# Sold Everything and Traveled for a Bit



## Maximus (May 21, 2016)

Hey folks, long time no see. It's almost been a year since I was last active on StP and I deeply regret that mistake, as the stories and people that come through here are the realest I've ever seen them.

Anyway, back in October of 2015 my GF of two years left me and it really fucked me up. We had plans to travel everywhere together and one day she decided to just pick up everything and run. I couldn't just stand around and wait for her to come back, or for another person to arrive, so I sold all my shit: car, tv, old phones, clothing, extra stuff lying around the crappy apartment I was bumming around in, and renewed my long forgotten passport. I had about $3000 after everything went, and I'll be damned if that wasn't going to get me to Europe. Bought a cheap ticket to Munich, Germany for $650 after my friend let me use some of her miles, and I left in early November. 

Off I fucking went without a regret in the world, except for the fact I left my cat, King, with some distant cousins. He was in good hands, now he's back with me as I'm typing this out. 

I left Omaha, NE at 5pm on Nov 8th.

Arrived in Munich about 11 hours later with a sore ass and a thirst for beer. I only had a backpack with three outfits, travel cooking supplies, a sleeping bag, tiny 1 person pop up tent, my laptop, and about 1000 euros. I took a train to the city which was about a half hour trip, and arrived nearly in the middle of the square by the Emperor's Palace. 

I took it all in, every last bit of it. The busy streets, the people roaming from store to store, the beer houses- and I didn't understand a lick of it. I didn't know German and I still don't, so my mediocre communication skills were put to the test. 

After a few hours of walking around the main square, ducking in and out of cathedrals and admiring the amazing architecture, I sought out to find a cafe with free wifi. I eventually found one that had free coffee and cheap gluwein, a fucking treat, so I sat down and messaged friends on the computer for the rest of the day.

I have a friend in Augsburg, we'll call her Karla, and she said she could meet up with me the next day back near the Emperor's Palace. Said she would stay for the week in Munich while I was visiting...

I grab a train about 25 kilometers outside of the city and find an abandoned warehouse south of Munich, somewhere quiet, yet close to the rail station so I could hop on a train in the early morning. I set up camp, munched on a sandwich I had earlier at the cafe, and went to sleep at around 11pm.

I woke up early, like 6am, so I could catch a train an hour ahead of Karla. I went back to that small cafe and hunkered down in the bathroom for about 20 minutes as I cleaned myself up and brushed my teeth. I wanted to look good for her, after all we'll be meeting for the first time. 

I'm just waiting around as an hour passes, fades into two hours and I'm starting to think that she won't be arriving, but lo and behold, a stout girl with a pixie cut walks into the cafe with a giant fucking smile on her face. We hugged it out for a long time, probably too long, and we sat down for coffee. We talked for nearly six hours about everything ranging from broken politics, traveling, old cartoons, and our future plans. I had the time of my life. We started walking around Munich more, getting our legs worked out and ready for a real hike. We went from one gate of the city to the other and visited about 15 different historical or religious sites. There are a lot of fucking cathedrals in Germany. After everything was done, the walking and such, we decided to hit up Hoftbrauhaus (sorry for the misspelling, I'm not looking that up lol) and got our drink on. It's community seating at the beer house, so you'll make friends where you sit. We were paired with five other Korean gentleman, I bought them all a round, and we drank until the music died down. 

Karla got a room at the Marriott, where she has some special gold status and gets free drinks at the bar. Where we also drank the night away until we could no longer string together coherent sentences. She brought me back to her room and I fucked the daylights out of her until we both passed out. Woke up, and fucked some more. It was great, she gave me the chance to get a lot of stress off of my shoulders.

That's how the entire week in Munich went, pretty much. Taking trains in and out of the city, floating around to different exhibits or museums. After a week, Karla had to head back to Augsberg for classes. She's an art major and I'll be damned if I don't see a piece of hers in a museum someday. It was about my time to head out somewhere new, so I took a train out West until I was far out of the city, found a road to walk down, and hitchhiked for about 8 hours until somebody finally picked me up and was heading South. The guy who picked me up was an ex pat from LA, of all the fucking places, and was living outside of Munich with his girlfriend/soon to be wife. They've been there for 8 years together, but she had lived there for most of her life. She was back at home while he was taking a day trip to Neuschwanstein, Ludwig's unfinished castle. I decided to ride down with him for the roughly two hour drive. Because why not? What would I find in Neuschwanstein?

Well, as it figures out, I would find my father. 

I hop out of the car as we stop at the "landing center" for the castle, it's a hotel/cafe/gift shop/bus station/tourist haven. There are buses coming in and out of the center every fifteen minutes, tourists ranging from places like the US, Romania, China, Japan, and Greece are stepping out. I'm just sitting outside one of the gates getting a feel for the place, I can look East up the mountain and see the castle just tipping from the tops of trees. I'm close. You can either hike to the top, or grab a bus, so I'd rather just walk it out. I rent a locker from the tourist haven and walk 45 minutes to the castle for an awesome adventure. 

Entrance to the castle was 10 euros and had about an hour long wait, security was pretty tight so I wouldn't be able to just waltz right into the castle, either. So I wait it out. 










I'll continue this later when I have the time, I gotta head out for work right now. It feels good to be back.


----------



## Dmac (May 21, 2016)

Nice story! It's always nice to leave Omaha.


----------



## Ashe Anne (May 25, 2016)

Mann! I'm from Omaha too. Believe me, I can't wait to leave here again. It's super inspirational that you just left with $3,000! I'm planning on selling what I've got and car dwelling next summer here in America, but I'm working on getting my EU citizenship so that I can travel there for as long as I want. A few friends of mine just got back from Europe, they traveled to various rainbow gatherings. I'm super excited to see what Europe has in store! I want to go see all those beautiful places I hear so many stories about!!

You mentioned your back with your cat... Are you back in Omaha now? 
Did you find that traveling there with so little money was feasible? Or did you find it difficult to have/do what you wanted?


----------



## Maximus (May 25, 2016)

Ashe Anne said:


> Mann! I'm from Omaha too. Believe me, I can't wait to leave here again. It's super inspirational that you just left with $3,000! I'm planning on selling what I've got and car dwelling next summer here in America, but I'm working on getting my EU citizenship so that I can travel there for as long as I want. A few friends of mine just got back from Europe, they traveled to various rainbow gatherings. I'm super excited to see what Europe has in store! I want to go see all those beautiful places I hear so many stories about!!
> 
> You mentioned your back with your cat... Are you back in Omaha now?
> Did you find that traveling there with so little money was feasible? Or did you find it difficult to have/do what you wanted?




Hey there! Always nice to find a fellow Nebraskan, especially an Omahan. 

Y'know, I spent about 2000 euros overall during my stay (including airfare, and I was gone for three months), but I actually saw my father just after the castle visit and I went back with him to Greece (He lives in Rafina). It was absolutely random seeing him, he and my step mother just happened to be in Germany for the week and they invited me to come back. I hadn't seen them for about two years before this and I didn't tell anyone, except for my cousins, that I was leaving. It was definitely an odd experience!

But, you know, I bet if I had gone to less populous places, ones not many tourists go and with more open markets, I probably would've spent a lot less. After going back to Rafina a lot of my costs were covered and I didn't spend a dime on food or travel, we even drove around to Sparta and Olympia one week. I have a picture somewhere of me in front of an Ancient Greek theater... I'll have to find it.  And my profile pic is of me in the history museum in Central Athens. 

Europe was amazing. It was breathtaking. I loved the views, the scenes, the places and people. I found myself in Europe and lost myself when I got back in Omaha, so I need to go back soon. And yes, I'm back in Omaha now! I live in Millard by the Stonybrook Hyvee and I manage a computer company down the street. Saving up for my next journey, might just have to sell everything again. 

Get in contact with me to meetup sometime! I'm always down for a road trip or another adventure.


----------



## japanarchist (May 27, 2016)

Hey cool story man! Where did you buy your tickets from?


----------

