5 months in Munich: 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!!!