After I left my host family on Sunday (which was done with way too many tears for my liking) I went to stay with a friend Philip, who interestingly enough I only briefly met in Mexico three months ago. He lives in downtown Munich, about a 10 minute walk away from Englisher Garten (which is actually the largest inner city park anywhere) and another 10 minute walk away from the old city downtown (which is home to the glockenspiel and vitallienmarket). Perfect location for some final sightseeing! Because his place is so amazing it's one of those 'revolving door' apartments that constantly has a ridiculous number of people crammed inside. It's a three roomed place with three official roommates and about another 6 unofficial roommates! All males, all loud German mid-20s males, who drank like fish and smoked like chimneys. None of them seem to work a 'regular' job but they are cooks, artists, musicians and the 'laborers of love' as they put it. Gentlemen too though of course...they let me have my own bedroom even though it meant 4 of them had to sleep on the floor. They speak a combination of German, Italian, Spanish, English and stay up until at least 4 in the morning doing a combination of the following...chain smoking, playing poker, drawing, drinking and discussing politics. Lets just say I was more then a little lost. I could barley keep up with the language changes, yet alone the conversation! Such a contrast to the quiet family life in the countryside!
Right now I love this lifestyle though. This is the way I think everyone should travel and experience new places, by staying with people who live there and better yet the people who have lived there their entire lives. You get to eat at the good places, see the sights but only the ones that are worth it and meet tons of german people, not just other backpackers. Don't get me wrong...I love meeting other backpackers too but for the sake of seeing more culture, staying with someone tops the list. Over the last couple of days I visited the beirgartens (obviously), watched the river surfers, walked downtown, went for coffee and croissants at Philips aunts chocolate shop, went to a neat nightclub, drove out to the 'beverly hills' area of Munich (man was that impressive..), went to a rooftop bbq and spent the afternoon by the river with friends where we played cards and listened to people play the guitar. Also..just in case anyone is interested...it's true when people say that Germans are liberal with clothing. I felt over-dressed wearing a bathing suit. I was pretty attached to my country-side lifestyle but since staying in Munich, I can see a lot more of the beauty in the city. Munich's a very pretty city and a very safe city...it was described to me as compared to the preppy high school kid, who always looks good and well put together. A socialite I suppose. Where in contrast a city like Berlin is like the scrappy kid with dirty knees that has a little more struggle and a little more character. Makes Berlin sound pretty interesting eh? I would love to go there too.
Just a couple highlights to finish this off...
Most interesting things were 1. Sleeping two nights ago with Philips roommates greek grandmother, who kept yelling things in greek and gripping my arm in the middle of the night. She showed up randomly without calling and insisted that we share a room (ladies together was more appropriate!) She didn't really understand that I don't speak greek or German and would ramble on and on...the only think I could say was 'yah yaya' hoping that I wasn't offending here. Hilarious little women though. When I left she kissed both my hands, my feet and stroked my face. Second most interesting event was... 2. Getting ticks. That was fun (not really)! It hurts to pull them out! One was under my knee (which philips brother removed) and the other one was in the groin region...which Philips brothers girlfriend removed! After that I had to spend the morning in the Doctors office making sure they weren't infected (if they are they can make you go mental) So all taken care of now..although I am the most paranoid person now!
O.K so that was my three days in Munich...now for Nurnberg...
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