1 post tagged “day 1 and 2”

you darkness, that i come from
i love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes
a circle of light for everyone,
and then no one outside learns from you

but the darkness pulls in everything:
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them! -
powers and people

and it is possible a great energy
is moving near me.

i have faith in nights.

-rilke

I spent last weekend (friday-monday)  in Munich with a friend who had to go over to pick up her new car. While it might seem a little crazy to travel 10 hours to only spend a weekend in a city I think it's perfectly practical to do so. I like doing short trips and soaking up as much as possible in that short amount of time and if I like the place I''ll come back again and maybe spend more time. I had never been to Germany before so I didn't really know what to expect besides lots of sausage , sauerkraut and raving david hasselhoff fans. We flew out with Lufthansa which I think of as a moderately better version of United but not much more although it was a bonus to have some pretty fräuleins as part of the airline staff as opposed to the traditional battle axes of most american airlines who can be quite rude at times. My  general feeling for most american airlines is quite low as customer service is not a priority. Alas, that is a whole other post.

We landed in Frankfurt in the afternoon and proceeded to work our way around the maze that is their terminal through many twists and bends. I'm sure there was a better way for us to get around but we were in a daze and just trying to make it to our next flight. What got me really excited was hearing people speak in another language. I usually travel to places where english is the norm and it's nice to hear other languages and even though german isn't exactly pleasant on the ears like french I was in love as soon as I heard people speaking. I did german in high school but it's been many years since I've had to fake being interested in languages so my skills are really rusty beyond "guten tag. wie gehts?".  Having made it to our next flight it took about 30 minutes and we were in Munich. The great thing about certain european cities is the public transportation systems they have and we figured it would be a good idea to catch the train into the city. Thereupon we hit our first test in our new foreign land picking which ticket to select with their machine. Never mind they have a button for english all the tickets are labeled in german. After looking through the list and being able to decipher bits of text we selected a choice that other travelers seemed to agree would make sense for us. The wisdom of the crowds prevailed although we discovered we could have bought a partner card and saved 9 euros but alas as n00bs in a new land we were bound to make some mistakes. A friendly german gentleman offered to help us out but we were set. A theme throughout our stay was how  friendly everyone was and were always willing to help out. I guess I had this impression that germans were quite reserved and unfriendly but at least the ones we encountered weren't like that at all. Our next faux pas was to pick the wrong station to stop at but it was small since it was only a 5 minute walk to our hotel as opposed to 1 minute. After getting refreshed at the hotel and catching up on some german culture (german music channels :P) we headed out to Marienplatz the main market area.

The forecast for the weekend was that it would rain but we were lucky at the time we arrived because it was warm and sunny. We strolled around Marienplatz and decided to grab a quick bite to eat at an outdoor cafe. I love the idea of a large outdoor area with cafes it's so perfect to sit, drink and eat. It's also a great place to observe and absorb the feel of a place. I of course had to have some sausage and sauerkraut to fulfill some kind of stereotype of german food. With a beer in one hand and some sausage in another we did the only sensible thing you can do in a situation like this and that is to have a bit of a perv (note i'm using this in the aussie benign sense of the word as in to look at people not be a creepy stalker staring someone down) on the locals. What is amazing is the confluence of cultures we saw there. Besides the boring tourists like us you had young kids all looking like the 80s had attacked them with vengence, muslims with hijabs and burkahs (some who were really blinged out), old people wandering around perhaps thinking fondly of a past where neon wasn't so fashionable. While in San Francisco we do have many different kinds of people I just felt the contrast was greater in Munich because it's unusual for us to see women completely covered head to toe. I think it's also one of those things over the next 50 years where the demographics in germany will continue to change because of the nature of the EU. While I'm sure there are many issues with integrating vastly different cultures it's just exciting to see it happening in front of you. After having our fill of food and people we strolled around to check out the glockenspiel and other sites. I love old cities with their winding streets and old buildings it's really a feast for the eyes. It also turns out that weekend was gay pride and they were setting up the stage in the middle of the square so there was lots of construction going on. The skies started turning ominous and we knew our luck had run out and by the time we returned to our hotel room the skies had opened up. Not being able to fight sleep anymore I was out while my friend JT decided to do some work (those bay area types).

I ended waking up at 3am and heading down to the foyer to catch up on reading so I didn't disturb JT and incur her wrath. I started to get really hungry around 5 and I headed up to the room where JT was again on her computer emailing people. We could either wait an hour or head out to try and find something to eat. We spotted a burger king (don't judge) not too far and we went over to check it out. However, horror of horrors they didn't do any breakfast sandwiches and it seemed odd to have a burger that early in the morning though all the drunk clubbers didn't seem to have a problem. The next best choice was a small stand selling a variety baked goods and I settled for a croissant with sausage which didn't taste too bad. We went back to the hotel room and decided we were hungry again so went down to the hotel restaurant where we had breakfast part deux  and  were amused by the music being played which had a healthy selection of 80s music including the ghost busters theme song. Being sufficiently stuffed yet moderately mobile we prepared to head out and pick up JT's new baby.

Having become experts the day before in munich public transportation we tried it again to head out to the BMW headquarters which is an extremely beautiful set of buildings. Germans have an incredible sense of design style when it comes to extremely modern looks. The next few hours were really for JT to learn and play around with her new toy. It's an extremely pretty car and I have some choice video of her initial reaction to it plus homage to where the hell is matt. If only i could share it ;). After all the formalities were done and we stuffed ourselves with more food (this is recurring theme) we took it for it's first ride out of the place. We had to stop outside so JT could pick up some stuff from the shop and on our way out there was a group on young guys who were maybe 15 and they started to cheer. I think it may have been because JT looked very cool getting into this shiny new car or perhaps I looked really dorky getting into the passengers seat ;). The car is a convertible but unfortunately the clouds opened up so we had to drive the whole weekend with the top on. We raced back into the city with me as navigator (a terrible idea if you know me because my sense of direction is way off) but we managed to find our way back. After checking out of Le Meridian we checked into the hotel we would spend the rest of the weekend at Konigshof hotel which is right in the middle of Karlsplatz.

Our next adventure and perhaps a mistake was to go to Hofbrauhaus a large tourist infested beer house. We walked through Marienplatz in the pouring rain and spent a little bit of time checking out the pride concert and then walked into a den of drunkenness. Inside was way too warm so we sat outside in the rain and after waiting 10 minutes to find someone to serve us and find an english menu I had a beer with an umbrella in my other hand. If you're going to munich and even though the tourist guides say you should check it out I'd avoid it and and look for another beer hall somewhere else where more locals hang out. We didn't last too long there and the jet lag began to hit so it was nap time for JT and myself. Naps featured quite a bit during this trip for obvious reasons .

We had made plans to check out the hotel's restaurant because it has a michelin star and since we were staying there we thought it would be neat to try out. The downside of all of this is that I had to wear a real shirt. Yes, on this weekend trip I had to bring a bona-fide button up shirt *sigh*. The restaurant itself has a really interesting ambiance and when we walked in we were warmly greeted by the staff. As you've guessed by now I love food but I'm not fussy eater and the food I had was awesome. Everything tasted really fresh and by the time I was done with my main meal I couldn't fathom having dessert which disappointed me greatly because I love sugar and all its goodness. However they did offer me some tasty little treats to compensate. Given the staff was so friendly we asked our waiter where we could go that night to have some fun at either a bar or club. He wrote up a list for us and was extremely helpful. The whole dining experience was first class and if you're in Munich eat at the hotel even if you don't stay there. On our way out to check out one of the clubs our waiter told us about we bumped into him as he was getting off his shift. Being such a friendly chap he invited to take us out although I suspect it was more because JT was around than anything to do with me. We ended up at a club called Max and Moritz which I'm sure is like most other clubs (I don't go clubbing that often) and he seemed to know someone there and we got to cut the line and go in. German's seem to love house music and it was thumping as we got in and the scene seemed really fun. We spent some time dancing and our new friends had to leave us which left JT and myself to dance till after 3am. The great thing about german clubs is they close really late and the vibe was still going when we left. Perhaps the highlight of the night was that the DJ mixed our new favorite song bettina, zieh dir bitte etwas an by fettes brot. We had picked up the song while doing some culture acclimatisation in the hotel (german  mtv ;)).  It seemed we weren't the only ones to like the song since as soon as it came on we got very excited and so did everyone else which surprised us. The song is actually quite filthy and is about this game show hostess who used to take off her clothes if people go their answers right. We had no idea about the actual meaning of the song before and we had to get someone in the hotel to tell us the name of the song and he was quite reluctant to tell us the actual meaning which meant we had to do some googling. As we staggered out the realisation dawned on me we were going to check some castles that day and I wasn't sure how much sleep we'd end up getting before heading out. I'll leave the next two days of our journey for another post.

tschüss