EURO TRIP PART II : MUNICH

Weekends in Europe part I : Munich

Intro

In weekdays, I have to work on my thesis. But in weekends, I have to enjoy my life because my life isn’t not only about my thesis. Since I have been only one week here, I decided not to go outside Germany first because I want to know more about its cities. At first, I want to go to Berlin, which is the most historical world war II city in Germany. However, I don’t realize that I stay on the south-western part of Germany, while Berlin is more like in the North-eastern part, which will take 14h of bus ride to go there. So I decide to go to Munich instead of Berlin

Munich/Muenchen is a capital city of Bavaria/Bayern state. Honestly, I’d like to write them in their German term, Muenchen and Bayern. But since finding U umlaut in Libreoffice is time consuming, and using ue is weird, yea just use Munich.

First Attempt

February 24th 2018

I booked Flixbus from Karlsruhe hbf to Munich ZOB for 3 AM departure in Saturday. But, I was really tired after working my thesis on Friday, I choosed to sleep at 7 pm while I knew I have to wake up at 1 am to walk to Graben-neudorf train station. Then I woke up and walked with enthusiasm on my heart. Because Bavaria state has unique culture and dialect among all of Germany’s states. I arrived at  the station 3 minutes before the last train leaving. I checked the schedule on kvv.de, it said that the train will depart on track 1, so I waited there. The time has come, there was only one train on track 3 instead of track 1. then I realized that was the train. So I try to catch up, I ran downstair-tunnel-upstair to track 3 just to realize that the train was already gone. I was frustrated. This can’t be happened to me. I was so sure, I event check the schedule on the ticket machine at the station, it agreed with me. And if there was any change, normally there would be a woman voice in the station’s loud speakers said “achtung *then some German sentences that I don’t understand”. I was disappointed. Luckily, the station has wifi, so I canceled the booking and reschedule to sunday on 8 AM, das war eine Katastrophe.

Graben-Neudorf train station

Main part

February 25th 2018

finally, I went to Munich with Flixbus at 8 AM. The night before I checked reviews about this German long distance-bus company. All they said were bad things like late arrival, rude driver etc (I will make a review post about Flixbus), in my case, it wasn’t true.

On the ride, all what I did is capturing the sceneries that I saw. First stop was  near Stuttgart airport. It was sunny and cold as freezer simultaneously, so I decide not to go out of the bus. Mr. Sule suggested me to go to this place instead of Munich, and all I see is just an airport with an enormous parking building nearby. Maybe he referred to another part of Stuttgart.

what I saw in Stuttgart

what Mr.Sule visit in Stuttgart

As a person who live in tropical country, I have never seen so much snow in my life. That happened when we drove across Ulm. That was my first time seeing hills and vast crop field are covered in snow. Even I saw random ice nearly-cube-shaped about 1 m cubic on the side of the street. I would love to make a snowman there since in Karlsruhe we didn’t have much snow.

this picture was taken near Ulm

Then we arrived at Munich ZOB on 12 o’clock. The first moment, It was cold as hell. My Deutsch lehrerin said “normally it is colder in the northern Germany because it is closer to the sea” what a twisted logic, and now if she is right, Kiel (where I will have to attend conference there) will be a freezing hell because in Munich,which is in the south was -7 degree on the afternoon!

Munich, Berlin, and Kiel

First thing first, I wanted to go to Marienplatz. But I ended in Munich Hbf. I stopped a while because the station layout is different than what normally I see. The track ends on this station, so the trains move like forward and backward. While in Karlsruhe or Indonesia we have the “U turn” for trains, usually not nearby the station. The station was crowded with people who want to go to ski, I assume they are going to Austria.

Munich central train station

Then I continued my journey to Marienplatz. Along the way, I encountered many beggars. Sadly, I guess they are from middle east because of their physical appearance, fashion, and language. At that moment, I felt… I don’t know… I just felt them, my moeslim brothers and sisters. Having no home , separated from family and homeland, and plus language barrier all because of war. Fucking goddamn ISIS. Just stop it already.

Okay, I managed to get to Marienplatz safely (not being lost :)). the place is actually Munich town square, with a castle/cathedral(?) on the center. The place was crowded with tourist because it was Sunday, I almost forget because I supposed to go on Saturday. My biggest mistake is I didn’t bring selfie stick or gopro. Therefore, I can only take object without my face simultaneously. I can do a selfie, but the result was terrible. Other than the castle, we have Frauenkirche, it is a big big church with a big big tower. Unfortunately, the tower was in renovation so I couldn’t enter it. Then there is Toy Museum, it is not that popular. For you who have claustrophobia, don’t enter this museum because the staircase is so narrow.

random picture of altstadt Marienplatz

random building, I don't know what the building name is

another random picture, you can see Fraukirchen towers there

unfortunately, the tower is under renovation

main hall Marienplatz

pardon my face and hair..

Spielzeugmuseum

And then that was 1 PM, and I didn’t know what to do next. I supposed to go to Dachau, the concentration camp in world war II, which witnessed the brutal holocaust by Nazi. But it is far in the north,  and I am to stingy to buy ticket. Because I want to save money for Paris and Amsterdam. So I concluded to walk to Englischer Garten (English Garden) to the north.

Dachau Concentration camp, "Arbeit macht frei"

Along the way, I saw some memorable building but I have no idea what their name are. Just took the buildings picture randomly. Then when I was at Isaar river, I saw this monument still, I don’t know the name. Again, just took random picture. Next, I just walked beside Isaar to the north in order to find Englischer Garten. But men, it was so cold. Sometime I rubbed my chest because my hand s are cold. I finally arrived at EG, but it was not really beautiful in winter. Event a person said “normally we have summer party here, swimming topless in Isaar, and relaxing and etc”

can some one help? what monument is this?

Englischer Garten

Isaar river

then I went back to the station, bought a kebab because I didn’t wanna die because of starving, and walked to Munich ZOB when that was -14 degree. So that was my 7-hours-at-Munich story. Maybe I’ll go back there in oktoberfest if I can.