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.
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