Accounts of Munich and the Unsolved Case of the Smelly Roommates

A lot of people say that they often regret things they haven’t done more so than things they have done. While traveling, my friend and I almost had one of these situations, but events unfolded that made us very proud of something we did not do.

Before we begin, I need to explain something about swimmers many people may not be aware of. In general, we HATE being wet. Maybe it stems from the worst part of practice. For those of you wondering, “What is the worst part of a swim practice?” I can confidently say it is the following: jumping into the pool.

So, why is this information appearing in a travel blog? Let’s rewind to July 2016 in Munich, Germany. My friend from back home came to visit me in Europe as I had been living in Sweden since January. We planned a mini 2 week Eurotrip and one of our stops was Munich and it was fantastic!

When we arrived our first evening at our hostel we were relieved to find that we didn’t have any roommates that night. Don’t get me wrong, we absolutely love meeting people which is one major reason we stay in hostels. However, we were just beat and wanted some time to ourselves to do some much needed catching up on each other’s lives and then go to bed.

The next day we went on a Mike’s Bike Tour, which I would highly recommend to anyone going to Munich. We laughed and encouraged the people on our tour when the group of us collectively struggled biking up hills (there are not too many so no worries), we got the history rundown on the city which made my inner nerd soul smile, we witnessed the river surfers, spent time relaxing and chatting in an enormous beer garden, and the staff were wonderful. Now that I gave the company free advertising let’s move on.

We continued our day at the Olympic Park which had us in awe with the fun stadium buildings, the amazing competition pool, and how well the park was utilized after. There were tons of people training, sunbathing, preparing for concerts, and the energy was great.

We explored more of the city and walked around in the heat so when we finally returned to our hostel in the evening we were in a similar situation as the night before. We were tired and kind of hoping we would have the room to ourselves so we could just crash, especially since we had an activity the next day early in the morning.

Here is where that swimmer background will come in handy. When we go back to the hostel we did not want to shower. Now, when you are a retired swimmer the loathing of being wet doesn’t merely cease to exist. No, no, no. What does this mean? Most of us do NOT enjoy taking showers unless it is necessary. For instance, after a tough workout where you are dripping sweat or after swimming in the ocean and you can season your own food by wiping the excess salt off your arm. Yes, these are situations to shower because they have been earned by a day well spent.

So, why didn’t we just shower? It’s been over a year and we are still trying to figure out why we were so against this since we definitely fit the criteria for a necessary shower. However, this incidence of not wanting to shower is not that simple as it seems and requires more detail. We did not shower, but it was evident by the bags in the room that we were no longer alone. We had washed our feet, but thought there was still a chance we might still be a little smelly. Out of courtesy for our roommates we decided to do everything in our power to hide any possibility of a bad odor and being ‘those’ people, but there was no way we were going to shower. Again, I cannot explain why we were so against this.

How did we handle the situation? The exact opposite of what we should have done. We tried to do things that gave off a strong and distinct smell that could be easily placed when people walked in. What does this mean? Well, here are some examples. First, we put on a whole bunch of sunscreen. When we weren’t sure if that would be enough we decided to blast the hair dryer to its full capacity to give off a ‘heat smell’, but then we realized all of this made everything much, much worse! At this point my friend attempted washing her socks in the sink so we could blame the stench on the wet clothes and maybe the smell of the soap would be good. I think you can figure out what happened next. Yep, we became THE SMELLY ROOMMATES! We realized too late what we had done. Instead of only having a chance of being just slightly smelly we now without a question absolutely reeked!

At this time, we were standing in the middle of the room and looked around us only to discover something tragic… we were rooming with guys. We panicked because we could not be the smelly roommates when there were dudes around! Oh no, if anyone was supposed to be smelly it was them, not us!

There was an obvious solution to our problem which both of our boyfriends had advised us to do since we had updated them on our pickle. Shower. Our actual solution? Go to bed now and try to cover our stench under the covers so they think it is just the room that smells and not us. If they enter before we fall asleep we’ll pretend we’re sleeping so they can’t ask any questions. Genius! This way we can get away with our crime without giving into the shower, we had come too far to fail now! We actually talked about this, showering was not an option at this point after everything we had done. Today we still don’t understand our logic behind this.

Our new plan was underway, I was already in bed while my friend only had to hang up her – now more smelly – wet socks and hop under the covers. Then it happened. One of the roommates walked in. Not only that, he walked in with a clean load of laundry which meant there was no way of pinning the smelliness on him. We unfortunately had to talk with both of our roommates before the lights went out. Fortunately, they both seemed very cool and were clearly kind people since they never mentioned anything about the room’s ‘condition’.

The next morning, we headed to the train station for a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle. No, we did not shower beforehand because we did not want to wake up earlier and we knew we had to get out fast before our roommates noticed we were the source of the room’s ‘scent’. More on this issue later.

If you ever find yourself in the Bavarian area a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle is an absolute must! The views are breathtaking, the story behind King Ludwig II or “Mad King Ludwig” is interesting, and the castle itself might be how fairytales came to be because you feel like a princess walking through this majestic place. I regret not trying to fly after walking out of the castle because odds are that pixie dust fell on me at some points while walking through the halls.

Anyway, when we arrived back at our hostel we had almost forgotten about our ‘situation’. We were quickly reminded when we opened the door and were smacked in the face by a wall of pure stink. We felt great relief when there were no signs of our roommates in the area. New mission: shower as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Luck was on our side this time as we successfully completed this task. Mission accomplished. We finished right in the knick of time too because our roommates came in just as we were about to set off for Hofbrahaus. We ended up chatting with them for a while and they decided to join us.

As the night went on my friend and I changed our views from dreading bumping into our roommates to being thrilled to have met them. They said nothing about the state of the room and we had a blast! At Hofbrahuas you sit at community tables so you meet a lot of people, groups bang their enormous beer mugs in good cheer, the food is delicious, the traditional music is fun and lively, and we danced in a conga line.

When we arrived back at the hostel we stayed up for a while longer talking to our roommates and playing cards. Then something incredible occurred. One of the guys said, “I am SO happy we roomed with the two of you. It’s great rooming with girls because you made it smell all girly and shit in here.” Our other roommate readily agreed and explained how bad our room smelled and how thankful he was to have us fix it.

No words had to be exchanged between my friend and I to express our disbelief about how we basically, not only got away with murder, but were being praised for it! Unbelievable! They truly had no idea we were the cause of the problem.

In the end, I have some advice for anyone planning travels to Munich. If you want an amazing experience, do the following things: take a Mike’s Bike Tours, visit Neuschwanstein Castle, explore the Olympic Park, go to Hofbrahuas, and for your own sake and for the sake of those around you, take a shower! Why we didn’t want to do this in the first place and how we escaped detection from our roommates knowing the truth behind why the room smelled so awful is still a mystery to us and we believe this case will remain unsolved. Our story is not among other unanswered questions such as, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” We will also stand with the answer to that questions, “The world will never know.” Not only that, but we will always remain very proud of this victory over not taking a shower. We have no regrets.