The bright side....the dark side

This past Wednesday my classmate Cathy from Columbia and I skipped town and headed up to München for the day. The prospect of visiting the big city at holiday time was just too tempting. Besides, my passport was ready. Lest you think that I am naughty and that I skipped classes, you are mistaken. We had a pretty light week because a lot of people are gone for Christmas. Besides Monday was a national holiday... the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception. It's not one we really celebrate in the States....
Anyway, we hopped on a train and headed north......west. After Salzburg, Munich seems like NYC. People and noise everywhere! We went to the American consulate first then we headed down to the Christmas market. It was a cold, gray, dreary day, but the market was very festive and there were TONS of people. We drank lots of gluhwein (hot, mulled elixir!) and ate some wurst and Cathy bought the cutest little wooden snail. He has a marble for a shell and when you roll him along, the marble rolls too. We named him "Fidelio." I introduced Cathy to the consumer wonder that is H&M and we joked that it was 6 PM and the shops were still open, but in Salzburg everything would be closed. We wandered around until we were so cold we couldn't stand it, then we went to the Orff Zentrum to wait for the concert that they were having that evening. Messiaen's "Quator Pour la Fin du Temps." One of my all time favorites!! We had to wait for an hour and a half, but we were warm and happy.
The concert was great and there was a reception afterwards with wine and everything. The total party package. We enjoyed the wine as much as the concert and thoroughly enjoyed our subway trip to the Hauptbahnhof to catch a very late train back to Salzburg. It was so late when we got back that the busses weren't running and we had to take a taxi!! I got to bed really late and had to get up early for a class.... which brings me to....

THE DARK SIDE!!!

The alarm went off and I rolled out of bed and made a pot of coffee and fished around in my change container for 2 Euro so I could pay my bus fare. (My bus pass was stolen with my wallet) The bus was crowded and I suppose I could have just crunched my way in at the back of the bus, but NO! I am an honest person and I wanted to pay my fare. So I dropped the pile of change on the tray. The bus driver rolled his eyes, the students around me were snickering and I told him it was all there, I had counted it 3 times. He said I owed him 13 cents. I said I did not. He said give me 2 euro or get off the bus.
I got thrown off the bus!!!
Now burning with righteous indignation, I went to the local tour company and asked if they could change my pennies for 2 Euro. Nope. Go ask at the shop across the street. So I went to the shop and asked. The woman rolled her eyes, told me I was ten cents short and to get out. Welcome to Salzburg! Now I was ten cents short and I don't really know who ended up with it. I had to schlep back to my apartment and get another ten cents. I tried a different shop, but he couldn't open the cash drawer without a purchase. By this time another bus came along, I got on and ponied up the cash only to be told YET AGAIN that I didn't have enough money. At this point I became a screaming howling banshee. The driver either felt sorry for me or feared for his life because he gave me a ticket and let me ride. This all transpired before 8:15 AM. I got to class late and crabby.
Fortunately it wasn't anything that lunch and a nap couldn't cure.