Hello all! Long time, no blog, I know. But I’ve been hopping around at breakneck speed and then plunging to a standstill in the Greek Islands where I was unable to find time to blog due to my hectic schedule of eating greek yogurt, lying on the beach, swimming, lying on the beach some more, wandering around town, and eating more greek yogurt, more on those thrilling activities in a later post though.
I’m now on a ferry from Paros to Santorini, and will use this time to give an overview of Munich, and maybe Prague as well if I have time!
I said goodbye to Copenhagen early in the morning and made the long journey (eleven hour train ride) to Munich. A rainstorm prevented me from exploring the city that evening (this is becoming an all too common theme on this trip) and so I started early the next day to hit the town. In classic ‘Lindsey-travels-to-a-new-city’ style, I began my time in Munich just wandering, checking out the small streets, the city center, the outdoor market, and of course, the many food options.
Munich is in Bavaria, the Alpine region of Germany, and it definitely had that mountain culture feel that I love. In fact, I came across at least four outdoor outfitters stores that would put even the grandest of REIs (I think that may be the one in Seattle) to shame. These stores were SEVEN HUGE floors tall and filled with every piece of climbing, hiking, biking, traveling, paddling, and running gear imaginable. I was in heaven and spent an inordinate amount of time (considering I didn’t actually buy anything) walking through the pine-scented palaces.
A less ridiculous aspect of Munich that I also enjoyed was the Viktualienmarkt, a huge outdoor market that sells a whole score of fresh fruit, vegetables, breads, cheeses, meats, olives, and lots of other edible goods and crafts. All the food looked amazing, and there was a lovely friendly atmosphere, with rows and rows of bustling market stalls interspersed with shady beer gardens. One amusing thing I noted about this market, that classified it as truly German as opposed to other market counterparts frequently found in sunnier, more Southern locations, was that all the fruits and vegetables were lined up in perfectly straight rows, there were no overflowing stacks of aubergines or precariously placed apricots, everything was safely in its exact right place.
At this point Munich was doing a swell job of checking boxes on the ‘my favorite things’ list. Mountain culture; check, massive outdoor stores; check, markets with fresh produce; check. What is left? Oh yes, if I needed any more reason to like Munich, it was provided in a store called “mymuesli.” That is correct, there is a whole freakin’ store dedicated to muesli, if that is not an example of capitalism gone right, than I just don’t know what is.
While traveling I’m all for trying local cuisine, if it’s something I actually want that is. If you’ll remember, I happily dug into croissants and brown bread, muesli and smørrebrød, all with enjoyment! Traditional German cuisine doesn’t do much for me though. So in Munich I passed on the sausages and potatoes in favor of salads and soups and fruit from the market. One bit of Munich-based gastronomy that I did try however was the pretzel. Munich is famous for their pretzels, and as a pretzel appreciator (but probably not lover), I decided to give one a try. Yep, it was pretty good, but it was just a pretzel, end of story.
My second day in Munich was Fourth of July! For some odd reason I absolutely love Fourth of July and so I was a little sad to be spending it away from good ‘ol Amurrca. I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m the most patriotic person out there, but at home, the fourth of July is a wonderful combination of an early morning fourth of July race, breakfast out, time in the sun, fresh blueberries, corn on the cob, dinner on the grill, a dessert that involves homemade whip cream, and hanging out on the porch watching fireworks. Because I couldn’t have that this year, I tried for the next best things. I put on my most patriotic outfit (a pair of navy blue shorts and a white tee-shirt), visited a concentration camp, and ate Mexican food for dinner. Okay, so that may not actually be ‘the next best thing’ when it comes to the fourth of July, but it was an interesting day nonetheless.
The concentration camp I visited was Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp to open in Germany. I opted out of the guided tour and instead walked around the grounds, the barracks, the incinerators, and the poison gas showers on my own. Honestly, the experience felt similar to my experience at the Anne Frank house. Although I was sombered by the sights, it is so hard to truly understand just how real and horrible they were when the camp is full of big informational placards and swarms of other camera-toting tourists. Even though I’ve studied the holocaust multiple times, and read countless amazing and tragic books on the subject (I highly recommend Night by Elie Weisel), I think that because I’ve been so fortunate to grow up in an easy, safe place, that I will never fully be able to comprehend just how horrific something like the holocaust was.
The rest of the afternoon was spent quietly, wandering around Munich some more, taking in the beautiful architecture and the green and shady gardens. As I mentioned before, I headed to a Mexican place for dinner. Although, Mexican food doesn’t exactly scream fourth of July, I felt that this ‘chipotle-style’ burrito place felt much more like something that you’d find in the states than anywhere south ‘o the border. I concluded my Fourth of July and my time in Munich with a veggie and black bean burrito in the sunshine. Other than some suspiciously too-light green guacamole, the burrito did the trick, and added a little bit of home to this holiday.
There were many things about Munich that I really liked. It’s a cozy and friendly mountain town, with beautiful architecture, nice stores, and a wonderful market. I would love to come back during the holidays for the Christmas market. I’ve heard (and can well imagine) that it’s a magical place full of spicy cinnamon cookies, roasted chestnuts, warm mulled wine, and lots of wintery holiday cheer.
However, I had similar feelings towards Munich that I had towards Berlin, and I think I now better understand the feelings as well. I was not overwhelmed by any part of Munich and I did not drastically fall in love with it. Just like in Berlin, I appreciated it, but thought I could have got more out of it. I think that to me, Germany feels normal. I don’t experience dramatic positive or negative feelings towards it, because for the most part I understand it. Germany seems easy, calm, and structured. So although I left it with what I would say is neutral attachment, I really appreciated it nonetheless. It isn’t a place like Prague that I plan on shunning for the rest of my life (stay tuned for that), but rather a place I’d actually like to return to for a longer time, to live, and experience, and finally understand what exactly makes Germany.
When you write about your travels you want to be able to convey what makes a city in a single paragraph. You want to be able to share the sights, the smells, the sounds, and the culture in a set of beautifully crafted sentences so as to inspire everyone who reads them to want to understand the city as well. It’s so easy to construct these paragraphs in places like Ireland where there’s brown bread, and sweetly singing street musicians, and rolling green hills or in Paris where the streetlights reflect romantically on the Seine and accordion music flows through the narrow alleyways. The problem is that I can’t quite do this for Germany. I can say this is Germany, the place where the buildings are well-kempt and in straight lines, where the trains run on time, where the beer flows freely, but the well behaved citizens are calm and polite as they whiz around on their bicycles and pop by the bakery to pick up a loaf of bread. This may adequately describe Germany, but I think it’s a surface description. I know there’s more to this country, and someday I will return and I will write that paragraph that will make all who read it jet off to this country of who knows exactly what.
Soleil et Café 