Halloween Eve, and the 2nd worst snorer I have ever encountered somehow found more circulating glucose to send to his larynges and upped his volume. Now we (myself and the other 8 poor fools in the dorm) could not only hear him through our earplugs but feel the vibrations through our mattresses. I could see 2 others like myself, sitting bolt upright trying to figure out which bed the culprit was in and what to chuck at him when I decided to put this extra four hours in my day to good use. So I watched 2 snore-punctuated (but still awesome) episodes of How I Met Your Mother, went to the bathroom to do a 20 minute makeshift Les Mills Combat class (thank G nobody came in) and started a retrospective collection of stories which led to me starting a blog. These stories I’ll post in the coming days.
Where Else But Munich?
I've been travelling since June 15 now which makes this lovely Halloween in Munich my 4.5 month mark. I may be fast running out of cash, I may have innumerable bites from an unknown insect on my face and body which are vaguely purple and weeping mildly, my home may be a 10 bed dorm in the depths of a noisy snore-filled youth hostel on the dodgy side of the main train station, my dinners may regularly consist of beer or doner kebab or both BUT life is awesome here in my new home-town, Munich.
Where Else But Queensland?? Pfft, try Where Else But München?
Where Else But Munich can you...
1. Get a 1L bottle of my favourite drink ever, Gluwein, for 99c and drink it anywhere, even in front of the PoPo?
2. Hear Pachelbel's Canon played by a mini-orchestra on the street on Sun arvo? (I teared up)
3. Take your kids to an old, beautifully carved Merry-Go-Round in Europe's Largest Inner City Park?
4. And buy beer in Litre glasses to enjoy while you watch them?
5. See men in Lederhosen any day of the week?
And this is why, for those of you that don’t know yet, Munich is my settle-down-place for winter. Yes, I know, I hate winter, complain about the cold incessantly and wear at least 4 layers in Melbourne. But Munich is pretty, Bavarians eat a lot of meat, Ro and Fe are here and there’s a chance at a white Xmas with the meteos predicting a record tough winter (Nuora, K 2010)!
Hostel Strip
My home for the past couple of weeks has been what I now dub the Hostel Strip. It’s not a strip joint but there are at least 5 of those within 200m. Aside from that obvious drawcard, these three adjacent hostels (Wombat’s, Jaeger’s and Euro Youth), which I swap between depending on rate and availability, are conveniently located 50m from Munich central station and 8 different kebab houses at last count. ‘Living’ here is a dream, aside from the fact that it’s impossible to resist the lure of the bars...
Even just the innocent act of saying hello to a fellow hosteller on my way home after my ballroom lesson at the reasonable hour of 11pm resulted in ridiculousness. I spent the next 3 hours discussing the merits of Bavarian Leberkase (literal translation = liver cheese YUM), listening to the story of how a girl turned her straight girlfriend gay (she’s done it many times before), switching my brain between Serbian, English, German and DrunkPplSpeak, being bought roses by a guy speaking DrunkPplSpeak, refusing numerous offers to hit up some weed and hip-hopping to Crank That Soulja Boy at 2am.
And last night I got thrown around the d-floor by a skinny, gay, coke sniffing, Jazz/Blues musician turned fashion designer who was far stronger than his poultry legs implied. This was actually pretty fun.
While I meet new people every day and they are all completely abnormal and interesting and cool, it often feels like an empty meeting. What’s the point if I’m never going to see them again? At the moment I have some friend-continuation in an Aussie boy in my hostel named Jason who also intends to live in Munich for a while, and this is lovely.
Living here is lonely at times but it is lovely to have no obligations to anyone or anything and do what I want, when I want, cash limitations excepted!
