GEJA Day 5 – New country, Old(ish) friend.

Hallo everyone! Ich suis yn Deutschland, and clearly I don’t remember much German from last night. All it seemed to do is jumble the different languages in my head, after trying to cram some Italian in my system as well. But luckily, it doesn’t matter, because the Germans, as I knew already, speak English beautifully. I guess English is mostly a Germanic language with a touch of Latin to make it easier to learn French, Italian and Spanish for the small minority of English-speakers who can be arsed to try another language.

As well as being excellent linguists, the many Bavarians we’ve met were happy to help (Simon has a relentless propensity for asking directions) and we quickly felt at home. The hostel was pretty suite (geddit) too. Well, the room itself is meh, but it has good facilities and helpful staff, and it’s near a Lidl so we could finally get some cheap snacks. We stayed at the hostel for a couple of hours for a siesta and to sort out some nitty gritty things such as our ferry to Helsinki next week, before leaving to see the city.

The city itself is grand, but in a different way from Italy. We visited the main cathedral, but compared to the glorious San Marco, Duomo and Vaticano it was horribly mediocre. Italy was the home of glorious churches, and I would have been very surprised if Germany could match it.

However, where Munich has impressed is in its extremely efficient metro system and markets. The city centre is a picturesque mix of modern stores and century-old buildings. This is most evident in the Marienplatz. We spent the afternoon with a tourist map and suggested things to see, and we tracked them down. The Munich Residence, the Pinakothek museums and the Italian market (although I was far more impressed by the Haagen Daaz ice cream parlour! What a beauty!).

For the evening we were kindly invited over for dinner by a friend of mine from Warwick. Karolina is spending her year abroad here, and I can now say she’s very lucky! Her flat was modern and chic, with a state-of-the-art kitchen and 7 large bedrooms, and her friends were very friendly as well. One was from Milan, where we have just been, and one was from Helsinki, where we are going, so there were some very interesting conversations on those topics!

Karolina welcomed my travel companions like she knew them already and we enjoyed a delicious pasta concoction of hers accompanied by a few bottles of wine. It was great catching up with Karolina and Sitzel (as I now call them collectively) really enjoyed themselves as well. It was also a welcome change from the usual rushing around the city to see the sights, almost like being back in Rennes.

So danke schön Karolina! Was lovely seeing you again! All the best in Deutschland!

Tomorrow, we will see a couple of things we didn’t get to see today, namely BMV Welt and the Olympic Arena for the 1972 games. Then it’s off to another new country, to see Salzburg in Austria! Great times!

Schwadronieren vorbei

Ollie