Munich Sparkles

The last few days we have been exploring Munich. I read somewhere that Munich is the German equivalent of New York. It is a beautiful city, much older than anything we have in the US. People were a bit more pushy, but generally nice. More people here speak english which is a big help when you get lost.This city, like any big international city, has anything you could ask for. Restaurants, bars, night life, shopping, museums, churches, etc were everywhere.

A few things I noticed here. First, Munich (and Germany) is much more open to and comfortable with nudity. The city was hosting a nude photography exhibit and all throughout were billboards/banners advertising it with an old 1920's era photo of two topless women. The corner newspaper rack had a front page picture of a naked girl, I think announcing her as a new lady of the night in town. They also have a huge city park that has lots of nude sunbathing. Could you imagine any of this back home in the bible belt? The other thing I noticed is that Munich is much more male fashion forward than citys in the US. They have department stores geared toward men, as well as tons of small fashions store like at home for the ladies. We also noticed lots of mens shoes, some good, some weird. Dan Mandel, if you're out there, you would love Germany and the shoes.

We spent most of our days here walking. Our first day, after arriving midday by train, we went and saw many of the normal tourist sites in the center of the city. It was Kelley and I only this night and we just walked around for a few hours before heading in for the night. The following day we toured several art museums in the morning. These were awesome! One museum, The Old Pinakotek, had paintings from around 1400-1700 AD. The New Pinakotek had more modern paintings and art by masters such as Van Gogh, Monet, Gaugin, and Rodin. The best part--beer breaks in the art museum. Everyone was doing it! The paintings were great, too.

We met my family who had spent an extra day in the countryside, had dinner and did a bit of random walking. My brother again ordered the seemingly weirdest thing on the menu, octopus this time, which I again tried. Not bad for this one, tastes like a chewy shrimp with tentacles. We later went to the Hofbrauhaus for more beer. The Hofbrauhaus, for those that don't know, is an old bier hall. It has a large open room with picnic style tables and an oompah band. Lots of fun. The beer you order comes as a liter beer. After finishing those off, it was time for some sleep. We cabbed it home.

The following days were much of the same. We walked for a few hours, toured a church, museum or old building, then a beer break. Rinse and repeat. I really like Munich although I think I am the only one in my party. My parents prefer small, Kelley prefers boring. I think it would be awesome to live there for a few years and really get to know the place.

From here we are heading to Frankfurt for our last day in Germany, then on to India.

2009 7-7