Wieder in Deutschland

It felt a little word getting off the plane in München. I was sad to leave Sweden and unsure whether I'd feel at home in Germany after being away for 3 years. There was culture and language, reflexes that I don't use in the states.
I walked from the train station to my hostel at Göteplatz and checked in for the night. My roommates were two pairs of Australian girls on extended travel. I got organized and wandered to eis and Theresienwiesen, which I will revisit with a few million other people in a few weeks.

They're getting ready for us, Anne, John, and Erin!

I had my first Franziskaner of the trip while swapping travel stories with an Australian who has just been in Austria, then hit the hay. Why does the bier taste so much better here?

My breakfast view

 Yesterday I just explored the city, hardly looking at my map. I wandered into the Viktualien Markt (that stand that smelled really good? Austrian cured meat!) and from there to the famous Neue Rathaus on Marienplatz. I splurged there on a basic Kaiser roll breakfast with a latte in a cafe above the square, which came with a view of the various tour groups and and a southern Bavarian couple who didn't say much but wished me a "schönes Wochenende" as I left.

A kind Swiss couple from Lucerne swapped photo ops with me

I continued through the churches and old squares for another few hours. Dom photos are in the google+ album.

Eventually I had to take a writing break and enjoyed watching some gentlemen feed the pigeons.

The park theme continued as I went to the Englisher Garten for lunch. It at least rivals central park. Huge open spaces, water features, the chinasische turn, Japanese tea house... It was beautiful.

Even a surf spot! Google did some weird edit to the photo...

You see a surfer chick, I see a perfectly engineered hydraulic jump

I decided that today was as good a day as any to visit Hofbräuhaus, so I wandered in that direction and stumbled into it. Wandering around looking for a table, I noticed a guy next to me doing the same thing. So I asked if he'd like to join me for food and a bier. He looked a little surprised but said okay. We ordered food (käsespätzle and pork knuckle) and the obligatory liter Stein. Delish!

He was a mechanic from near Freiburg, so we talked about cars and accents. His English was stellar so we were at 90% that language by the time our food arrived.

As we left Hofbräuhaus and parted ways, we realized we didn't even know each others names! 

Foto by Frank

I'm not sure what I'll do today (I'm saving Deutsches museum for Sunday), but here's a parting thought

Where do you go to when you say you're going home?