Come on Feel the Illino....Bavaria!

Tuesday October 20, 2009
Today’s playlist: every Sufjan Stevens song I have ever illegally downloaded.

I was planning on going to Salzburg Austria today, but after the craziness that was yesterday’s almost fiasco I decided to sleep in, this is supposed to be a vacation remember? So I took my time and headed into Munich around midmorning. After the long ride in on the S bahn I transferred to the subway to head north to the University area. What a confusing mess, New York and even Shanghai are way easier in my opinion. The area around the university, I think called Schwabing, is very nice and is also where all the diplomats and embassies are located. Englisher Park is on the eastern border of the area and I walked along the edge of it back towards the Residenz and Marienplatz area. I really liked the gardens at the Residenz, very nice for people watching and sun bathing I guess since it seemed like all of Munich was out on a bench catching some rays on a sunny October day. After a little exploring I made my way back to the familiar Marienplatz and passed by my favorite store in Munich, the felt store! Ok, I know I said was going to get something this time, but really what am I going to do with some super thick expensive felt? They did have a kit type thing that included a cat but it was like 9€, not really worth it. I turned the corner from the felt store and was back in the center of old town Munich. I walked around a bit, saw some more of Viktulen Markt and got some gelato. I wanted to get like a shirt or jacket or something from the German National team, but everything was so expensive and cheap looking. I guess you really can’t expect more in such a touristy area, I mean I was like across the street from gag Hard Rock Café. I walked around a bit more and enjoyed my gelato in a small park behind the old city hall building before heading down the escalator down to the S bahn. Goodbye again Munch!

I then encountered the same problem we had trying to get back Sunday, none of these trains were going to Freising. I looked around and finally figured out that this platform was for trains only going east and I needed to go west of course. So I followed a few signs to some random horror movie type stair wells and finally got to the correct platform, only I was on the wrong side. In this station, since it’s so popular everyone gets on the train on a certain side and everyone gets off on the other side, to ease the flow of people. So I just had to fight a little harder to get on the train, but it worked out in the end.

I got to Feising about an hour later and took my time walking back to the hotel since the shops were actually open at this hour. I didn’t find anything but I did find some things to take pictures of, of course. It really is such a cute place and I should probably explore it some more. Oh well, early day tomorrow….Salzburg here I come!!