Always Say Yes

“It’s 5:45pm. We’ll just head upstairs and get some rest. Lets regroup around 8pm and go out.The four of us headed up to our room. My friends laid down to take naps, while I worked on how I was going to get from Munich to Prague to catch my next flight.

At eight, we were going to meet up with one or two people from the walking tour of Munich we went on earlier that day and go out to a beer hall. They were going to meet up with us at the bar in the basement of the hostel at 8pm.

Well, 8:10 rolls around, and everyone is still asleep. 8:15, someone stirs and sleepily asks if we should go out or stay in. We decide we should go out, somewhat out of guilt for our new friends who were waiting for us.

And we had the best time.

A new girl staying in the hostel joined us, and we went to a beer hall. For Americans who have never experienced a beer hall, think a school cafeteria, but with lots of character, personality, people, and (obviously) lots of beer.

Almost immediately after we sat at an extended picnic table, I made eye contact with two Brazilians across the room. Without really thinking, I waved them over. They got up and started walking towards us.

“Oops. Guys, I think I just invited these two people to join us.” I said just as they sat down. Luckily, Brazilians are super social and they immediately jumped into the conversation.

And they were awesome.

We ended up Googling hilarious fake animals from our home countries (drop bears, anyone?), drawing (very, very, very bad) portraits of each other, and pulling pranks on each other. They changed up the dynamic of the group, livened up the conversation and brought even more internationality to the group (which was currently Americans, Australians, and Brits).

I’m meeting a friend in Munich on Monday night. I have to be at the airport in Prague on Tuesday by 3:50pm for a flight that I cannot miss. The only flights that would get me from Munich to Prague in time on Tuesday were $800. The trains were all too slow. I found a bus that would work. Barely. But it’s be sketchy and risky. And the consequences of failure would be pretty huge.

Then I found a carpooling service called BlaBlaCar. A guy named Simone had posted that he was driving from Munich to Prague on Tuesday morning. For about $50, I could ride with him.

Many people would say no. What if he bails? What if he’s sketchy? What if the ride is super awkward?

All that might happen… but what if it doesn’t?


Picture is of Munich at sunset. To get this picture, we climbed 91 meters (about 400 stairs) to the top of St. Peters Church, which was built in 1158.

Today we went on a walking tour of Munich. The tour guide was pretty awful, but we met some new friends, so definitely a net positive. We walked through the English Gardens, which is apparently 2 to 3 times the size of Central Park. Which is already huge. We took naps, then went to an amazing beer hall.

People often wonder how I can have a good time at bars, even though I don’t drink. This beer hall was a perfect example of how to have an amazingly good time. Maybe a full post on the beer hall later.

  • Communicate: Yes.
  • Write: Yes.
  • PT: It’s 4am, but I’m going to go do it as soon as I hit the “submit” button on this post.
  • Meet someone new: Yes! Five people today. Two from the tour, one was another traveler from the hostel, and then two people I randomly waved over to sit with us at the beer hall.
  • Do something new: Yes. Went to a beer hall. Bonus: Drew a picture with someone else while we both held onto the pen and were trying to draw a portrait of someone at the same time.
Written on January 3, 2014