A day of Markets

Bed bugs aside, I woke up on Tuesday feeling a lot better.  Fever broke, sore throat is gone, and I'm just left with some general malaise and the sniffles.  I can be a whole person again.  Spent the early morning dealing with the bed bug issue discussed previously - aka, laundry, moving rooms, etc.  After that was dealt with, I headed down for the opening of the Christmas market at Marienplatz.  I enjoyed a mug of steaming apple cider (winterapfel!), and the person serving me seemed really excited to serve an English speaking person.  In German, after I ordered, he called out to one of his friends, but I only caught something about the English person, and he seemed happy and animated about it.  Maybe he was just happy to practice English, maybe he was happy a non-native was trying out the local stuff.  A bunch of Germans were drinking gluhwein already, but I'm supposed to be avoiding yeast (aka wine) and it was only morning anyhow. 

Mostly today I just walked about.  I walked all around the Christmas market at Marienplatz, I climbed the bell tower at St. Peterskirche and marveled at the view of Munich with all its snowy dusted rooftops.  I watched the glockenspiel again on the new town hall, ended up at another couple of markets by sheer coincidence (a medieval market, and a LGBTQ+ market!) and wandered through Englischer Garten (a great big park). 

It was beautiful, and snowing lightly, and I've just had an all around decent day.  It's late now, and I'm feeling a little sick, but I'm well fed, I'm tired, and I've seen so many beautiful things today. 

Tomorrow I'm on to Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart and The Sound of Music, and coincidentally, my birthday, too.

The wet city centre

Christmas Market season is upon us!

Inside Frauenkirche

I love how just her breast is worn shiny.

The view from the belltower at St. Peterskirche

Frauenkirche (the church of our lady).  No building in Munich is allowed to be taller than her twin towers.

Hitler was arrested here in 1923 during the Beer Hall Putsch! 

Medieval market

Shrine to the goddess Diana

Some crazy ass ducks.

Englischer Garten

I panned a duck!

Munich: The Good (Europe), the Bad (the flu), and the Ugly (some bed bugs)

I figured out why I felt so unwell on the plane.  I woke up Sunday with the flu.  I probably had a fever while I was flying, but I just didn't notice with the extreme temperature change (-39C to +5).  I spent all of my flight and all of Saturday just sweating profusely, but it didn't really occur to me I might have a fever.

So...I started the start of my trip with the flu.  The pharmacy was closed on Sunday, but they had some kind of emergency services where they'd help you out if you rang the doorbell.  I speak about twelve words of German, and the pharmacist probably only had as many in English, but with a lot of miming, I managed to get some cough losenges for my throat and some paracetamol for my fever.  It was kinda expensive, and I was annoyed about it, but I was also annoyed about being fluish, and annoyed at the weather, too.

Sunday I mostly took it easy.  I had a slow morning and just hung out at the hostel, and then I walked to an art gallery.  It was misting on and off, and I really wasn't feeling well, but I didn't want to spend my time in Munich cooped up in a hostel room.  On Sundays in Munich, most museums and galleries are only 1 euro admission, so I ended up going to three different museums.

A foggy, misty Sunday morning

First, I went to Alte Pinakothek, and marveled at the line up to get in!  I arrived ten minutes after opening, and stood in a 50 person line up to buy my ticket.  It was even busier a little while later.  Alte (old) Pinakothek is a huge, two story art gallery, featuring collections from the middle ages through the renaissance, into the baroque period and into the end of the 18th century.  The stairs were made out of siltstone and had ammonoid fossils in them.  I took a lot of breaks, and even spent some time sketching one of the rooms in my makeshift sketchbook I brought with me.  Halfway through, I got myself a tea and honey from the cafe, and mostly just took it easy.

The backside of Alte Pinakothek in the fog

Afterwards, I went to Museum Brandhorst, because there was supposed to be an Andy Warhol exhibit.  Except it was under construction, and I stared at some really, really weird contemporary art, that I just didn't "get", instead.  Oh well.  It was a euro.

I grabbed some lunch at a salad bar and headed to Neue Pinakothek.  I read that the Neue (new) Pinakothek was opened to the public in the 19th century by Kind Ludwig I to house 'contemporary art' ...and that's where all my favourite artwork lives.  Mid-19th century contemporary art is now what we know as the romantic period, and realism, and impressionism periods, aka Rubens, and Van Gogh, Monet and Manet, etc.

I spent the rest of Sunday back at the hostel.  The art galleries wiped me right out, and I just hung out with my fever at the hostel.  I ended up chatting with an Australian guy named Romain, who's an aircraft mechanic, and we basically became 24 hour best friends.  He was super stoked to meet another airline employee.  We also chatted with a french woman, but I never caught her name.  She had a yellow fanny pack, and I learned that Aussies call them bum bags, and the French refer to them as une banane (a banana).

Yesterday (Monday), I was still very unwell.  I popped a few paracetamol and went on a free walking tour of old town Munich with Romain.  It was raining pretty hard, but the tour was good and informative.  We met at Marienplatz, and walked around to Frauenkirche, watched the glockenspiel - a life size music box that dances for seven minutes four times a day, in the tower of the Neues Rathuaus (new town hall).  It shows the story of a knight of bavaria and a knight of austria jousting it out, and then below, there is the story of the cooper's dance.  Our guide was telling us that in the middle ages when the plague went around, people were afraid to go outside for fear of getting the plague, so the coopers danced in the streets for two days, until people started to come outside.  Miraculously, the plague stopped spreading when people left their homes, and they took the coopers dance to mean magic.  So for a long time, every year on the same day, the coopers would get together and dance around town to protect the town from plague.  Nowadays, the tradition is carried on once every seven years, and the next time is January 2019.

Quite possibly the weirdest thing in all of Munich.  Attached to the statue of a local composer, the Michael Jackson shrine.  Fastidiously swept and immaculately kept every two days by some local person, fresh flowers and all. 

We also went to St. Peter's Church (who's towers I climbed today), and to the hofbrauhaus (a really, really big beer hall).  The tour was well done, and despite being a little spacey from the flu, I really enjoyed myself.

After the tour, Romain and I split up, and I found a brauhaus to get some lunch in.  I tried pork knuckle for the first (and probably last) time, but was mostly confused as how to eat it.  I wasn't sure what to do with the bits that weren't meat.  I feel like the answer is to 'eat it' ...but I couldn't figure out how to eat the fatty crispy bits, or the chewy bits.  Really, it was a waste of money...but at least I can say I've tried something local now.  The saurkraut served with it was on point, though.  10/10 saurkraut.

world's best disco ball at Tollwood Market

After much resting, and hanging out with some randoms at the hostel, a big whole group of us headed out for an evening of debauchery at one of the Christmas markets.  Tollwood Christmas market is held at the site of Oktoberfest, and it's really, really big.  There was a fellow from Saltspring Island named Max, who lives in Munich, and was trying to enjoy his last night of freedom before he finds out if his work visa expires (I never did find out the outcome - I wish him well!), a tall Greek who loves photography, one of my hostel-roommates who's name I didn't catch, but who is from Banff and was hankering for an awful lot of liquor (his words), a Spaniard who sounded British sometimes, a couple of crazy Columbians (Carlos and his father.  They were great.  His father didn't speak much English, so we did that funny English-Spanish thing to each other), a Mexican woman, Javier from Miami, and a couple from Florida.  There were more of us, but those are the people who stuck out in my mind for the most of the night.  We drank gluhwein (mulled wine) and I stole the mug as a souvenir, and I tried a Bavarian street food called currywurst, which is exactly what it sounds like.  Wurst (sausage) covered in curry sauce.  Weirdly delicious?  Deliciously weird? ...I'd eat it again.

Just one of many food and alcohol stands at the market.

I left the group around 10 and walked home alone, but I bumped into a few of them today and apparently they were out late last night.  Gluhwein headaches all around, seems to be the consensus. 

On a down note, I unfortunately woke up Monday morning covered in huge, red, angry, and itchy bites.  We slept with the window open, so I assumed it was just an errant mosquito.  I was wrong.  This morning (Tuesday) I woke up with more, and found a bed bug in my bed.

I immediately let the front desk know, and showed them the bug and my bites/welts, and they were really good about it, actually.  They refunded me one nights stay, gave me money to do my laundry in the machines for free, told me if I needed medicine they would front the cost, gave me free breakfast for tomorrow, and helped me change rooms.  I'm the only one in that room that's gotten bites, so I think it's just confined to the one bed, but they were going to rearrange people so they can clean out the room properly.  It sucks (especially on top of the flu), but the hostel has been really professional about the whole ordeal, and it's not the end of the world.  I'm itchy, but I'm also almost over the flu, and these things happen when hundreds/thousands of people pass through the same bed.

Everyone in the room I spoke to about it was really surprised about how level headed I was being over this, but I just don't see the point in getting angry or making a fuss.  It happens, it's not the fault of the staff, and what would being angry and shouting have achieved?  Maybe I could have got another night refunded, but I would have been worked up and angry, the staff member I spoke to probably would have felt really uncomfortable, and I just don't feel like it's very productive anyhow.

Bed bugs.  C'est la vie.

Update:  They rearranged everyone into new rooms, quarantined the room we were in, and offered everyone free beer and breakfast tickets for the inconvenience!  Now I'm sure I'd stay again.  That's great of them. 

Tired ramblings

Not much to report on my part.  I've made it safely to Munich, and I'm honestly just really, really jet-lagged.  My stomach is bugging me - I think I might have eaten something off the no-list by accident.  I downloaded a german translator to my phone and have been checking all the ingredients in stuff, but it's hard.

Really hard.

I left Iqaluit to Ottawa no problems, despite my worries about the weather, it actually cleared up into a really beautiful day.  I spent the flight down chatting with our new maintenance manager - seems like a decent fellow.  I also chatted with a retired nurse who complimented me on my hair.  She said it had a lot of movement and then compared her feelings on my hair to her feelings on purchasing carvings in the north.  She told me a story about her narwhal carving and how she imagines it actually swimming when she looks at it. 

Nice lady.  Odd duck. 

I didn't make my Toronto connection because the flight was full, which meant I didn't make my Toronto to Munich connection, either.  Instead of risking taking the later Ottawa-Toronto flight, I canceled everything and flew direct to London from Ottawa. 

I miraculously slept most of the flight on and off, and I rejoiced in my brief time on English soil, immediately taking out pounds sterling and buying a book, some ribena, and some candies.  I also re-caffeinated myself and managed breakfast (that I hope hope hope was safe).  By this point, I was tired and smelly, and still had to get on my flight to Munich (which I did, with no issue). 

Getting from the airport to my hostel was a little confusing, but I sorted it out in the end.  My downloaded map saved the day!  Munich makes no sense.  The roads are all curvy and I can't pronounce anything well.  My hostel is nice, and I'm really grateful to be on the second floor, because the bar is below and this evening they are playing karaoke.  I had to endure it while I cooked dinner, as the kitchen and the bar and side-by-side...at least I can say they are having fun.  Last time I ventured out of my room, a team of people were belting out Bohemian Rhapsody at a decibel I imagine warrants hearing protection. 

After I checked into my hostel, I grabbed some cash and went for a wander.  It's a few days away from the start of the Christmas markets, and all the booths look like they're getting ready to set up.  I wandered aimlessly for a few hours, just taking in the atmosphere of a big city and trying not to feel overwhelmed.  I tried to find food to eat, but I feel too nervous.  As it is, I feel really ill right now.  I'm sure I ate something I shouldn't have.  I hope this doesn't mean I have to start the elimination diet all over again.  It's really hard to find food I can eat - my dinner was a pathetic affair of canned tomatoes and lentils. 

Anyhow, I'm tired and cranky, and my throat hurts, and I've been awake far too long.  Tomorrow is Sunday, and the museums in town are only a euro each.  I'm going to hit up a few of them, and also this giant salad chain I found online, because I think I'll be able to find a good lunch there.  I've bought some generic groceries to eat for breakfast (oats, bananas, and the like), and I've got enough of the weird lentil dish to eat one more meal.  If this salad place works out, I'm gonna order two meals and squirrel them away like a little chipmunk prepping for winter.*

*I won't actually store salad in my cheeks.  That's gross.