After spending a leisurely month in Rome, my time in Prague and Berlin were exhausting. Only four days in each city means I had to power through hours and hours of walking and sight seeing daily just to see everything I wanted to see. No time could be wasted! So I was really looking forward to a long train ride from Berlin to Munich. The train was one of those high speed Euro trains and my first class seat was comfortable and quiet. Exactly what I needed to regroup and relax. I listened to music and stared out the window, thinking about everything I'd seen and experienced these last few weeks and looking forward to what was yet to come. I never realized how big Germany was until those almost eight hours on the train...
When I arrived in Munich, I immediately noticed how different the city was from Berlin. Not better or worse, just different. Apples to oranges. It's more traditional, less modern, quieter, calmer, and more green. It's the capital of Bavaria and very charming. So I arrive at the main train station and get in a cab with my suitcase and say I'm going to the Charles Hotel and it turns out it's right down the street. Oops!! The cab driver was really nice about it though and dropped me off anyway. Never underestimate the power of a friendly stranger. I feel like so many cab drivers in so many different places would have yelled at me or kicked me out, so I really appreciated how nice he was to take me to the hotel anyway and I gave him a nice tip as a thank you. The experience ended up being positive and something I can now laugh about. We all have our moments when things do go our way but we have to try to avoid getting frustrated and just make the most of the situation. The Charles Hotel is beautiful and located right by the Botanical Gardens. After I checked in, I took a long walk through the gardens in an effort to explore what sights were nearby. Just a short walk away I stumbled across Munich's central square which is devoted to two of my favorite pastimes, SHOPPING and EATING.
This central square, called Marienplatz is a shopper's paradise. Lots of department stores and shops are mixed in with cafes and restaurants as well as fruit stands that sell whatever is in season for locals and tourists to snack on. I bought some apricots and cherries and was laughing at the fact that every one of the stands sold these summer fruit staples, as well as that German staple, the albino asparagus! Not exactly something you could snack on while shopping, but ok. Marienplatz leads to the outdoor food market, Viktualienmarkt, which is a foodie's dream. I honestly can't describe how gorgeous this market is. It's lively, friendly and organized. As you can imagine, between the shopping and the food, I spent a lot of time in and around this area of town. Nevermind that I can't pronounce any of it. (German is hard. Like, really really hard.) After hearing Italian, a beautifully romantic language, all around me for a month, the German language was the phonetically equivalent of a slap in the face. (No offense to all you Germans out there.)
When I arrived in Munich, I immediately noticed how different the city was from Berlin. Not better or worse, just different. Apples to oranges. It's more traditional, less modern, quieter, calmer, and more green. It's the capital of Bavaria and very charming. So I arrive at the main train station and get in a cab with my suitcase and say I'm going to the Charles Hotel and it turns out it's right down the street. Oops!! The cab driver was really nice about it though and dropped me off anyway. Never underestimate the power of a friendly stranger. I feel like so many cab drivers in so many different places would have yelled at me or kicked me out, so I really appreciated how nice he was to take me to the hotel anyway and I gave him a nice tip as a thank you. The experience ended up being positive and something I can now laugh about. We all have our moments when things do go our way but we have to try to avoid getting frustrated and just make the most of the situation. The Charles Hotel is beautiful and located right by the Botanical Gardens. After I checked in, I took a long walk through the gardens in an effort to explore what sights were nearby. Just a short walk away I stumbled across Munich's central square which is devoted to two of my favorite pastimes, SHOPPING and EATING.
This central square, called Marienplatz is a shopper's paradise. Lots of department stores and shops are mixed in with cafes and restaurants as well as fruit stands that sell whatever is in season for locals and tourists to snack on. I bought some apricots and cherries and was laughing at the fact that every one of the stands sold these summer fruit staples, as well as that German staple, the albino asparagus! Not exactly something you could snack on while shopping, but ok. Marienplatz leads to the outdoor food market, Viktualienmarkt, which is a foodie's dream. I honestly can't describe how gorgeous this market is. It's lively, friendly and organized. As you can imagine, between the shopping and the food, I spent a lot of time in and around this area of town. Nevermind that I can't pronounce any of it. (German is hard. Like, really really hard.) After hearing Italian, a beautifully romantic language, all around me for a month, the German language was the phonetically equivalent of a slap in the face. (No offense to all you Germans out there.)
Viktualienmarkt
The Viktualienmarkt market is seriously one of the best I've ever seen. According to my guidebook, over the years it's evolved from a small farmers market to a large popular market for fresh food which offers exotic ingredients that aren't available anywhere else in the area. It's also renowned for its diversity and size: over 140 stalls offer everything from flowers; to fruits and veggies; breads and pastries; fish and meat; herbs and spices; wine and tea. It's a shopper's paradise. If I lived here I'd forgo the supermarket all together as this market is a one stop shop for practically anything you need. And what did I love most? How organized everything was! The little bit of OCD in me absolutely loves when things are so in order. I usually get a certain level of anxiety when I'm confronted by disorganization, chaos or things that aren't symmetrical. (If anyone every needed to get crucial information out of me, the most effective torture method could be to tie me to a chair in front of a painting on that's hung crookedly on the wall.) So I was extremely happy walking around here. One day for lunch I sat down at the fish stand and had a giant grilled half lobster and a glass of prosecco. Coincidentally that same night I ended up eating pasta at my hotel that had fresh shaved truffles on it and I thought to myself, now THIS is the life. Lobster and truffles all in one day, can I be any more of a princess right now?! Oops. If only I got to eat like this all the time, eh? (And for the record, I DON'T, so stop rolling your eyes.)
English Garden
The Englischer Garten is a large public park in the centre of Munich, and by large I mean, LARGE. It's 1.4 square miles or 910 acres, making it one of the world's largest urban public parks, larger than the world's best park, NYC's Central Park (not that I'm biased or anything). This also makes it very easy to get lost in… And I did, for a LONG time. It was like a maze and finding the exit back out to the street was a major challenge, but it was a gorgeous place to get lost in. Not to mention, with tons of people sunbathing, picnicking and rowing/paddling around the lake in boats, there was a lot to see. There are rivers running through the park as well and apparently a section where surfers go to surf (who knew) but I didn't find that area despite spending hours walking around looking for it. At one point I had to just sit on a bench in the shade because I was hot and tired and had to focus on eating my ice cream quickly before it started melting down my arm. I found what looked like a giant golden potato sculpture and a ton of ducks and geese. I was there on a Saturday and between that and the fact that the temperatures were in the mid-80s, the park was packed! I wish I had known I would have brought my bathing suit and a towel and worked on my tan! Oh well.
I had some bad luck during my four days in Munich because two of those days ended up being a holiday in the city, so practically everything was closed. I was told that BMW World was cool to see, but it was closed during the holiday. I just wandered around and tried to entertain myself with whatever was open, one of which was climbing up the top of the Opatija am alten Peter tower for views of the city. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I paid the 2 euros to go in. It was an endless number of stars in a narrow tower, some of which were really steep and made of old wood that was falling apart and so narrow that two people couldn't pass each other and we had to take turns going up and down. I kept thinking, 'Dear self, please don't fall,' And 'Dear staircase, please don't break.' Not to mention, it was hot and sweaty in there but in the end, it was worth the workout. The views from up there were beautiful. Munich has gorgeous old buildings with bright orange rooftops and being up there, you got to see all of them clearly.
The architecture in Munich is very true to it's location within Germany, meaning it's very Bavarian. Before I got here I couldn't really tell you what Bavarian really looked like but as soon as I saw the old buildings and churches, I somehow knew they were true to Bavarian style. It all looks like it belongs in a Hans Cristen Anderson picture book. (And I'm not even sure how I know that.)
There was also a beautiful church nearby with handmade paper birds hanging from the ceiling and a lunch of spinach dumplings with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese that I devoured along with a cold beer. I'm not much of a beer connoisseur or a fan of dark beers but you can't NOT drink beer when you're in German. I just stuck to wheat beers which are light and refreshing in the summer heat.
There was also a beautiful church nearby with handmade paper birds hanging from the ceiling and a lunch of spinach dumplings with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese that I devoured along with a cold beer. I'm not much of a beer connoisseur or a fan of dark beers but you can't NOT drink beer when you're in German. I just stuck to wheat beers which are light and refreshing in the summer heat.
These few days in Munich were my last few days traveling alone. After 41 days alone I'll be surrounded by my family in Brazil and even have one of my best friends flying in for a week of it. Bring it on!