Travel and Exploration

Back to Munchen

Aug 072013

I headed back to Munchen for about 4 to 5 days. This time I said in a lovely apartment hotel
in Nymphenberger in the area from the schloss nymphenburg palace about a 30 min walk, 5 min drive, or 2.5 km. It was a great area and an area where I hope to stay in the future for a much longer time. I made some friends while attending a friend’s sibling’s friend party. The native Bavarian Germans were very friendly, and generous in many ways, including being offered an apartment if I was not going to have one the next day, as my plans were not made up for the next day. It was very much like an Agile software development project where you have a vision of places to touch-visit, and just not sure of your hour to hour or day to day exact details, and you leave certain decisions until you come to that crossing.

Well, it was great to come back as I saw how many native Muncheners live and loved being outside of the touristy areas. For the most part I can’t stand the touristy areas, the tourists feel like a herd of goats and clicking and snapping photographs everywhere. The excitement overwhelms their ability to first take it in or start to experience it to later digest it, etc. Not that I don’t get excited, at times I do too, and I end up regretting it, unless its excitement such as a music celebrity (U2’s Bono, Edge – show up), I have no problems with that. Yet, I would not like to snap away my camera as it is surely annoying. I prefer to experience, and record it in my head, eyes, ears, sensations, and feelings, and later eat or have coffee, and enjoy. Later, at late night go to my hotel room late at night, or the next day it will just happen, where I will just set aside a few hours or a day and knowing what to shoot, and what times of day to shoot.

I love photo shooting people too, though, people much over the world have become super self-concious and at times I am afraid to photograph them. As if he or she is that important. This has been a great lesson for myself as I will now smile freely and peacefully when someone has their camera pointed at me. Shoot away 🙂

Munchen has an awesome central train station (HauptBahnof) where you get connections to almost anywhere in the rest of Deutsche Land, and much of bordering European countries I loved the U-Bahn especially the U1 line from HauptBahnof in the Olympia-EinKaufszentrum direction. I would exit at the Gern stop.
And Gern stop was my favorite stop, as the station has much modern art work going on, and is super clean like much of (good side of) Munich, and the trains including the U-Bahn were always clean compared to our smelly NYC subway stations and actual train cars. This was pretty much true in most of Deutsche Land that I visited or passed through. Yes, in Berlin there were areas of grafiti, and none that I saw on the subways, and maybe I missed them. There is one area, actually its a nice are of Munchen, where I saw Graffiti, and it was hidden under a auto pass through. It was super awesome graffiti-art. I forgot to take a pic.

Hint: its near the Mercedes Benz dealer ship in Munchen with the tall lighted sign as a reminder of where one is.

Yes, I will be back. And will surely visit again, and again as the Christmas market and the Peters Kirche will bring me back, and so will oktoberfest (just not in 2013). Then there are so much to do in the country side, and that is my most favorite part of Bavaria and Bavaria in the South, and Deutsche Land in General.

Any of you remember Nina from the 80s? Well after finding time to update this post, and spending time in Mallorca, well I just couldn’t help think about Nina. Here is link from the past, and still damn good:

Vienna – 3 Days

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Jul 162013

I took a long, and lovely train ride to Vienna from Germany that lasted about 5 hours.
The train route was absolutely beautiful, and we passed Salzburg, St something, among many other stations. Vienna is an absolutely clean and beautiful city with many gartens (gardens), and perhaps many of the finest cafes of Europa.
The people are willing to help at least near the central station (Westbanhof). In the central area of Vienna, there were times I came across people who would stare at me for a very long time. I found it strange, and scary. By the by the central area of Vienna is huge. I guess its some sort of a cultural thing. I am just a human in becoming (beingness) even while I being a complete illusion wholly on to… (here comes the paradox in words) myself.

I tried out the 3rd man breakfast at Cafe Mozart, and don’t recommend
it unless you are going to have meat. I do recommend trying out their desserts from their main menu. It’s the white one with “Mozart” in golden letters. They have 2 other menus as well. I passed by Sacher Hotel, with the Cafe Sacher right next to it. I am avoiding sugar, and with my belly full of one dessert from Cafe Mozart, I had no room or the lack of discipline to go get the original Sacher from Cafe Sacher. I also checked out Cafe Central, and didn’t have enough time to have dinner on my last night out. I checked out one of their malls, and it was just super as they say. Please check out their mall. I haven’t seen anything so cool, clean, and brilliantly designed in the North-East of the USA. Haven’t really spent time in other areas of the US.

I opted out the concerts that so many were trying to sell to me. It’s much better for me to do part of Germany in Christmas, and also Vienna for the first week of New Years. This is when they have the ball, and also many arrangements of music are played live.

There are a good number of museums as well. If you are interested you could check out “The Kiss” by Klimt at the Belveder’s Musem, among other works. I had forgotten that I had seen much of Klimits works, mostly drawings, and a good number of paintings at an awesome exhibit in NewYork City at the Neue Museum on 86th Street. The New York Exhibition was missing one painting if my memory serves me right, and that was the “The Kiss”. Belveders is more than a museum, and it is I guess a must see. Must is a strong word, and it is being used as others use them, even if I don’t know who others are.

Almost at last, many of the Viennese women are gorgeous. And I really loved to watch the tanned ones, and also a good number of women who have emigrated here from the eastern regions of Vienna, Austria. Before I left I had some forbidden chocolate dessert, and hope to have another go about of Vienna during the New Years.

Lastly, I hope the photos below will serve of some purpose for you, and not just wasting bandwidth.

Munich (München)

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Jul 152013

It’s München in the Bavarian region, and in the north as a Berliner told me the U, and Ch has its own pronunciation or they will just call it Munich. I was here in München from July 8th, for three nights.

München is a beautiful city with grand architecture. It is a modern city, and in terms of shopping, I think it is better than many modern cities as you could also get many hand made items. The locals were friendly to me about 75% of the time. I found it 100% efficient when it came to things like getting service at the central train station. It seems many are good in their task area or job area, and if you ask anything outside of that area they are clueless, and will most definitely be directed to another area where someone specializes in it.

The locals tend to become extra friendly when you drink with them. Munich has people from the world over, and at times I could feel the tenseness of certain areas as I was living about 20 minutes away from the central area. You will find people from other areas of Germany, some Austrians, Italians, and from other neighboring countries, and from around this blue globe.

I hope the pictures below will provide some entertainment or some type of value for you.

Many thanks for reading this post.

3 Days in Berlin

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Jul 042013

Arrived in Berlin on July 5-th from a July 4-th flight on the east coast of the States.

Live about a 30 minute train ride outside of Berlin Central. And Thank God for that. I head south tomorrow on July 8^th. The hotel room is well designed, and very clean. It is close enough to the airport, and has a free shuttle from the airport which makes it a trouble free place to get to and rest one’s head. Especially on a long journey, and removes the headache involved in learning to find a train station, and also the major challenge (after a long journey) to learn to operate their ticket vending machine. It is a very comfortable hotel, and my room has a nice not too hard bed, wonderful huge long and high window. I recommend it as it is cheaply priced Hotel Meininger Berlin Airport. I wouldn’t mind having a studio with a kitchen added like this in New York City. My many thanks to the hotel staff for being friendly, respectful, and courteous.

Berlin is an interesting city with much going on. Berlin has a mix of many people. It has its native people, others from Western EU, number of people from the Eastern EU, and people from the world over. And it has many students as well. It is in the midst of modernizing, and re-building revolution physically, and in many other senses. I guess Berlin (Central) is trying to get away from the past and is a new Berlin in the becoming. Just like people, the past exists most probably because of our attachment to it in memory form, and I guess so long as borders have been created and things like countries, provinces, states, cities, villages, defined – there will always be getting away from the past. Getting away from something that only exists in the attachment to memories. Wonderful thing this memory of ours, and so called ‘collective’ memory. Wonderful. Good for Berlin, and good for all of us.

I took the free tour with New Berlin Tours (www.newberlintours.com). Our tour guide was wonderful and she was well versed in the German, and Prussian history. We got to see all the sites in Berlin Central that ought to be seen on a 1 day tour. The pictures here, and on other areas of the internet will hopefully be helpful to you. Thats almost all I am going to write about on Berlin Central. Its a good trip, and well worth it. You will also observe a several warm hearted people from Spain here as their economy has necessitated such a move. Berlin could use some warmth. Spain could use some efficiency and some modernization of their economy, and education system.It will be interesting to see what happens. I wish all of them well.

The tour that made me feel good about my Berlin trip was my tour to Potsdam The tour was also with New Berlin Tours, and was a paid tour. A perfectly priced tour. Potsdam is absolutely beautiful, and it has a slower place, and beautiful country style feel, and yet it is very urban. The pictures below will hopefully be of help to you.

I really loved my stay outside of Berlin Central. I got a whiff of how the country side would feel. Also, my 30 to 40 minute commute also gave me an idea of this as I could view many trees, and different species of trees, butterflies, and some local birds (and crows too). I could also view small cute cottages. Potsdam gave me an idea of a highly sophisticated urban area supported with the backdrop of beautiful nature. Whenever, there is a next time, I will try out the country side of Berlin or on a road trip from Hamburg to Berlin.

I will remember the automated recording that keeps getting played on the Berlin DB Bahn (local trains) ‘Austick Linxs.’ Very cool, and very funny. I can’t believe that some musician hasn’t mixed it into their music or song creation. It would sound awesome.

I head to the southern area of Deutsche land to Bavaria. Stay healthy, and happy my friends.

Ideas that could possibly help you out in Berlin or Germany:

Do the free tour of Berlin quickly, and ASAP. Then head out to Potsdam, and other nearby or even coutry side. It’s beautiful out there in the country. I highly recommend some sort of internet connection, with a computer device, and if you are driving bring a UK/Euro based GPS with you.

If you are like me who loves public transport then buses, and trains are your best friends, and regional trains are quite pricey. In Berlin, and rest of Germany after you buy your train ticket please make sure you insert it the machine and get it stamped. The 3-day or X-day ticket only gets stamed once. I was stopped and fined 40 Euros because I didn’t get my ticket stamped even after I had purchased and show proof of stamped 3-day pass, and 2 other stamped tickets, and the very morning I had purchased my ticket to head out to Berlin Central Station I had forgotten to get it stamped. The ticket collector or ticket master was a heartless beast. Cold and a good reflection of some things in Berlin, and psychologies you will run into. The ticket could be fought over at Berlin Central Station. I had no time for this sort of nonsense, and ate. God bless them all. I do think country side is beautiful. I will add more pictures, and possibly an image slider, for now, pictures are just below. I never thought writing, and managing the pictures would be like a part time job. It feels good at the end though. Please bare with this bare bones structured site.

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