München

Bavaria is supposed to be really different from the rest of Germany. So far, though, I don't see much difference, except that they love beer more and they have cool traditional wear that they now only wear when they go drinking. Okay.

I got to Munich on Friday at 8.30 am, 45min after the scheduled arrival time of 7.45 because the bus left Hamburg and hour late. Ridiculous.

Was a on a tight schedule, walked over to my hostel and checked in, then made my way asap to the Ostbahnhof where boulderwelt is. S says that boulderwelt is the shiz and that a trip to Munich would be nothing without climbing there. So my shoes and chalk bag came along with me on that cold cramped bus. It took me a while and a little bit of help from a kind Turkish German guy to find boulderwelt. Despite having data and Google maps. But don't judge k, the point was totally in the wrong place!!!

Very helpful that pretty much all buildings in Munchen are marked with numbers and arrows indicating which way the number increases! For this sole reason Munchen already got into my good books. They should have this everywhere. There would be a lot less confused people.

At any rate, I got registered after queuing TWICE, and changed up, and prepared to take on the world. Okay, no, I know I suck now so I was just hoping to have some fun at least. Slowly went up the difficulty ratings til I settled on orange, then went around trying to conquer all of them. Some were okay flashes. Others had really bad holds that I would once upon a time have been able to actually use sigh. But I got pumped really quickly and then got properly tired soon too. So despite intending to leave late and cut into lunchtime (after all the delays) I ended up leaving on time. Boulderwelt is cool though, it's pretty huge. Lots of problems to work on! Unlike nordwandhalle sigh, it's so small.

Made my way to Marienplatz, or the center of the Altstadt (old city) and walked over to viktualienmarkt for lunch. It's this big daily market that sells lots of fresh produce and normal food. One of the online recommendations was this soup place, with a famous bread stall next to it. Good bread to me is just... Good bread I guess, but soup comes with a halo and fuzzy feelings.

Most of the soups were normal soups so I attempted something weirder and hopefully Bavarian. I didn't even know what it was, so as I stood in line, I quickly googled it and the first result said veal light. I'm like, what is light, but I see veal and think it sounds good and I order it. When I get it, my radar goes up and I check another source and it's veal lung. What on earth. But I bought it and I must eat it. I had most of it, and it really just tastes like slightly chewy flour I guess. Not that I chewed it properly. The more I ate it, the more I thought about what I was eating, and the sicker I really felt. I'm the end I ate most of it but not all. (Pretty much the second picture, without the meatball) I'm sorry, the soup was nice (sour and thick like si chuan soup but not spicy) but I'm really not one for innards. I honestly felt a bit sick at the end.

I also passed by an 'exotic fruits' stall. And GUESS WHAT. I actually found durian there!!! The fragrance of it wafted up to my nose, and I looked down, gasped, and took a photo of it. This German guy near me glanced amused at me and I just gave him a thumbs up, a huge crazy smile, and a 'SEHR gut' (very good). Didn't seem very impressed though haha. He and his wife just pointed confusedly at the jackfruit yonder and then left lol. And so did I, I think I'll wait to gorge myself on durian when I get back.

I then made my way back to Marienplatz for the sandeman tour. Which was interesting and she was pretty funny but she just didn't seem to know as much history as the first few tours I went on right in the beginning. Maybe it was a novelty at first. Huh. Randomly ended up chatting with a Chinese guy studying at ntu but on exchange in Sweden.

Maybe I'm a noob because I have data and I still take time to figure out directions haha. I spent a minute or so staring at Google maps deciding on the best way to get to the Fraucht. And this kindly old man came up and asked if I needed help. We chatted a bit, turns out he's Austrian and he's been to sg for 2 days en route to Japan for a business trip. He works for Canon. He looks quite old already though so I didn't expect him to still be working. Anyway to the end of our conversation (in the middle of a busy shopping street lol) he asks if I want to guang yi guang with him basically (Chinese A plus), an offer which I politely declined. But what a cute old man haha. (and by the way, all this in German, he said I was pretty good hehe)

Walked pretty much 7 or 8k along the Isar to the Fraucht. The walk along the river was really nice, and I'd intended on passing through some shady green glades before tucking into some cheap Bavarian dishes. Unfortunately the weather was grey and a little cold, and as it turns out the recommended shop only opens when there's good weather (how do they define good weather?).

So I randomly ask a guy for help lol and he tells me all this, and when I ask for cheap Bavarian food he scratches his head and suggests an Augustiner rather doubtfully. Same as the tour guide. Doubtfully because it's pub food, there will be Bavarian dishes but it's not gonna be awesome and it wouldn't be that cheap either. But I was starving by then and didn't care so I went to the nearest one. Which incidentally had a lot of Chinese or Japanese umbrellas around. Weird. But I had a schnitzel (breaded fried chicken) which I can get in school anyway. The potato salad was pretty good though and I had a small glass (0.2) of local beer, Augustiner. The beer was pretty nice at first (not like I can tell) it at the end of my meal it was really bitter. I don't think I took that long? And why would it be bitter anyway.

Anyway I got back, showered, talked to the other girls in the dorm. Sitting here waiting for my portable battery to charge before I plug my phone in for a little while. There are only 4 plugs in this room for 6 girls. It's ridiculous. So I can't leave it in. Oh well, it's a really clean place and the shower is actually of a decent size. That's awesome. Oh my, I'm so tired.

Meeting ese peeps the morning to go to neuschwanstein, haven't seen 2 of them since November, and the other two only when they stayed at my place. Wow. K.