and so it begins...

so we're finally all here in munich and the trip has officially started. joanna and i had a delaysd flight out of london and ended up getting in late, kim got here sunday, but the airport lost her luggage, so she's living off of us right now, and handling it incredibly well. i'd be a blithering mess, but she's just bright and cheery and havin' a ball. our hostel this first city was interesting, a very hostelly hostel. co-ed dorm and all. we met some cool people and are actually planning to all go to a beer hall tonight to get the full german experience. and because we're all from ohio, we thought it out midwesterly duty to teach the german guy the bunk below me how to play euchre. we missed our train this morning to fussen, but there's one every hour so right now we're just chillin' out waiting for the next train.
munich is fabulous. they're really into christmas here, which is nice because it didn't really feel like christmas before this. there's snow on the groun and it's been snowing since we got here. last night we were walking around the christmas market in town, which is right below the glockenspiel and there were carolers and huge fluffy flakes falling and a giant christmas tree all light up... very moving actually. kinda made me miss being home for the holidays. but then i remembered i was in munich. helped get over that. night train to venice leaves tonight at 11 so we're all looking forward to starting the italian leg of our journey, it's actually the country we'll be spending the longest in too! keep warm back home everyone. luv ya lots!