights to attend and host a plethora of talks, panels, discussions, and meetings about various topics within the corporation. Absolutely I felt out of place. I was told that first morning during breakfast that I was likely the only person in the entire hotel not there for the event. Besides, my first impression of the town was subpar. While I was well aware that Bavaria becomes a predominantly conservative province the second you leave Munich, it was unpleasant to be greeted by radically-right AfD posters at the entrance of the train station. Regardless, the room was free, and as such I had little room to complain.

In a timely manner I made my way via S-Bahn to the city to enjoy my first day to the fullest. At Karlsplatz I exited the train, which had turned into a subway, and walked down the Neuhauser Str. from the Stachus fountains to Marienplatz. Snapping some photos with my grandfather's old digital camera, I stopped to enjoy views of the Frauenkirche, and took a time lapse of the pedestrian traffic passing through the Marienplatz area. To my confusion, I was asked three times, twice by the same man, whether I was a resident of Munich, before being dismissed after saying I live in the US. I could only guess it had to do with the upcoming elections on June 9th, but it sketched me out, so I left the area and walked toward the Viktualienmarkt. Here I reflected on some good times I spent with my dad back in 2016, when I visited Munich for the first time since birth. To remember those good times, I bought myself a chili pickle.

I was told to check out the Deutsches Museum, something I didn't get the chance to do in 2016. The museum, which is a renowned technology museum, featured numerous exhibits about old and new German aircraft and the accompanying stories behind them. One second I was enjoying a cut-out of an Airbus A350 fuselage and landing gear, while the next moment I walked inside the cabin of a WWII-era Ju 52. Minutes later I was learning about all the different types of motors and engines built by firms such as BMW and Siemens over the last 100 years, used for everything from vehicles to rockets. It was well worth the visit. The nice thing about Munich is that unlike other tourist magnet cities in Europe, there are rarely lines to get into the top attractions, and tickets to nearly everything can be booked on the spot for reasonable prices.

My walk throughout the city took me toward the royal avenue of Ludwigstraße, where I once again greeted familiar sights such as the Feldherrnhalle army monument and the baroque Theatinerkirche church, stopping by the Platzl immediately to see some of Europe's oldest breweries. As I didn't have anybody with me at the time, I was not inclined to grab a stein of Hofbräu. I wandered through the Hofgarten Rennaissance gardens, where an older couple dancing inside of the central landmark and a large passing group of runners caught my attention. To scratch that itch of wanting to see the sun go down from an elevated location, I took the U-Bahn to the Olympic Park. While the Olympiaturm was closed for renovations, I did the next best thing, which was to climb the steep hill immediately adjacent and catch the sunset from there. So that, after briefly getting lost in the park's winding paths and expansive lakes, is what I did, and the sunset met every expectation. By the time I got back to Unterschleißheim, I had managed 31,000 steps and 20 km of distance walked. Upon arrival back into the hotel, the bar was crowded with Siemens employees, and after a bit of convincing, my dad encouraged me to come network with some of his colleagues over a Moscow Mule.

I made my way down to Elwood, where I would accompany my cousin on some of her daily tasks with her host family. I met her in Elsternwick Park and we took a long stroll with the dog of a friend of the host family. Once we returned to her house, I was able to meet her host parents and their children. A French Canadian family of five, they had three daughters of various ages that were first shocked to see a random visitor in the house. The family seemed both very busy and very lax, thus justifying the need for an assistant in the house. With her host mom I had a brief discussion about how I came to travel to Australia and my studies in the US. It so happened that I was visiting on the day that the host dad was planning to surprise the kids with a new Saint Bernard puppy; I would have to wait until dinnertime to see their reactions. I wanted to devote part of the day to traveling down to Brighton, the upscale southerly suburb of Melbourne, to see the Victorian-era bathing boxes at Brighton Beach. The family offered to loan me the bike that my cousin uses to travel short distances, so I cycled down the coast from Elwood to Brighton. From the city center I walked over the beach. With the weather being mostly cloudy and a little chilly, the lighting was suboptimal to properly see the color of the boxes, so I needed to rely on the few times that the sun peeked through the clouds. From the rocky southern end of the beach one could observe the skyline of the city peeking through the boxes without any obstructions.

From the beach I walked back to the center of Brighton, where I took a stop to eat at a local sandwich shop where I wouldn't feel weird seated by myself. Soon, it was time to cycle back. Alongside the railroad track and once again riding along the coast, I returned to the host family's house. The kids returned from school in the late afternoon and were enamored by the new puppy. In French they discussed what to name him, and due to his brown coat and fluffy appearance, gave him the fitting name "Nougat". Prior to dinner we had to run a few more errands in Elwood, and my cousin and I took another leisurely stroll along the windy coast. Upon returning, a casual dinner I was graciously invited to be part of allowed the host family to get to know me better. After a bit, I took the bus back up to St. Kilda. Although it was only around 8 PM, I returned to the hostel ready to go to sleep due to the time adjustment. In the musty shared room I returned to several British girls on a working holiday talking amongst themselves. Eventually, they took up conversation with me, and while they thought it was odd that I was spending only 8 days in Australia given that they had been touring the country while looking for work, they were very kind. The bed itself was actually very comfortable; the headboard was broken but the privacy was unmatched with wooden paneling, and people generally kept to themselves.