Aufgabe acht: Auf Wiedersehen München
Well, I sit here in Marienplatz train station awaiting my train back out to Unterhub. Kay & I leave tomorrow morning to head to the airport. He has to head out for a business trip for the day, and I head to Cologne. Tom will be joining us in Cologne as well.
Munich? Well, it's cold. I'm ganz sicher that in summer this is an absolutely beautiful city. I also explored it at something of an odd time, only during the week, and only in the off season. I enjoyed it. I did some shopping, did some sightseeing, did some eating (more on that later), and went out some bit. But mostly, I slept. Last night I was wide awake for most of the night, but it gave me a chance to check out some surprisingly exciting nightlife... not bad for a Tuesday night!
My friend Andreas had to get up early for a day trip to Berlin, So we went out to dinner, talked again for awhile, then he went home. He handed me the keys, and I went out on the evening. It was really quite tame, but without a translator, I was on for own for conversation... and surprisingly I did very very well. Three days in the city surrounded by Germans finally kicked in for me. I had several compliments on my German, and people wondered how being from the US that I would know German. "Das ist eine interessante Geschichte..." I would start. And they found it interesting as well.
So I checked a few places out. I went to Edelheiss, ("Du machst mein Edel-heiss" is their slogan. It's a silly slogan really and really doesn't mean anything, other than a cute play on words. Edelweiss is a flower (native to Bavaria) and Edel simply means "noble". "Heiss" means hot, but as you can see, yeah, it means nothing. There was only only a few people in there, but it soon filled up. Apparently a group of guys came in from seeing a play. We sat around, I had a couple Weissbiers, and got to practice my German. It's really interesting. I find some people respond differently when they find out you speak English. Some can't wait to practice English, and no matter how much German you try and use, they'll go back to English. Others go as long as until you make a mistake, then will only use English. Others might correct you or explain something in English, then go right back to German. That's my favorite, and that's what most people were like. And everyone was very nice.
So I checked out a couple different places. After that I went to the Ochsengarten. (Interesting root of the English word. In German, it's "ein Ochs, viele Ochsen", and English it's "one Ox, many Oxen"... that's why the plural is "oxen".) Talked the to a really nice guy for a bit. He actually used to live in Silicon Valley for several months in the late 90s. "Es gefällt ihn sehr"... he liked it a lot. I told him about where I lived and what I did. Then I chatted with another guy. He took me to a couple more places. It was fun, but it got late. I figure I'd go back, wake up Andreas for his flight, and then get some sleep.
Today, I didn't do that much. I did get up about 11:00 AM, but took a nap later in the afternoon, just real brief. I went to the Hauptbahnhof to go to the FC Bayern store and pick up a soccer jersey. I caught up with stuff online, and I went out to dinner. Man, being alone, I didn't know where to go, so I walked around in the very cold evening looking for a place. I had walked by a pasta place, and it looked fine, but looked at the menu, it was billig, downright cheap, with dishes between 3.50-5 Euros. I wanted something quick but nice, and didn't really want anything too cheap, so I walked by it. I walked around and didn't really find anything to suit me, so I walked back to check it out. I ended up having the gnocchi (one good thing about going to an international restaurant: international food names, well, for the most part). Oh my god. The best gnoochis I'd ever had in my entire life. They were the size of marshmellows, and just as fluffy, in a creamy tomato sauce with chunks of tomatoes. Man that was good.
So I went back to Andreas', picked up my stuff, and now here I am. Munich was fun, but I'll definitely be back next time when it's a bit warmer. Auf Wiedersehen!
Munich? Well, it's cold. I'm ganz sicher that in summer this is an absolutely beautiful city. I also explored it at something of an odd time, only during the week, and only in the off season. I enjoyed it. I did some shopping, did some sightseeing, did some eating (more on that later), and went out some bit. But mostly, I slept. Last night I was wide awake for most of the night, but it gave me a chance to check out some surprisingly exciting nightlife... not bad for a Tuesday night!
My friend Andreas had to get up early for a day trip to Berlin, So we went out to dinner, talked again for awhile, then he went home. He handed me the keys, and I went out on the evening. It was really quite tame, but without a translator, I was on for own for conversation... and surprisingly I did very very well. Three days in the city surrounded by Germans finally kicked in for me. I had several compliments on my German, and people wondered how being from the US that I would know German. "Das ist eine interessante Geschichte..." I would start. And they found it interesting as well.
So I checked a few places out. I went to Edelheiss, ("Du machst mein Edel-heiss" is their slogan. It's a silly slogan really and really doesn't mean anything, other than a cute play on words. Edelweiss is a flower (native to Bavaria) and Edel simply means "noble". "Heiss" means hot, but as you can see, yeah, it means nothing. There was only only a few people in there, but it soon filled up. Apparently a group of guys came in from seeing a play. We sat around, I had a couple Weissbiers, and got to practice my German. It's really interesting. I find some people respond differently when they find out you speak English. Some can't wait to practice English, and no matter how much German you try and use, they'll go back to English. Others go as long as until you make a mistake, then will only use English. Others might correct you or explain something in English, then go right back to German. That's my favorite, and that's what most people were like. And everyone was very nice.
So I checked out a couple different places. After that I went to the Ochsengarten. (Interesting root of the English word. In German, it's "ein Ochs, viele Ochsen", and English it's "one Ox, many Oxen"... that's why the plural is "oxen".) Talked the to a really nice guy for a bit. He actually used to live in Silicon Valley for several months in the late 90s. "Es gefällt ihn sehr"... he liked it a lot. I told him about where I lived and what I did. Then I chatted with another guy. He took me to a couple more places. It was fun, but it got late. I figure I'd go back, wake up Andreas for his flight, and then get some sleep.
Today, I didn't do that much. I did get up about 11:00 AM, but took a nap later in the afternoon, just real brief. I went to the Hauptbahnhof to go to the FC Bayern store and pick up a soccer jersey. I caught up with stuff online, and I went out to dinner. Man, being alone, I didn't know where to go, so I walked around in the very cold evening looking for a place. I had walked by a pasta place, and it looked fine, but looked at the menu, it was billig, downright cheap, with dishes between 3.50-5 Euros. I wanted something quick but nice, and didn't really want anything too cheap, so I walked by it. I walked around and didn't really find anything to suit me, so I walked back to check it out. I ended up having the gnocchi (one good thing about going to an international restaurant: international food names, well, for the most part). Oh my god. The best gnoochis I'd ever had in my entire life. They were the size of marshmellows, and just as fluffy, in a creamy tomato sauce with chunks of tomatoes. Man that was good.
So I went back to Andreas', picked up my stuff, and now here I am. Munich was fun, but I'll definitely be back next time when it's a bit warmer. Auf Wiedersehen!
posted by Joe Carlin at 12:13 AM
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