Moving to Munich (Meownich)

Hello everyone! Even though we’ve been here for 5 weeks now (which has seriously flown by), moving in was an insane process that I would be fine not experiencing again :)

The most stressful part about moving to a different country was moving with our cats, Harry and Luna. They scream meow every time we get in a car, so we knew flying would be rough. We talked to our vets several times about what our best course of action would be, and they suggested trying kitty xanax. It seemed to work pretty well during the week before, but BOY WERE WE INADEQUATELY PREPARED.

First, our flight was supposed to leave on August 17. My incredible mother, who helped with every aspect of the move, thought it best to not have a long layover in Chicago - she had her grand kittens best interests at heart. However, with Lincoln airport being Lincoln airport, our flight got so delayed that we would have missed our connection in Chicago. We ultimately had to stay an extra night in Lincoln and try the same pattern of flights the next day, though we did switch to an earlier Chicago flight to have more of a layover in case of delays. This was super anticlimactic, but it gave us a chance to really sleep and relax, which we had not done in weeks preparing for the move.

So round 2 - we get back to the Lincoln airport, and the cats are pretty anxious because they had started this process yesterday. Of course our flight gets delayed 3 hours again and Luna has a meltdown in the airport. Luckily, she stopped when we got on our flight. I really wish that was what actually happened, but I’m lying. We again got delayed once we boarded the tiny 20 person flight to Chicago. To recap, we were stuck in the smallest aircraft ever for over an hour before the flight took off with an absolutely devastated, screaming kitten. PSA: do not judge parents of screaming children (or cat children). It was the most stressful experience for all of us. Once we got on the longer flight to Munich though, the cats did MUCH better. They slept for the first 5 or so hours, and were a little fussy the rest of the way, but it was much less noticeable.

Finally we arrived in Munich. It was 9:00 AM and we were absolutely exhausted, physically and emotionally. Dr. Koehler (my advisor) picked us all up from the airport, after the easiest customs process I’ve ever experienced, and took us to our AirBnB. The kitties finally fully relaxed and we could breathe. Oh wait, I now got super sick (poor Matt). It was most likely from all of the stress, but I could not sleep or eat and I was constantly nauseous. This would not have been a big deal if I had a little space to myself, but our AirBnB was one tiny room without a toilet. It was rough. I was about to turn 29 the next day (which is already not the best birthday), I was so sick and stressed about finding an apartment with all our requirements, and we were NOT close to Munich. We were, in fact, in European Nebraska (see pictures - a TON of farms). This was certainly my lowest point. I called my mom sobbing on my birthday, wondering if I made a huge mistake that I dragged Matt and the kittens into. Being the amazing woman she is, she calmed me down and told me to take everything one step at a time.

And now the story gets good! With insane luck, Matt and I found the most incredible apartment in the middle of Munich within a week. It takes people months here to find a place, and we moved in 7 days after our arrival to a completely furnished place, so saying we were lucky is a huge understatement. Weirdly, I finally was no longer sick :)

Matt and I got a chance to explore some amazing parts of Munich and embrace living in a big city for the first time. If you’re wondering, Munich is absolutely incredible - it is clean, safe, and vibrant. Living here now feels like a dream (albeit, a very loud one with Oktoberfest going on right now haha!). Thus far, we have loved walking around Marienplatz, visiting incredible museums (sorta), and watching Bayern Munich play at pubs. We also love taking advantage of traveling on weekends when Matt is not working as a cook at an American Breakfast place :)

Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst (Egyptian Museum)

While much more has happened, there will be more posts to detail our adventures to Salzburg, Austria and Dachau Concentration Camp, which we went to in our first two weeks of living in Munich. But for now, rest assured, we are healthy, secure, and so happy. Until next time, friends!

Love,

Alexandra and Matthew (and Harry and Luna)

They’re settling in quite well now (Harry is on the left, Luna is on the right)