Flying takes time and Munich is nuts.

Synopsis of day: Quite a lot of flying followed by a crash course in Deutsch.

Highlight of the day: I loved looking out over the Alps and the plains for a few minutes before we landed.

Lowlight of the day: Getting whipped with sticks repeatedly during the random act of crazy (see below).

Favourite photo: 

Rauthaus at the Marienplatz

Derek’s selfie of choice: 

Shameless selfie:

With my parents at the airport.

Historical Fact of the Day:  The Munich Christmas Markets have been around since 1310.

Cultural-shock moment: Either keeping pace with the other vehicles on the autobahn at 150km/h or the random act of crazy. Cause that was just BONKERS with cow bells.

New food consumed: GLÜHWEIN. Which is basically the number one reason why I am going to the Christmas Markets.

Best purchase of the day: As above.

Random act of crazy: So I have no idea what on earth was going on and I’m still not sure. But I was walking down the Kaufingerstrasse away from the Marienplatz when I saw a large mob of people who were being divided to create a pathway by the police. I was clueless so I walked up the path for a bit then stopped by the side along with scores of others. Within a minute or two, a procession began. Initially it was some men in lederhausen with accordions and some cute kids dressed up and a creepy masked Saint Nicholas or two. But then FOR THE NEXT FORTY FIVE MINUTES it became what could best be described as goblins or costume extras from LotR or just fully hairy ugly masked peeps covered with noisy cow bells and reed whacking sticks. They harassed people in the crowds and whacked us with the sticks and the cacophony of the cow bells was enduring in the worst way. I filmed about fifteen seconds just so I had a record of the experience. I got the impression it was a bunch of clubs of people who dressed up for some particular reason but I can’t even work out what the wood nymphs with grassy face issues and gargoyles and wolf men have to do with Christmas. It was probably the weirdest thing I have ever encountered before, and exacerbated  by the fact I couldn’t logically explain pretty much any of it, especially how long it went for and how they got away with abusing people and why in God’s green earth anyone would want to look like that or possess such costumes. I doubt this category will be eclipsed by this event.     

 See, perfectly normal

But then...

                                             It quickly became so very odd.

 Derek at least found a friend.

Something I want to remember: The German words I’ve managed to pick up already, which will make reading all these signs in the markets a lot easier. Oh also, STAY AWAY from Thomas Hardy adaptations.

Three Things I Would Like About Living in Germany.

1.   Glühwein on tap.  
2. The weather. It was a brisk 5 degrees or so today and it was delightful.
3. Historic Architecture (expect me to rave about this tomorrow).

Three Things I Would Rather Dislike About Living in Germany.    

1. The distance from Australia.
2. The prolific smoking outdoors. It’s inescapable, especially in the markets.
3. The fact that most of the foods I’ve seen so far have had nuts in some form or another. The only food I felt really safe buying so far was a chocolate coated banana which I ordered using my terrible German.

After a charming day with family I abandoned the parents at the airport and enjoyed (as much as one could possibly enjoy 27 hours of travel) one of the best flight experiences I’ve had. I breezed through customs in both Australia and Germany (the UAE was not so swift), didn’t experience my customary nausea, found one of the meals actually really good, had the friendly Tulio sit next to me on the first flight (sadly he spilled his wine and his in flight entertainment kept failing so my experience was better than his), I had no-one sitting next to me from Dubai-Munich, slept enough that I felt very fresh and even reasonable in mind and spirit on arriving finally in Munich.

I also got to watch ‘Woman in Gold’ which is so completely my jam, and I marathonned ‘Poldark’ which I’ve been wanting to do for months (only complaint was that the season final was while we were landing in Bangkok so I kept getting interrupted during some rather emotionally tense scenes). Forgot about my internal ‘Stay away from all Bronte’s except Charlotte and Thomas Hardy because every story is just downright depressing’ and watched ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ which frustrated me rather greatly and Bathsheba could have spared us all the angst and blah if she’d just said yes the first time. As soon as I worked out we’d extended from a love interest to love triangle to a love quadrangle I KNEW I’d not enjoy it because clearly that is not my jam.

(In jam related news there was a fairly decent strawberry one on the plane. Good work Emirates).

Munich airport feels like a cross between Christchurch and Hobart. I think there is much to be said for entering a country from regional cities (obvious exceptions being Sydney and American cities because their procedures make for a revolting experience regardless).

I worked out why my airport transfer was more on the pricey side of things when I got chauffeured in a Mercedes Benz. We cleared 150km/h on the autobahn are you frothing already Levi?

Hotel is nothing special but it has a convenient location and there is a Subway directly across the road and an Aldi about fifty metres down the street which may prove handy given the prolific nut content in so many of the foods I tried to scope out today. Also Sunday is practically ghost town like in the city apart from the markets. Almost all the shops are closed.

Because it was Sunday I tried to find a church and in typical fashion I was able to find the Catholic churches more easily (I’ve been to far more Catholic churches than Protestant ones when overseas – it’s a trend) and discovered that the St Michael Kirche had a Vespers service at 4pm so after finding my way to the Marienplatz and scoping out the food and becoming embroiled in the Crazy Day Parade, I returned there. The church women’s choir and the harpist were amazing and in typical o/seas church fashion I recognised one or two tunes but only knew one song.

Everything was in German but I got enough of it to work out which parts were the homily/prayers/etc. Sunday, Israel, Jesus, God and Freud got a few mentions  (though I’m pretty sure the Freud one was a translation issue of mine).

It was a lovely way to finish the evening and as it had turned dusk I came back to the hotel and have been in the process of sorting out my much smaller than usual bag and trying to work out the deal with my bed which sees me with a double bed and two single bed spreads which were folded into squares on top. I don’t recall this scenario in other European countries I’ve visited.