Marienplatz, Odeonplatz and Englischer Garten

Marienplatz

Also known as the heart of Munich! This was one of the first few places Jaryl and I visited. The first thing we saw when we exited the train station was the beautiful town hall! I didn't bring my camera out that day so all I have are some pictures from my iPhone. 

We were lucky enough to be there at 12pm sharp so we managed to catch the glockenspiel in action. There were many tourists there and everyone was so captivated by the chimes. It really was quite a sight! The both of us found something more interesting, though... 

There was a shady looking character who kept on walking in circles and stopped occasionally behind people with backpacks or valuables in their pockets. None of them were aware, but we stood from a distance and observed her for awhile anyway. She was pretty bad at her job and left empty handed. Jaryl thought this was more interesting than the 12pm glockenspiel and insisted that we had to commemorate this moment. 

We found a favourite spot... far away from the crowd! 

What is this, can someone please enlighten me?

Explored some more and found St Michael's church. The interior of the church was just breathtaking! (Btw, along the way we discovered a shop selling 1.20€ apple strudel, and it was GREAT!!... just putting this here so that when we read this blog years down the road we can laugh...)

St Michael's Church

We also found a fountain outside that doubled as a bird bath. 

The pigeons here are all FAT!!! This photo doesn't do it's chubbiness justice. They're also not afraid of people at all. 

There are a lot of shops along Marienplatz, it's basically the Orchard Road of Munich. H&M is a popular choice here, along with this huge clothing store called C&A. When we were there, C&A had a "buy 3 items get the cheapest one for free" offer storewide, everyone was going nuts!! Deichmann is a shoe store that has relatively afforable prices as well, and the range is HUGE!! I got a pair of boots for 29.90€ because all I brought to Munich were my bright orange Nikes, haha. How to fit in?!

Fascinated by the birds

Animal rights— raising awareness on the cruelty of cow's milk

Beside Marienplatz, there is a food market called Viktualienmarkt. It was here that we bought weißwurst and currywurst to cook with our IKEA rostis. Didn't turn out that bad. 

The Maypole in Viktualienmarkt. Back in the old days, they served as a kind of directory, telling travellers what goods and services the place here has to offer. We know this only because we stood beside an English speaking tour group and leeched off historical information for free... not our proudest moment!

There were many seats in the beer garden with so many people just sitting down and enjoying a mug of beer. Lots of cheese, wine and crafts being sold in the market too! One stall that I was particularly fond of...

Only took this picture because of the silky terrier dolls at the bottom.. reminded me of Sparkles, my dog! I miss her loads! Seeing all the other dogs around here don't help much, haha.

Also...

WHY BRATWURSTSEMMEL.BLOGSPOT.COM?

THIS is a bratwurstsemmel. Everyone knows that bratwurst = sausage, but what about 'semmel'?! Well maybe we're just dumb, but we had no idea what that was. We followed a trail of people who were walking around the market with this delicious looking roast pork bun in their hands, and we ended up in a food stall where the entire menu was in German! The Germans are extremely efficient at most things, including taking orders (don't even get me started on how fast they scan stuff at the supermarket) and ohhhh, the pressure was on us to pick a semi-pronounceable German food name to blurt out to the cashier. 

"oneBRATWURSTSEMMELplz", we nervously said.

"Bratwurst what?"

"...Semmel??"

That cost us a good 3.50€!!!!!!!! ($5.40 SGD) yo, IKEA hot dog buns where you at?!... It turns out that 'semmel' is a type of hard bread. And by hard I mean so hard that when we tried to bite it off, nothing came out. So while the Germans were all casually tearing away at their bratwurstsemmels, the both of us tried to be as inconspicuous as possible by standing at a corner. We removed the sausage from the bread and ate both separately, cause it was just too damn hard to eat. 

So that's the story of my blog address. Bratwurstsemmel. Hopefully by the end of my 5 months here, I'll be able to eat one. Nonchalantly. 

Odeonplatz

The train station to stop at if you're looking to head to the Englischer Garten (aka English Garden if you haven't already guessed). We decided to walk around the area before exploring the English Garden and walked far enough that we ended up at the train station Universität... where our school, LMU, is located. 

Had the opportunity to speak with a fellow LMU student and she told me that there are over 20 different buildings! In her 3 years here she's only been to 3 different buildings, haha. 

Even the door handles were soooooo cool!!! I don't have a picture because there were people around and they would have looked at me funny if I took a pic of the doorknobs. Each knob had a different symbol—saw a fish, an owl and a snake?! Am I studying in Hogwarts or what?! The school campus is so intriguing. Can't wait to explore the other 20 over buildings. Jaryl and I went into use the bathrooms as well.. there are 3 different doors that you have to open before you actually reach the toilet cubicle, and while you're taking a dump I swear you'd half expect Moaning Myrtle to show up!!!

Back to Odeonplatz... it felt pretty similar to Marienplatz and we eventually realized that both places were linked (lol)!! There was a huge St Patrick's party going on, people were dancing, singing and cheering with beer bottles in their hands. We even witnessed a hen party, haha! It was chaotic, a little scary, even, because the people were all drunk in the afternoon. Not something you'd see in Singapore for sure! But glad we got to witness it anyway. 

Here's a video of an old man dancing. Not drunk, just having some fun :D This city is so lively.

Englischer Garten

The English Garden!! Absolutely adored this place. Apparently it's even larger than New York's Central Park. I think we were there on a Saturday and the park was filled with dogs! Soooo many dogs just rolling around the grass and splashing about with each other in the freezing cold streams (yes we touched the water out of curiosity). I think the highlight of our afternoon there was a guy who was casually making bubbles out of two fishing rods.

Lots of people stopped to watch for a few minutes, but not as long as the both of us. We just stood there in awe for a good 20 minutes. Here is a man who spends his Saturday afternoon just making giant bubbles in the middle of a park. When was the last time you played with bubbles?

The children all loved him. They chased the bubbles and tried to pop them, and he humoured them by making more right in front of them.

The simple joys in life

Here's a slow motion video.. hope it is viewable!

We finally managed to pull ourselves away from happy bubble man and moved on to an area with some beautiful streams. 

I learnt from a local that in the summer, loads of people come here to swim! Sounds really fun. Will definitely be back since the garden is right opposite my school! 

Really love this mandarin duck I saw. The other mallard males kept chasing him away but the females were only interested in him anyway. You go, boy!!!

Evil mallard duck asking Mr Mandarin to quack off

The English Garden is HUGE!!! We covered less than 1/20th of it, haha. I'll definitely be back!!

Room Tour

It's been about 6 days since I arrived in Munich. I already love my dorm in Olydorf so much! Here are some photos of my place.

This is the sight you're first greeted with when you enter! Not pictured is a huge desk behind me, to sit at and do work (but who studies on exchange?! :D) Some people like Jaryl have their desks up on the second floor. That would have been better, but I guess it gives me more room upstairs too.

Kitchen area on the left. It's just perfect!!! Except for the fact that the sink is a little too small & close to the wall so water tends to splash when I do the dishes. But that's just a small issue. I'm just glad we each have our own kitchen. It makes cooking and cleaning up much more convenient! Yay.

Below the kitchen counter is a beautiful little fridge! The size is just right. As you can see, my fridge is stocked with the bare necessities. Yogurt is only 0.29€ per cup here and they taste great! Lemons are a little pricier. Eggs and juices are all relatively affordable. And I brought a few bottles of my favourite chili but sadly they burst open and spilt on the way here :'( There's only a little bit left in each bottle but I hope it will last me! Ha ha.

The bathroom! The shower is always warm regardless of whatever time I choose to take a bath. AHHH I cannot stress how much I enjoy having my own bathroom. Back in NTU there were specific timings that the heater would be turned on and there was almost always a new surprise in the toilet. Once I even witnessed my neighbour cutting up STRAWBERRIES in the toilet. In the toilet! 

The stairs up to the second floor. The walls look a little dirty in this photo but they really aren't! 

And my most favourite spot of all... my bed! I hardly leave the second floor unless I really have to. Over here you can see my BEAUTIFUL DRAGON BEDSHEETS bought from IKEA!! They go so well with my orange cupboards. Initially I wasn't fond of the orange colour and was jealous that Jaryl got sky blue coloured cupboards and my other friend Jahafar got yellow— but it's starting to grow on me. The orange kind of makes the room look a little cozier :3

Another angle from my bed. I know my cupboard at the back looks real messy but it's all been organized and cleared up by now ;) Really can't get over how cute my bedsheets are. The guys just use some giant dull grey sleeping bag that the dorm provided us as their blankets, but I couldn't help but invest in this hahahhaaha best buy so far.

Lastly, here's the balcony on the second floor! It's pretty icky outside, and the previous owner left a garden chair outside haha. The ground is usually too freezing cold to walk on so I only open the door to let a little chill in. The other students who have been staying here for a really long time have such BEAUTIFUL interiors. I walked past a couple and most of them have couches and actual huge rugs on the first floor :'( Some put christmas lights along their balcony and turn them on in the evening, it's all so nice to look at. I guess the students here really treat Olydorf as their own homes. My room definitely pales in comparison.. how I wish I could decorate my bungalow like theirs!! 5 months is too short!!

Arriving in Munich

Munich Airport

Finally arrived in Munich after a little over 16 hours of plane torture! Jaryl and I flew by Qatar Airways. The service was excellent and they had a nice selection of movies as well (I watched Room on the way here!). Planes are still a pretty claustrophobic experience though, especially when the people sitting in front of you recline their chairs all the way back. I also had to (very apologetically) wake Jaryl and an Austrian lady up from their sleep when I had to use the bathroom. Guess that's the downside of having free flow drinks on board. Luckily, she was real nice about it, and we even got to know her better after that!

The first thing that I noticed about the airport in Munich was the sheer amount of pet dogs that were there! At the arrival gates there were many owners who ran straight to their fluffy best friends first instead of their own families, haha. 

Figuring out the train system was a real pain. There was no one at the information counter and we were so lost. Eventually we kind of figured it out and bought two tickets from the airport to our station, Olympiazentrum. It cost us about 21€ (about $32 SGD) for both tickets. There were no lifts down to the train (or at least we couldn't find any) and we met so many other tourists who were as puzzled as us along the way. Here in Munich, they don't have a tapping system like back home and we walked right in without 'tapping' anything. It was only when we entered the train that we realised we had to 'stamp' our tickets at this tiny machine before going down to the train platform. 60€ FINE IF CAUGHT RIDING WITHOUT A TICKET OR VALID STAMPED TICKET! Of course we rode the rest of the trip in fear although we did buy a ticket. It was pretty stressful because it was 6am, we were jet-lagged and had all our luggage bags to manage.. the last thing we needed was for a train conductor to show up! I did read up on the train conductors here after our airport incident and apparently they're not lenient at all. Conductors still have the right to fine you even though you bought a ticket but didn't/forgot to stamp it at the entrance. Lots of tourists have experienced it on their first train rides from the airport, but we were lucky enough not to. 

We had to change train lines at Moosach station... there were only stairs!!!! Poor Jaryl, being the manly man that he is, lugged my 39.6kg(!!!) bag along with his own stuff up and down the staircase. After he did it, we realized that we were STILL on the wrong platform! His face was priceless. Thankfully, we got directions from a kind soul and we discovered that there were actually lifts down at the end of the platform, ha...

Arriving at Olydorf

We finally made it to our station, Olympiazentrum. 

My home for the next 5 months! I actually thought that we would have a common toilet and kitchen but I was wrong! Each student gets his own double story bungalow WITH a personal toilet and kitchen! How crazy is that. It's like a super mega upgrade from my hall dorm back in NTU. We collected our keys from the nice ladies at the main office and finally got to settle in!

Minions and bananas!

This is what one row looks like. Every row has been labelled alphabetically!

Snoopy painting

Students here are all allowed to paint on their own walls. It's so fascinating. It really gives life to this place. Sadly, my own door is not painted but maybe I'll get a chance to do something about it before I leave! ;) 

Harry Potter themed dorm

Garden gnomes spotted outside someone's dorm! Apparently the Germans have something for these little gnomes. 

One of my favourite paintings!

We visited the supermarket after putting all our things down. The first thing Jaryl and I got was a Ritter Sport schokolade. 

0.69€ per piece!! Thats about $1.05 SGD. We got a tortilla chip flavour in our excitement and it turned out to be really bad. Don't do that. 

And then we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant near our dorm. We were too tired to cook and didn't have our pots and pans yet anyway. It cost 5.90€ for this burger. Don't be fooled by the picture, it was the size of my face. It wasn't spectacular but there was free wifi at the place, so we were satisfied. Also now that we have the password to their wifi, every time we walk past the shop to get to the grocery store it auto connects ;)

All this actually happened a week ago (7 March) but I haven't had the time to sit down and type it all out. After dinner we went back and knocked out in our new home. 

IKEA Eching

The next day when we got up, we decided to head out to IKEA to get some household appliances! We really take the IKEA Tampines we have back at home for granted. From my house I have a direct bus to IKEA... but over here... 

We took a 30 minute train ride to the station Eching and knew that we had to walk to IKEA.. however.. no one told us how far it actually was. We couldn't take the bus because we didn't know how to buy a bus ticket so we just walked.. and walked.. and walked. Eventually we bumped into a nice postwoman (shoutout to Deutsche Post! lol) and we asked her for directions to IKEA. The first thing she did was LAUGH. Now we thought she was just being friendly but on hindsight she was laughing cause she probably thought we were nuts. We followed all her directions and ended up near the autobahn (highway), and obviously thought we were on the wrong track. Luckily we met a traffic guard who (again, laughed) when we told him where we wanted to go. He said that it was impossible to walk, and that we had to either drive or ride a bicycle. 

Well, we had no bicycle or car.. so we walked. Jaryl asked me, "What if all IKEAs are the same? IKEA Tampines is at the end of a highway so maybe it's the same here." We braved the -5 degree cold and strong winds... two Asian idiots walking along a highway in search of IKEA. 

IKEA!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were soooo happy to see this blue building. The first thing we wanted to do was get some IKEA meatballs, and so we did. 

Or not. 

This is our 1€ "bio pasta" from IKEA :'D

All the prices on the menu were the same as Singapore: $5.95 SGD for 10 meatballs.. but in EUROS!! So it was 5.95€ for 10 meatballs (approx $9 SGD). Naaaaaahh. The pasta did keep us full though, so it was all good. We were just happy to have made it there alive. 

The prices for all other household goods at IKEA were a little more expensive than in Singapore.. except for this bedsheet set that I wanted for $39.90 back in SG (but my mom said no! haha) It was only 19.90€ here, so I saved about $10 SGD on that hehe. That made my day. 

We also bought boxes of frozen rosti (1.50€ for 6 pieces!) from the food area downstairs. It went nicely with our weißwurst that we bought from Viktualien market (shall save that for another post). 

Anyway our bags were all full by the end of our trip. It was an experience shopping on a mega budget, haha... Jaryl and I wanted a fluffy bath mat like this sooo bad..

But it was expensive so we (after 15 mins of debating) settled on a 1.95€ ugly white non-fluffy bath mat instead.

 It's ok. Still does the job of drying our wet feet!