On Sunday (September 8th) I wanted to withdraw some cash but the ATM machine refused to comply. It turns out my debit card has expired. Whoa! I never thought to check the expiration dates of my cards before my trip. It never came up in any blogs that I read to prepare for the trip.

I called up the bank (Schwab) and they said they can send it to me overseas but first they need a letter of authorization from me either faxed or scanned and sent through secure messaging via their website. It would take two days to build the card and then they can send it to me to Singapore overnight (which is my next stop). However the customer service representative wasn’t optimistic and said it may take longer because it could get held up in customs or various other reasons.

I suppose I didn’t notice that the card is going to expire soon because most of my other credit cards are valid for way longer (some 4 years instead of 2) and for online shopping I only use credit cards and enter their expiration date.

The good thing was, I still had two other debit cards (plus credit cards from which one can get cash advance if really needed).

But not for too long..

At the Riga airport on my way to Munich I found an ATM and I wanted to deposit my leftover cash in my Latvian bank account. The ATM ate my card. 🙁 I entered the wrong PIN number. Actually, I don’t think I ever knew the correct PIN number as I got the card half a year ago and I have never [successfully] used it since. However I should have remembered about that at the beginning of my time in Latvia so that I could have gotten a new one.

So now I’m down to one debit card till I get the new one in the mail.

Even though I never get really upset at mishaps, traveling definitely has made me take things even more lightly.

So yea, check your debit card expiration dates before traveling.

***

The flight from Riga to Munich was two hours long but it felt like nothing as I just passed out and slept the whole time (even though I was sitting in middle seat, usually I get the window seat). Partying and sleeping just 4 hours the previous night would do that.

I landed at the Munich airport a bit after eleven in the morning. Time to have lunch! I did a very quick Google search for best coffee shops in Munich (using 30 min free WiFi at the airport, common Europe!, what’s up with the limits!), not much information, but I settled on the first – Zoozie’z. To get there, I first had to take the train to the main station (Hauptbanhof) and then a bus. Yeey for Google Maps with public transit!

I like arriving at a new place and figuring out how things work, especially the public transit. In Munich it was easy enough and the ticket machine even accepted an American credit card without a chip (as opposed to France and UK). Though it turns out I got excited too fast, it was the only ticket machine in Munich that took credit cards, one other one didn’t even take coins, just bills.

Now while traveling through Europe, when I enter restaurants I’m still hesitant and probably look confused because I have used that in USA you always get seated by the hostess. This one was no exception.

This wasn’t quite a coffee shop and WiFi wasn’t working, but food and atmosphere was really good.

Soon after I arrived, a muscular guy wearing nice sports wear and matching bright orange-pink sneakers came in and sat at a table next to mine. In perfect American English (at least to my ear) he said to the waitress:

“Let me practice my German.”

So he ordered food and a drink in German. I was quite impressed, somebody has to be quite motivated to practice newly learned language in the wild.

The music in the restaurant was good and I can’t stand still when there is good rhythm so my shoulders automatically start moving. He noticed that and we started talking. It turns out he also is a dancer.

He had moved to Germany just week ago and is taking German classes for two months. He recently graduation from a MBA and just started working for an international company and his first rotation is in Germany. He was quite surprised that I had just landed in Munich and came straight to this restaurant which is quite out of the way the typical tourist area. Yup, that’s what I like to do, explore different areas and see how the locals live. Perhaps this is why I haven’t yet gotten tired of traveling.

We were sharing our impressions about Germany and he told the following story. His grandmother had asked him:

“So are you going to go to Germany, get a girlfriend and stay there?”

When he had retold that to one of his friends, his friend laughed and said:

“It’s hard to get close to German people to make friends, not even talking about having a girlfriend.”

Of course it’s a generalization, but compared to Americans this is quite true.

I asked him what has so far been his biggest surprise about Germany. After some thought, he said he was running along the river when suddenly he came across a nudist beach. There are so many rules and norms in Germany which people follow and then suddenly there are naked people in public (remember this is from Canadian/American perspective).

We parted our ways after lunch but decided to hang out later as well (I didn’t have anything better to do anyways as my friend who I’m visiting in Munich doesn’t get in till very late).

***

After lunch I took a walk along the river. So much green! I was very impressed. I was also very impressed by the bicyclists and bike roads. I also got inspired. I remembered my idea in college (inspired by reading a book for an outdoors class) to bicycle across United States. I should make that happen some day. Which means once I get back to SF I should get more serious about biking regularly. Aah, things that I want to do after I come back from this trip just keep piling up! On this trip I have acquired inspiration that will keep me in action for years to come.

I sat down by the river and decided to write up that letter of authorization that my bank requires in order to send me a new debit card (after weighting my chances of receiving it while I’m in Singapore – I’m feeling lucky!). It was about 4pm afternoon and that is still really early Monday morning in the USA so they should be able to send it out on Wednesday (after spending two days to make it). The letter needed to be either faxed, or scanned and sent via secure messaging. Since I had no access to printer and scanner or fax machine I decided to write it by hand. Then I took a photo of it, adjusted colors on my laptop and then later uploaded it to the bank.

I wasn’t the only one working on my laptop while sitting by the river, among others who were sitting, drinking and just chatting there was another person sitting with his laptop.

***

In the evening I met with my new friend and two of his female friends from his company who are also taking German classes. All of them are very international. They have grown up in various places and have studied MBA in United States.

While sitting there at the dinner table and chatting and sharing jokes it dawned on me that I can relate to them. We come form all these different backgrounds but we understand each other. It seems to me that there is a new mainstream layer of society developing (or more likely I’m just discovering it now) of young international people who have lived in several countries and traveled to a lot more countries. The same way I feel belonging to Latvian culture I also feel belonging to this group of international people who have lived or studied abroad. With globalization and all, I wonder if some day this will be basis of sort of a nation which will consist of ‘global citizens’.

***

Since my friend whom I was visiting in Munich didn’t get back from Italy till late I decided to go salsa dancing and meet him afterwards. My new friend also joined me. (His friend said she would join as well as it turns out she had danced salsa for 9 years, including in the same places in Boston that I had, but unfortunately in the end she wasn’t able to make it). He doesn’t really know how to dance salsa so we took salsa classes before social. We learned some nice footwork, for somebody who doesn’t dance salsa he followed along really well.

Dancing was lot of fun (it was at Unilounge), there were some good people and some really good dancers. One guy was especially good (later nicknamed as Justin Timberlake). His style was slow and smooth and he was listening to the music (by which I mean he was incorporating musicality in his dance).

After dancing I met my German friend and we hang out the next day (Tuesday). I love this aspect of my trip that I get to see my old friends, catch up face to face and strengthen friendships.

***

Bookstore!!! (yup, it really warrants three exclamation marks!) On Wednesday morning I was wandering around Marienplatz and saw a bookstore. I automatically went in, but then I stopped: “Wait, I’m hungry. I will want to spend here hours so I should get breakfast first and then come back.” I wandered around some more and found a small Italian coffee place where I had breakfast and then went back to the bookstore.

I love hanging out at bookstores. Especially at international ones. The books that they carry usually are the most popular and important ones to read as they have made their way over there all the way from other countries and translations. This bookstore was huge, six floors. On the top floor there was a cafe with great views of the Marienplatz. I think I spent some 3 hours in that bookstore and its cafe.

***

By lucky coincidence my new friend also happened to be in Marienplatz so we decided to get lunch. I told him I went dancing the previous night as well and he asked was the Justin Timberlake guy there. I froze for a moment and tried hard to remember how Justin Timberlake looks like, but he probably meant the guy who danced really well so I said “You mean the guy that danced really smoothly?”. Yes, he was there and I had lots of fun dancing with him. Afterwards I looked up some pictures of Justin Timberlake, and indeed, in pictures where he has a beard or stubble, they do look very similar. Yeah, I really need to get going on seeing all of the IMDB Top 100 movies and then some. Can’t have a conversation with an American without them referencing a movie or an actor.

We had lunch at a pizza place near Marienplatz. We didn’t finish our pizzas and he wanted to wrap his left over slice for taking home. They kindly did it, but the foil in which it was wrapped looked quite flimsy and he pondered whether the sauce or oil would spill in his bag. I told him that in Europe its actually really rare to wrap food to take home. He replied “Ah, that explains things.” Apparently yesterday he had been to an Indian place. After he had been done he asked whether he could take home the leftovers. The waiter said no. He pressed further: “But I bought it, its my food.” The waiter still said no. In United States it’s such an indisputable right to be able to take leftovers home from restaurants (that, and have free water served at every meal).

***

After lunch I walked some more and then I was off to the airport for 7pm flight to Singapore through Istanbul. I was planning to read and watch all these movies, but I slept pretty much the whole 10 hour flight to Singapore. I’m either getting more comfortable at sleeping on the planes or I just have to keep dancing and not sleeping much the previous night.

This begins the Asia leg of the trip. I have never been in Asia before so I’m super excited to explore the unknown.