Landing in Munich was a breeze. The airport is quite easy to figure out. I boarded the ‘S-Bahn’ train line to ‘Moosach’ passing adorable German homes and very green strips of land along the way. You can’t really tell when you’ve reached the downtown core of the city, as Munich is basically just a huge village. The city has air rights restricting any high-rise buildings or skyscrapers from being built. There are a few but they are definitely no higher than 30 stories or so.
With no phone and no Internet, I wandered around until I could find a way to reach Anna to announce my arrival. I stopped for a coffee and struggled through my order having absolutely no German language skills. I ended up finding a Wi-Fi connection at a hotel that wouldn’t let me use their phone (so silly). I stood outside the hotel until a tall blond stopped in front of me and smiled. Anna! We hugged and jumped around, a little taken back at the fact that we were both in the same city again. We walked literally across the street into her apartment. I felt so silly for having wandered around for so long.
After a long two days of travelling, Anna treated me to a home-cooked meal, which was so nice as I had only eaten at restaurants and fast-food places in the past couples of weeks. We sat down and chatted away and actually never stopped chatting until I boarded the plane back to Brussels the following Monday. We had kept such a good relationship since going our separate ways from Jaipur last April that nothing had changed.
We thought we’d start out the beginning of the weekend on a very German note by going out for a beer. We took the tram to Marienplatz and walked along the touristy sites of the Glockenspiel and Frauenkirche, the biggest church in Munich, taking a stroll within its walls to admire the beauty. Of course the outside was under construction, as I am cursed with being surrounded by construction when I’m on a sight seeing vacation. Although I did used the Acropolis in Athens as an example to someone when explaining my curse and they hilariously replied with “it’s permanently under construction”.
To avoid the obvious tourist bars and pubs including the Hofbrauhaus, which I already had the pleasure of enjoying back in 2013, we decided on Kilians, an Irish/Australian pub. One side is super Irish and the other is extremely Australian. It's basically the same menu throughout both pubs but the décor says it all. We spent most of the night in the Irish part dancing to some funk music performed by a group of old foggies and drinking Augustine, a Bavarian beer that I quite liked. It’s an easy to drink lager with a fruity finish. Anna had class the following morning so I planned on doing some touristy things; maybe even buy some cute new accessories for my dirndl! That didn’t happen. I woke up at noon and was greeted by Anna around 2:30pm when I walked to the café across the street for my first meal of the day. Between the jet lag and German beer, there was no way I was leaving the haus before then. |
Dinner that night consisted of all things German including currywurst, pork schnitzel, salad, pretzels and white Bavarian beer.
The music inside was all deep house music, which I do like, but it is much more enjoyable when every since person in the club is the best Euro house dancer I’ve ever seen. They were all shuffling and letting loose. Some I didn’t even see buy a single beer all night, they were just grooving! I tried to copy their insanely music video worthy dance moves but looked so foolish. Luckily nobody was watching me because no one cared. Everyone was in their own world enjoying themselves and no one was on their phone. How veird right?! We ended up leaving at 5:00am, still full of energy.
Saturday morning was spent being toured around some of the historic sites of downtown Munich including the English gardens, which are beautiful even in winter, the markets outside of Marienplatz, which are extremely adorable, and circling Odeonsplatz. It was such a beautiful day for walking around. At about 14 degrees Celsius, which is apparently very rare for January in Germany, it gave me a perfect opportunity to check out a good view of the Alps as well. We travelled via “S-Bahn” train to Starnberg, being greeted by a beautiful lake as soon as we stepped off the train. We walked out onto one of the docks to take photos and “ooo” and “aww” over the sightline. In the distance were rows and rows of beautiful mountains, dusted in snow; the German Alps. We ended up talking to an older German gentleman who was sitting at the end of one of the docks who invited us to join him as he sat eating oysters and drinking wine. Could he be more cool?!
The bus to Stuttgart was about 3-hours, which I napped and ate through. We had packed dinner for the ride including turkey sandwiches on dense German bread, salami sticks and pretzels (of course). Dominic, Anna’s boyfriend, picked us up at the bus station in Stuttgart. We were planning to do a drive through of the city but unfortunately it was pouring rain, so we did a quick trip up one of the bigger hills so we could check out the lights of the city below. We stayed at Dominic’s family home that evening which I absolutely loved. His parents were a hilarious couple of Germans who instantly fed me späztle and beer upon arrival and joked with me in English. They were so sweet and we all shared some laughs on the couch before bed.
Rising early to make it into Heidelberg before noon, we all sat down at 9am for a breakfast of boiled eggs and fresh breads served with jams, butter and Nutella (obviously I chose the pretzel bread with Nutella as my topping). We said our goodbyes and packed up the car for a quick stop at Ludwigsburg Palace and then on to Heidelberg. The palace is beautiful. Modelled after the Palace of Versailles in France, it is painted pale colors, surrounded by beautiful gardens that I am sure are all types of colorful in summer, with a huge fountain in front of the entrance. Apparently in present day, German brides wait years and years on a waiting list to marry within its romantic walls, and pay a couple grand to do so.
Our meeting spot in Heidelberg was the central station, which is probably not even a quarter of the size of Toronto’s Union station; it’s very petit and very adorable, as is everything in Germany. It was a little cold Sunday but the sun escaped the clouds every 20-minutes or so to warm us up. Josh arrived with his friend Nikolai via tram from Mannheim, where he lives and works in the hospital. I instantly sprinted into a running hug, filled with excitement to see him. They were both hung-over, having been out a little too late on Saturday night, which was a great reason to torture them throughout the day with long walks and lots of photos. We started the day off by walking the longest shopping and car free zone in Europe, Hauptstrasse. With brick roads and colorful buildings, I definitely felt like I was in the middle of Europe. We took a turn further up the street to head up to the Heidelberg Castle. Josh introduced the two ideas of how to get to the castle, which sits high on a hill watching over the city. Number one is of course to walk it or number two, take a short train ride. As hangover torture, we chose to walk, which I’m sure they weren’t thrilled about even though they smiled through it. Most of the castle is pretty destroyed but the balconies give you a incredible view of Heidelberg.
The day ended too quickly and it was soon dark out again as we made our way back towards central station. I hugged Josh and Nikolai goodbye, while summing up our quickly made up future travel plans that may one day include adventuring through Berlin, Spain and possibly a road trip across Canada. “In Germany, you always meet twice” Nikolai reminded me.
What a coincidence that I was meeting two German friends for the second time in their home country…
Monday in Brussels was cold and exhausting. I boarded a bus to the city in hopes of having the energy to run around from site to site but my legs lagged and my back began to ache from over-packing my obnoxious pink backpack. It must have been 20 pounds or more. I walked passed the Royal Palace from the bus stop and my legs started to give out. I thought it was about time to feed my tired body. I passed a few more sites including The Halle Gate when I realized my phone was out of batteries and out of photo storage. If that's not a sign to go back to the airport and rest, I don’t know what is.
I am currently sitting in a very young and hip hostel in the middle of downtown Delhi, Zostel, near the New Delhi train station. The trains honk every minute therefore I am unable to sleep and my shower was freezing. All I can do is laugh and remember why I love this place so much. You just have to deal with what you are given and soak in the whole experience.
I'm home mother India!
Jazz