I just returned from a four-day trip to Munich, Germany. I went to Munich for three reasons: 1.) to hike the Alps, 2.) to drink beer, and 3.) to buy yarn.
My trip started off a bit rocky Friday when I had trouble contacting the host I was staying with. I had booked a room through Airbnb with a small family (a mother and her two teenagers). I was jet-lagged and culture shocked, and I had trouble calling her to arrange to drop my bag off. (FYI buying a local sim card in the airport was cheap and easy). I called for hours and couldn't reach her (turns out I had copied the number wrong). My bag was awkward, and I couldn't really do any sightseeing with it. After struggling with pulling it down the cobblestone seats in the city center, I finally decided to just show up on her doorstep.
Although I figured out the complicated metro system fairly quickly, the house was on the other end of Munich, and by the time I got there I was feeling pretty exasperated. I channeled Ford from The Hitchiker's Guide and repeated "Don't Panic" every time I found myself in a situation I wasn't sure how to get out of. Luckily, the host was there waiting for me. All I wanted to do was retreat to my room and be still and quiet to process everything I had just done, but she wanted to talk and visit a bit. We sat in her lovely garden and talked until I had to leave to meet my friends.
This is the calming view of her garden from my room:
Hugh, one of my dear friends from college in Mississippi has been living in Germany for six years, so he and his husband took the train down from near Hanover to spend the weekend in Munich. We had planned to meet at Aumeister, a lovely and non-touristy biergarten in the north part of the English Garden. It took me a while to get there, especially since TWICE I got on a train that did not go far enough and stopped in the middle of the tunnel between two stops. I sat there (twice!) and watched the conductor leave and sat alone in a hot, empty metro. I finally figured out the right metro to take and made it to the beautiful biergarten in the Englischer Garten. It is nestled in a green forest near a river and is relaxing and not crowded.
It was delightful to see Hugh. He looked exactly the same, and I recognized him immediately. He introduced me to Mario, his husband, a kind German man Hugh met in Atlanta nine years ago. Not only is same sex marriage legal in Germany, but the law was recently changed so that the tax benefits are the same for all marriages.
Here's Hugh looking dapper on his birthday:
We caught up on the last 15 years of our lives. They told me about their life and neighbors in the small town they live in, and I told them about life in Dubai and my family. I drank a Helle beer that was fruity and delicious. We decided to go downtown to get dinner. We found a sushi place, and they educated me on some German customs, such as tipping, which I was doing wrong. "Never leave money on the table," Mario told me. He said the next customer would just take the money, and it turns out I was also leaving too much because waiters are salaried unlike they are in the US.
I was quickly learning that it was quite difficult to get around without German. I had learned some basic phrases before coming, but with the jet lag and stress of culture shock, most of those phrases flew right out my head. Of course I know that "nein" is "no," and "thank you" is "danka," but for some reason the words wouldn't come out when I needed them to. It was pretty obvious that Germans found my lack of German rude, and I became painfully shy in social situations. I remember learning about this in my Socio Linguistics course in grad school; there's even a name for it that I can't remember.
American Hugh has learned German so well that he could even translate the ingredients on the back of my vending machine gummy candy. So well, in fact, that he forgot English to some extent. Talking with Hugh was entertaining at times, like talking to someone with aphasia. It had been so long since he had spoken English regularly that he forgot some words and use the wrong words in place of his intended words. It was fun, like playing word association.
The next day we met at the Deutches Museum, which was interesting. It is a technical museum that displays at things on micro levels. I saw pumps and drills that I didn't know existed. Especially riveting (actually it was), was the exhibit on weights and measures.
It was marvelous seeing Hugh. He's one of those friends that you don't have to talk to or see very often to stay close. We still finished each others sentences, and we fell into place just like we did when we were 19. We reminisced about old teachers and friends and poems we wrote together.
After the museum we went shopping at a traditional Bavarian clothing store. Hugh had been wanting a janker, a traditional jacket that is often worn with liederhosen. So he tried a few on before finding the one he wanted. That was fun. Then we had dinner before parting and saying our goodbyes.
The next day was Sunday, and that was my hiking tour day. Please see this post for details about the hike.
Monday was my last day, but my flight didn't leave until 10 PM, so I had time to sightsee in the morning. My day started with this beautiful breakfast:
This was my view while eating breakfast:
Unfortunately, the yarn store and the museums I wanted to see are closed on Mondays, and the guidebook had the timings wrong, so I walked far distances to each to discover this fact. However, the Nueva Pinacoteca was open where I saw famous works by Picasso and Monet, among many others. On the way to the museum I found the street sign with Hugh's family name. He had wanted to see it while he was in Munich, but it was pretty far from where they were staying, so I don't know if he ever did. However, fortunately, I did!
To Griffin's delight, I stumbled across a Tesla car dealership:
I saw guys surfing on the rushing river in the English Garden:
I took my last walk through Munich and saw the sights:
I finished my time by buying some candies and things at the Viktualienmarkt, and I stopped in the city center and bought pretzels and apple streudel to take back home to Woody and Griffin.
At the airport biergarten I had my last Bavarian meal of white sausages, a pretzel, mustard, and beer:
I thought this was an interesting item on the menu: tap water, roll, and one cigarette:
With my last hour I drank a can of beer in the airport lobby and chatted with Woody on FB. I'm glad I saw Hugh and met Mario. I'm glad I hiked the Alps. However, I was very glad to get back to a place where I don't feel like an ass for speaking English, and I was even gladder to get back to my sweet little family. Now I'm recovering (my quads are still sore!) and resting up for our trip to Denmark and Sweden for which we depart in just five days.
My trip started off a bit rocky Friday when I had trouble contacting the host I was staying with. I had booked a room through Airbnb with a small family (a mother and her two teenagers). I was jet-lagged and culture shocked, and I had trouble calling her to arrange to drop my bag off. (FYI buying a local sim card in the airport was cheap and easy). I called for hours and couldn't reach her (turns out I had copied the number wrong). My bag was awkward, and I couldn't really do any sightseeing with it. After struggling with pulling it down the cobblestone seats in the city center, I finally decided to just show up on her doorstep.
Although I figured out the complicated metro system fairly quickly, the house was on the other end of Munich, and by the time I got there I was feeling pretty exasperated. I channeled Ford from The Hitchiker's Guide and repeated "Don't Panic" every time I found myself in a situation I wasn't sure how to get out of. Luckily, the host was there waiting for me. All I wanted to do was retreat to my room and be still and quiet to process everything I had just done, but she wanted to talk and visit a bit. We sat in her lovely garden and talked until I had to leave to meet my friends.
This is the calming view of her garden from my room:
Hugh, one of my dear friends from college in Mississippi has been living in Germany for six years, so he and his husband took the train down from near Hanover to spend the weekend in Munich. We had planned to meet at Aumeister, a lovely and non-touristy biergarten in the north part of the English Garden. It took me a while to get there, especially since TWICE I got on a train that did not go far enough and stopped in the middle of the tunnel between two stops. I sat there (twice!) and watched the conductor leave and sat alone in a hot, empty metro. I finally figured out the right metro to take and made it to the beautiful biergarten in the Englischer Garten. It is nestled in a green forest near a river and is relaxing and not crowded.
It was delightful to see Hugh. He looked exactly the same, and I recognized him immediately. He introduced me to Mario, his husband, a kind German man Hugh met in Atlanta nine years ago. Not only is same sex marriage legal in Germany, but the law was recently changed so that the tax benefits are the same for all marriages.
Here's Hugh looking dapper on his birthday:
We caught up on the last 15 years of our lives. They told me about their life and neighbors in the small town they live in, and I told them about life in Dubai and my family. I drank a Helle beer that was fruity and delicious. We decided to go downtown to get dinner. We found a sushi place, and they educated me on some German customs, such as tipping, which I was doing wrong. "Never leave money on the table," Mario told me. He said the next customer would just take the money, and it turns out I was also leaving too much because waiters are salaried unlike they are in the US.
I was quickly learning that it was quite difficult to get around without German. I had learned some basic phrases before coming, but with the jet lag and stress of culture shock, most of those phrases flew right out my head. Of course I know that "nein" is "no," and "thank you" is "danka," but for some reason the words wouldn't come out when I needed them to. It was pretty obvious that Germans found my lack of German rude, and I became painfully shy in social situations. I remember learning about this in my Socio Linguistics course in grad school; there's even a name for it that I can't remember.
American Hugh has learned German so well that he could even translate the ingredients on the back of my vending machine gummy candy. So well, in fact, that he forgot English to some extent. Talking with Hugh was entertaining at times, like talking to someone with aphasia. It had been so long since he had spoken English regularly that he forgot some words and use the wrong words in place of his intended words. It was fun, like playing word association.
The next day we met at the Deutches Museum, which was interesting. It is a technical museum that displays at things on micro levels. I saw pumps and drills that I didn't know existed. Especially riveting (actually it was), was the exhibit on weights and measures.
It was marvelous seeing Hugh. He's one of those friends that you don't have to talk to or see very often to stay close. We still finished each others sentences, and we fell into place just like we did when we were 19. We reminisced about old teachers and friends and poems we wrote together.
After the museum we went shopping at a traditional Bavarian clothing store. Hugh had been wanting a janker, a traditional jacket that is often worn with liederhosen. So he tried a few on before finding the one he wanted. That was fun. Then we had dinner before parting and saying our goodbyes.
The next day was Sunday, and that was my hiking tour day. Please see this post for details about the hike.
Monday was my last day, but my flight didn't leave until 10 PM, so I had time to sightsee in the morning. My day started with this beautiful breakfast:
This was my view while eating breakfast:
Unfortunately, the yarn store and the museums I wanted to see are closed on Mondays, and the guidebook had the timings wrong, so I walked far distances to each to discover this fact. However, the Nueva Pinacoteca was open where I saw famous works by Picasso and Monet, among many others. On the way to the museum I found the street sign with Hugh's family name. He had wanted to see it while he was in Munich, but it was pretty far from where they were staying, so I don't know if he ever did. However, fortunately, I did!
To Griffin's delight, I stumbled across a Tesla car dealership:
I saw guys surfing on the rushing river in the English Garden:
I took my last walk through Munich and saw the sights:
I finished my time by buying some candies and things at the Viktualienmarkt, and I stopped in the city center and bought pretzels and apple streudel to take back home to Woody and Griffin.
At the airport biergarten I had my last Bavarian meal of white sausages, a pretzel, mustard, and beer:
I thought this was an interesting item on the menu: tap water, roll, and one cigarette:
With my last hour I drank a can of beer in the airport lobby and chatted with Woody on FB. I'm glad I saw Hugh and met Mario. I'm glad I hiked the Alps. However, I was very glad to get back to a place where I don't feel like an ass for speaking English, and I was even gladder to get back to my sweet little family. Now I'm recovering (my quads are still sore!) and resting up for our trip to Denmark and Sweden for which we depart in just five days.
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