The meaning of "coming home"

Hi everyone, it's been a while since my last post.  Life has kept me very busy.  Ultimately this is a good thing, but as they say time and distance are the worst enemies to any relationship (friend or loved one).
Since my last post so much has happened.... I've moved, travelled to Vienna, solved my first major problem at work, learned a little more German (not too much), continued to explore Munich, enjoyed a family visitor.........
Let me start by recapping some of my time since my last post......

I visited the Residenz, which is the palace in Munich that was used by all of the rulers up until Hitler.  It is an incredible building (mostly rebuilt since WW2), which spans several acres and was the jewel of German leadership in the south of the country for many years.  It sits in the middle of the city, and could not be in a better location.  It is a very stunning building, and I highly recommend any visitor to Munich take the time to appreciate this building.  It is very touristy, but many times this is fun since everything is coordinated and you get to be dumb and follow signs and listen to poorly translated German.  The takeaway message from this trip though, was that the US demolished Munich during WW2, since in pretty much every room they start the audio tour with, "this room is not original and was restored after WW2."  Suffice to say they did an excellent job restoring most of the place (70% of Munich was destroyed during the war), but in many places the "new" shine is evident.  Definitely plan an afternoon for this place if and when you visit Munich.

I will now skip ahead three weeks.  My mom came to visit me, yay!  We had a wonderful time, and I was so glad to share everything I had learned thus far.  But on to the title of the post.  On her trip, we finished with a secondary journey to Vienna, Austria (no kangaroos).  Vienna is a wonderful city, at the very least because its obvious all the buildings are _actually_ old unlike Munich.  There are so many libraries and operas and churches, and a stadium for dancing horses, and palaces, aahhhhh its just so expansive.  It's like some Hapsburg empire had a thousand years to build all this stuff with slave labor.  Oh wait.  Definitely go to Vienna, probably before you come to Munich actually.  We travelled via the RailJet, which is operated by the OEBB (austrian national rail company).  RailJet is cheaper _and_ faster than taking a plane (assuming you live in downtown Munich and are going to downtown Vienna).  We travelled first class outbound and premium class inbound.  If you are willing to pay the first class fare then immediately upgrade (for an extra 25 €) to premium class.  The fare difference is totally worth the free drinks (wine/beer/mixed) and snacks.  So either buy second class or premium class, first class alone isn't worth it.  As a final note for Wein, check out the Hundertwasser house when are there -- very cool architecture (I'm also a Gaudi fan from Barcelona).

While mom was here she also helped me move into my new apartment.  It was wonderful to have an extra helpful hand for the move -- moving always sucks.  My new apartment is leagues ahead of my old place and my new roommates are 10x more relaxed (than the previous roommate) and we get along very well.  Its a little farther away on the north side of the city near Petuelring and Olympiapark, but well worth it.  I now have my own bed, pseudo dresser and closests, and a light fixture.  Oh the small victories.  We also have an induction stove which is a first for me.  On the high power setting I can put 9kw into an appropriate pot!  This means I can boil a pot of water for a 6 servings of pasta in about 45 seconds.  Cool!  The BMW Museum (cooler than it sounds) is about a 7 minute walk, but I have yet to visit -- there has just been too much going on.

The weekend after mom came, I went to Wien I visited Schloss Neuschwanstein (castle Neuschwanstein). Lookup the history on wikipedia, very interesting.  The castle itself is beautiful and I wish I lived there.  Legend has it this castle was the inspiration for the Magic Kingdom castle at Walt Disney World in Orlando.  This is the epitomy of tourist sites in Germany -- real Germans (and austrians and italians and slovakians and anyone from within 1000km) refuse to go there unless forced by visitors from far away who want to, "see the sites."  Having now been I understand why you wouldn't go back for multiple visits, but its something every good visitor should see -- its just too cool.  It's so "new" for a castle it also looks fake, but is not a reconstruction and is in fact simply a "new" castle.  Fun travel note:  on the way I let the canadian lead the way and of course we missed our train connection and didn't get off at the correct stop.  This is what happens when you let a canadian give you directions.  Honestly though without our detour I wouldn't have caught a  glimpse of a third story apartment window with an American flag facsimile with an eagle and the quote "500 years of America" in a tiny German town.  Fate has been good to me.

I will now finish with the title of the post.  The strangest thing happened upon return from Vienna with mom.  For the first time since my arrival I felt ever so slightly relaxed and at ease because I was "home." The trick is that by removing myself from Munich and my new living situation into another new city my daily stress level was raised slightly from the Munich level (if that's possible).  I noticed it after getting off my subway stop after getting off the RailJet at the Munich central rail station.  It was the first time I had "left and come home" where home was Munich.  A funny feeling for sure.  I suppose everything is relative.  If there is one thing two months in Germany has taught me, it's that I can now live anywhere.  I consider moving to another city in the US and think about how wonderful and stress free such a move would be because whenever I was confused or lost or needed advice I could just ask someone one the street.  It really makes me think twice about what I take for granted when interacting with people on the street!

I'm two hours late for bed, since I was going to actually get some sleep tonight, but I felt bad and wrote a blog post.
Come and visit, there's lots to see!

PS - I'm posting all my photos on Facebook from now on, screw picasa.  Login and friend me if you want to see them.

Saturday afternoon in Munich

The morning consisted of sleep.  It felt good to get 12 hours of sleep with no deadlines to wake up too.

I knew I wanted to go to the English Gardens, but why take the direct route?  I took the SBahn to Marionplatz and decided to make my way north and see what I'd find.
I first happened upon a fountain and  seating area just northwest of Marionplatz.  It may very well have a name, but I didn't see one.  It had really cool metal artwork in the fountain in the shape of a mushroom patch.  You can't see it, but around the edges is a cascade of rocks, with small outlets for water -- so in effect there are 100 waterfalls surrounding the fountain.  It was really cool and covered with folks reading books, staring at the water, and enjoying the moment.

On the way out I noticed a bunch of people standing around a small eleveated table.  Further investigation revealed a really cool mini-map of downtown Munich -- probably created by some poor artist 150 years ago.

I proceeded north, keeping an eye on the map.  Along the way, just south of the southern most entrance to the English Gardens I happened upon a deserted square, with an epic statue of Maximilian.  I wanted a photo with this great character but no one was around, so I took a seat at the base of the statue.  About 2 minutes later, an older woman was walking by, and I walked up to her and just said "photo?" and motioned with the phone.  She struggled with it for a minute, but then said in clear english, "I don't think it took."  So much for Bavarians not knowing any English.  We quickly resolved this, despite a heavy German accent, and I got these gems.

It looks like on three sides people just live in apartment buildings around this thing.  What an epic view.  Despite tyranny, slavery, and oppression of the poor -- dictators really know how to build sweet monuments.  As a side note ----- see the smaller rectangular stones I'm standing on?  These things are everrrryywhere. Every sidewalk and pedestrian walkway is made of these things.  I have no idea where they come from but whoever makes them must be a billionaire.  Many of the roads are these guys too.  It must be some sort of local stone.  The downfall is that it makes cars about 10x louder for both the passengers and the people living on the road.  It looks nice though.  Oh, they are also incredibly uncomfortable to stand on if you aren't wearing hiking boots.

I continued my journey north and east, to the Englisher Gartens.  The English Gardens is like the Arb in Ann Arbor; except times 100.  And yes, I actually mean 100.  Its also comparable to Central Park in Manhattan, but it's bigger.  I have no idea what the history is, but its really really beautiful and totally free.
All of the pictures from today are available in my gallery here http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnMichael.Fischer/FirstTripToTheEnglischerGartens#

The English Gardens has a south extension that connects the park to the UBahn and lies along a slender corridor on the east side of the Isar.  I found a nice pond (with big fish!! I want to fish!), and got some folks to take another photo :)

Oh... and they have horse cops too.

Finally, I leave with you several panoramas.... I had them computer stitched so they aren't perfect, but hopefully you get a much wider field of view than my crappy cameraphone provides otherwise.  Enjoy :).

The highlight is the panorama of the Bayerischer Landtag, or the Bavarian Parliament.  Beautiful!!! 

If you want any of the originals, which scale to much much higher resolution, just email me.

First Friday in München

With jet lag still going strong and half the office gone, the first week of work was a long one.  When Friday afternoon rolled around, I was incredibly relieved it had arrived.  In order to celebrate the weekend I decided to do some more exploring.  For Friday evening I started by heading to Marionplatz, the city center of Munich.
At this point my sole map was a Fodors travel guide to Munich, in German.  My roommate was kind enough to give me hers until I could purchase an English one.  The good news was that maps are universal.  The bad news was that it was a thick book, and everything other than the maps was useless to me.  I was directed to the largest book store in Munich, the Hugendubel.  It is a 3 story book store similar to a Borders in America.  Hugendubel had lots of travel guides, even some in English -- what they didn't have was a nice and small pocket map.  I ended my search and started north.

After walking for several blocks I stumbled upon the first of many truly european intersections.  See the photos below...

I then headed west and into a beautiful garden enclosed by a large 3 story rectangular building.  It appears to be an old mansion built by royalty, although I can't be sure of its exact origins.  I took a few shots in the garden.

I then began a pilgrimage home as I wanted to walk.  It took about an hour.  The first wonderful sight was a subway station containing no vowels.  I checked the signs on all four corners of the intersection in case I was seeing an abbreviation.  I was in fact not.  Enjoy pronouncing this.

Also on the walk home I stumbled upon the Isarinselfest, a street fair along the main river the Isar.  The street was lined with German carney food, and after spotting a sign for 1/2 meter bratwurst my dinner plans solidified.  Add a little ketchup, mustard, and mustard powder -- yum!

I got home a promptly drank a liter of water and collapsed due to excess bratwurst consumption.

Exhausted and well fed, I hit the sack.  Tomorrow was Saturday.

The First Day of Work

I arrived still tired, but on time -- at 9am sharp.  Thankfully work is about a 5 minute walk from my place, so getting to and from the office was not going to require a leap of faith.  Another man was new to the company and starting this day as well, so we met each other and began our newbie training.  We began with a 2 hour meeting about the company, the products, the philosophy, and a bunch of other things I could barely keep my eyes open for.  Jet lag sucks.
The rest of the day was very slow as installing software and configuring email clients and learning about phone systems.......... blah.
After I got home, I decided to go on another walk.  One of my first goals was to at least familiarize myself with my neighborhood so I didn't need a map every time I took three steps out the front door.  I ended up taking about a 60 minute walk.  Since the city has no semblance of organization or "block" structure, I made to sure to make all right turns or all left turns until I knew where I was again.  Getting creative could've put me in Paris, and with the dim light reading the map was hard.  I was sure I was lost about 6 times, but kept to my plan and sure enough made it back to my street corner.
I had a few long video chats with mom and dad, a nice shower, and embarked to bed exhausted and still very jet lagged.
To make matters worse I was low on money since basically nobody accepts travelers checks (including banks) and I hadn't had time to open a bank account.  The next morning I was set to open one up at the local Deutsche Bank. The difference between having no money while not knowing if your banker will speak english, and having enough money to eat for a month are two different things.
Between the money, the sleep, the new job, and the crushing realization that I knew no German and was living in Germany -- it was a very very long night.
Surely -- tomorrow would bring a new day.

Arrival in Deutschland!

We departed ATL around 4:30pm EST and were headed east-bound and down (up actually).  In my mind I knew I was flying to another continent far away and in a different time-zone, but the reality of living and working there hadn't quite set in.  I was fortunate enough to be sitting in a business class seat and enjoying the good food and free booze while I was trapped in a tube with 400 other people.
We were to arrive around 8am local time.  Sleeping on planes is hard, to anyone who can do it -- you are lucky.  I awoke several times through the night eager to see the sun with the expectation of landing.  When that finally did happen, breakfast was being served and the agitation on the flight was palpable; everyone was eager to arrive.

Upon landing I made it through immigration, and customs is really a breeze (if you have nothing to declare).  You simply walk through the green door labelled "nothing to declare" and you are done.
I found a company man waiting for me with a sign, and after an awkward introduction in what I would come to know as german conversational skills we were headed to the parking lot.
Upon entering the parking structure I was immediately taken aback by all the nice cars.  BMW, Audi, and Porsches everywhere!  I think I saw one ford fiesta and it looked quite out of place.

After a short car trip in a nice and brand new BMW wagon, we arrived at the office.  I did a quick change of shirt and was headed up stairs to meet everyone in person for the first time.  Until now it was only skype video chat's connecting us.  Most of the office was very busy as several folks were preparing to leave, but everyone was very nice and delighted to meet me.  Operating on only 3 hours of real sleep in the last 36 hours and adrenaline I was off to the races.  I was told that I would go to the government office with one of the assistants, in order to secure my work visa.  She was very kind and explained to me how the train system worked, and where we were going -- the "Kreisverwaltungsreferat München".  Upon arrival I realized it was a 4 story secretary of state from hell through which all government permissions must go.  After spending 3 hours going counter to counter and grabbing number after number and waiting in line (and 60€) I had a work visa.  We returned to work by 1pm and when asked if I had enough energy to go to lunch I promptly answered no, and they kindly took me home.  One of the IT guys drove me home, and helped me find my apartment and get my bags up to the 4th floor.  After he left I promptly collapsed and took a 4 hour nap.

Around 18:00, my new roommate arrived home and we introduced ourselves and she proved to be very nice and helpful in answering all of my many questions about the city.
I then realized that my laptop had no charge and I had not yet contacted anyone at home to let them know I made it OK.  She directed me to where I needed to go in the city, and off I went on my first adventure walk into Munich.  Fortunately she equipped me with several maps, otherwise lord knows where I would've ended up.  I found the store and then eagerly found the plug adapter I needed, knowing that I wasn't going to be asking for any help since I spoke zero german.  With a few € in my pocket I went through checkout, oblivious to what the lady behind the counter said, and handed her a bill large enough to cover the cost and expecting a boat load of change.  I made it, and promptly hurried home before dark lest I get lost on the first night.
On the way home I walked passed a Müller, and thought of Fritz, so I took a picture.

It wasn't until today (Sept 6) that I learned and explored Müller your local, we have everything, department store.
I got the laptop power, made a few calls and was quite exhausted.  Sleeping proved to be difficult due to jetlag and anxiety, but I made it.  Tomorrow was the first 'real' day of work with a 9am call-time.

The new blog from Germany

Hello everyone,

  I am a little bit late getting started, but I wanted to chronicle my new time in Germany in both pictures and in words.  Hopefully I can consistently post about new adventures and sights, while keeping the picture count high.  I'm going to try and catch up with the first few days of the experience.