What a city. I love that city, and I will without a doubt be returning. I don't know if I've made this clear yet or not, but I have this really terrible habit of booking my hotel/airbnb the day I'm arriving. This entire trip has been totally spontaneous, and usually I don't decide on where to go next until the day I want to leave. Munich was a little premeditated, just that I had a general sort of idea that I wanted to go there at some point. So while I was on the train from Salzburg to Munich, I booked an airbnb and got a prompt message from the host; " Sorry, not expect to book tonight. At work until 1900 ". This meant that I wouldn't be able to drop off my luggage until later on, so I did the only reasonable thing in my situation, and got completely lost in Munich with all of my possessions on me. There are certain folks that would murder me if they knew I did that, but they also don't have access to internet (don't tell them). That was a grand adventure, but not nearly so bad as it might sound. Munich is a very polite, very pretty place. Lots of parks and open spaces with trees to sit under, grass, and even a canal that has re-routed a substantial amount of water into a park called the English Gardens. The English Gardens will have a part to themselves later on.
I eventually decided that my feet hurt and because of that I deserved lunch and a beer. I found those things. Standard German fare, nothing special to report, with a half litre of Augustiner Brau. They're everywhere, by the way, the Augustine monks. They've seemingly monopolized the monastary based commercial brewing business.
Okay, let's see if I can remember this timeline. Today is Thursday, the 15th of June. I got into Munich on... the 9th of June. Yes that's right, I got into Munich on a Friday. Okay, so now that's all sorted, the story can go on.
The place I ate at was called Zum Durnbrau. Standard beer hall, standard beer food, standard German social standards in that you have to talk to other people because there are only long, wooden tables with long, wooden benches. There weren't many people there, though I did get to talking to a couple from Koln, who were interested in my t-shirt. Well, metal discussions and beer go hand in hand like a dictatorship goes with oppression. The point of that being that they both usually spiral downward and out of control. One beer turned into several, three people turned into fifteen, and we had ourselves a riotous good time.
By that time I really should have been getting to my airbnb, to drop my things off at the very least. I did no such thing, and instead continued looking for things that would be fun to see. Altstadt Munich is super touristy, so it's hard to get out of the hordes of people, and even when you do you barely hear German. But I wasn't really there for the people, I was there for the sake of seeing sights, and nothing better for that than ancient Catholic cathedrals. I've been consistently visiting churches in every city I go to, and for good reasons too. A lot of these churches are older than the USA. You simply don't see that in the US, because it doesn't exist, because it couldn't have existed since that country is still more or less a baby on the global level. The paintings inside are exceptionally beautiful, the organs are consistently these grand, arching masterpieces of human ingenuity, and the alters are serene, quiet and emanant of a time long past. The Frauenkirche was no exception.
Got my sightseeing itch taken care of, sent my airbnb host a message, and went on my way. Subways (u-bahn) are sometimes the most convoluted systems of transportation. Effective, of course, once you figure them out and usually they're far more simple than first impressions would lead to believe. I've gotten pretty good at them.
My host was extremely kind, and so was his girlfriend. I don't think I could pronounce their names if my life depended on it, but that's alright. Just a really relaxed Indian couple that were in Munich to finish their degrees. They were astounded that I wanted to go back out, and had really only shown up to drop my luggage off, shower, and change. Fifteen minutes later and I was back out the door, on my way to a metal bar that a friend had recommended to me. Met some people, had some drinks, listened to some metal, and then made my merry way back to the airbnb for bed. The next day was gonna' be a big one.
The next day was definitely a big one. I headed back into the city and first just found myself something to eat and a bottle of juice, things to keep me going while I walked. Then I just explored the city. For those that don't know, Munich is host to the world's largest and most notorious beergardens, as well as Oktoberfest. Well, not just Oktoberfest, but various other beer related parties and holidays. So after seeing some of the major landmarks around, like the Sendlinger Tor, Das Bayerisches Hof, and the Victuals Market (Saturday morning market with everything you could possibly imagine).
The Sendlinger Tor is more or less just the ancient old gate to the city. It's huge, it's made out of rocks, and it has something unreadable engraved on it in Latin.
Das Bayerisches Hof is now more or less a really impressive hotel, though it's been around forever too and has hosted some very prominent people (supposedly), and I'm sure has been a drunken riot at some point or another during Oktoberfest (read: every Oktoberfest).
The Victuals Market was everything from a market for locals to buy their weekly fresh produce from outlying farms, to tourists discovering the wonders of Munchener Weisswurst. Weisswurst is a white sausage with little bits of chives (I think) in it. I couldn't tell you how it's made, or what it's made of, but I can tell you that it's delicious, that you should peel the skin off, and that you should smother it in whole grain sweet mustard. That's a South German delicacy. Maybe not delicacy, but it's delicious. I also found some Turkish Delights, which are these bizarre jelly cubes covered in powdered coconut, I don't really know anything about them, but they were stupid expensive and way too addictive. I promise I only ate two.
Anyways, I didn't have lunch because I didn't really need to. The Victuals Market was loaded with folks giving out samples of their wares, so I sampled my way from one end of the market to the other, and then found myself a nice tree in the English Gardens to have a nap under.
Like I said earlier, the English Gardens get a whole section to themselves. They're meant to be various gardens all coming together as one, enormous, splendid nature park. They do that, but the different gardens have their own personalities and people. I really spent all afternoon just walking through these gardens. Turns out that there's a place along one of the canals where you can surf. You're not really supposed to, but that wasn't stopping a crowd of locals standing on either side of the canal in wet suits, waiting their turn to throw down their boards and hop on, to either flail and crash horribly, getting swept away by the current... or to find their balance and show off their skills until inevitably crashing and getting swept away by the current. Very popular, it seemed, as they had a pretty sizable audience standing around. I watched for a while and then moved on, my goal was to find a more secluded part of the park, and the gardens.
I found it eventually, an island on a tiny little pond covered in lilies, surrounded by rushes and flowers. It seemed like privacy incarnate, and was, of course, locked to the public. Turns out it was a traditional Japanese tea garden. That sounded like my cup of tea, so I did some digging and found out how to get on that island, did it, drank some tea, wrote down a bunch of ideas for a thing I'm going to do, and inevitably got kicked out because for whatever reason I wasn't allowed to spend all day there.
That traumatized me, and maybe it was also getting late, so I went to the biggest beergarden Munich has to rehabilitate myself. The Hirschgarten.
The scope of this thing is incredible. It's a beergarden located firmly away from civilization (probably for good reasons) in the middle of a park, it's catered by the Augustine monks and various local food stands/restaurants. There's also a little animal sanctuary right up against the beergarden, loaded with peacocks and deer, and other such things. To be honest I wasn't really interested in the animals that weren't turning on a spit, sizzling and dripping, crisped to the perfect level. Chickens in these beergardens are called Handl, with an umlaut in there somewhere, and you can either order an entire chicken or a half. The beer is less flexible, the monks will only serve you one liter at a time and there's only one variety. That one variety, though, comes from wooden barrels that the monks have to hammer spigots into. Wooden hammers and everything. I'd be willing to bet that their fermentation vessels are stainless steel just like every other brewery, though.
So, information on the Hirschgarten. It can seat about 8,000 people, maybe more at max capacity. The space around it has been cleared of trees, and the open fields are apparently the ideal place to play soccer and do picnic related things, and besides the monks driving around stacks of barrels with forklifts, there's no machinery to be found. Beer is cheap, the food is very good, and apparently there's an old Bavarian hunter's club that refuses to let the old ways die out, walking around in lederhosen, wool shirts and socks, and hats with tufts of deer fur sticking out of the top. Apparently membership requirements include being enormously fat, and world class beer drinking skills. I talked to them for a while, even if I could barely understand what they were saying. It was worth it just to see the physics of their moustaches up close, or lack thereof. I'm developing a theory that extraordinary moustaches don't actually obey our world's laws of relativity and physics, but instead exist in a dimension of their own. More on this later.
The last day in Munich was sadly, not very exciting. Mostly just packing my stuff up, getting back to the trainstation, and finding my train to my next destination; Venice.
Part II: The Next Destination
Venice is hot, muggy, and stinky. Those were the overbearing first impressions I got of the place. Besides that, Italians are loud and hard to understand. Even worse, I haven't seen so many toursist in one place before. The main means of travel in Venice are via canals (duh), by ferry, water taxi, or gondola. The gondoliers charge an obscene amount for their services ( 100 euros per half hour) and water taxis are only worth it if you have a group... so I forced my way onto a crowded main canal ferry. I was staying at the Hotel Rialto, only because I had found an extraordinarly good deal on the way there, and fully intended to use that hotel room for all it was worth. The Hotel Rialto is actually pretty nice, it's right on the main canal and also right next to the Rialto bridge, which is the biggest and most ornate bridge in the city. All very pretty stuff, if you have the rare opportunity to actually see any of it through the suffocating masses of tourists. Dropped off my stuff, grabbed my camera, and immediately went on adventure. The first thing I discovered was that Venice was the most expensive city I've ever been to. Also absolutely everything costs money. My grandparents had warned me about that fact, but I sort of ignored them, thinking to myself, " No... that's too ridiculous, they couldn't get away with these things. ". They do though. At most restaurants you get charged for the placemat and silverware. There's autograt on literally everything, including at gelato stands. Bars charge for use of the glass you're drinking out of. Churches charge you just for walking through the door, museums all have guided tours where you're charged based on time, autograt is included, and you're still expected to tip the guide.
It's insane.
I made one executive decision that day; I would treat myself to one very high end dinner overlooking the lagoon, and then I would find myself a grocery store and live like a peasant for the next few days. I had my nice dinner, and actually managed to find a place that wasn't too horrifically overpriced, the food was outstanding, the house wine would probably be a $50 + bottle in the US... I was very happy with that restaurant. Made out like a bandit with a tab at 70 euros.
Another notable thing about Venice is that you will get lost. There's no helping it, the streets aren't streets, they're narrow alleyways that almost feel like caves because of how the buildings lean in toward one another. You'll run into dead ends at canals, which is great at night because there aren't streetlamps or signs saying " There's water at the bottom of these stairs you're walking down ". I know this has a very negative tone so far but I actually really enjoyed the walking around Venice part of Venice. I also randomly stumbled upon a supermarket sort of thing in a dark alleyway, with no signage, that was actually very cheap. Like cheaper than most of Europe cheap. Must be where the locals buy their groceries. Got myself a nice Chianti, some salami, cheese, and bread ( I know, no brains and f-f-f-fava beans), and had a very romantic date with myself sitting on one of the steps looking out over that lagoon Venice is surrounded by. It was almost even quiet...
Anyway, my visit to Venice was honestly very uneventful, mostly just because I couldn't afford the place and spent the large majority of my time wandering those pretty little alleyways and running into dead end canals. I did watch a gondolier fall off of his boat, with tourists in it (again, they charge 100 euros per half hour). I went to a surprisingly modestly priced Vivaldi concierto, and spent one of my nights drinking with a group of extremely opinionated Australians.
Then I left that city behind and came to Trieste, where I am now. I enjoyed Venice, but I doubt I'll go back there.
Part III: The Seaside City Without a Beach
Trieste is a recommendation my grandmother made to me. It's a gorgeous little city right up against the ocean (Adriatic, I think?) It gives a very industrial impression at first, but once you get to walking it opens up into a much more old style, with regal looking buildings and wide, tree lined streets. Unfortunately no beach, but in a way that's nice too because it keeps it from being a real tourist destination. My airbnb was easy to find, and I was greeted by a wonderfully friendly elderly lady named Marina, and her black lab, Jack. Jack is the namesake for their bnb (St. Jack's) and I would take him home with me if I could. Such a good boy.
Anyways, dropped my stuff off and went to find dinner before retiring for the evening. Dinner ended up being half the price of what I payed in Venice, and even better. Still overlooking the sea, though with docks in the way and some sort of enormous industrial ship doing industrial things while anchored a ways off the coast. But still, the ocean always has a certain charm to it for me, or maybe that's just because I'm not used to seeing it at all.
The next day was wonderful. Excruciatingly hot, but still a wonderful day. I made my way to the local castle and was very happy to find that I could really explore all of it. Most castles have very limited access for tourists, either because they're crumbling old ruins and are dangerous, or because some historical society is doing everything they can to keep it in as good of shape as possible. This one was both well preserved, and open enough that I was able to see all the things that I wanted to see in a castle. I got up on the walls, took some breathtaking pictures of Trieste below me (any good castle has a commanding view of everything around it), and then went to explore the armory and the mazelike passages below the main courtyard. It's pretty incredible how cold those lower passages get, and humid too, with water running down the walls in places and all of that old iron still in place. Barring off certain hallways and rooms. They'd had an exhibit too, featuring the old carvings from the castle's cathedral. I can't imagine what these castles must of have been like in their prime, filled with people, the royalty and military stationed in their garrisons and lavish halls, the peasants milling around the courtyard trying to make appeals or selling wares. Even in more recent times when cannons were set around the gates, ready to fire at invading forces... I love that stuff.
The cathedral there had an incredible mosaic in it too, covering the entire ceiling and most of the walls behind the altar. I couldn't tell you what biblical scene it represented, but it was done in such a way that the afternoon sun coming through the stained windows caught the tiles perfectly, lending the altar a sparkling, ethereal quality. Honestly would've been better if not for the massive group of German tourists milling around, talking and taking up all the space. I spent my time there, payed my respects to the craftsmen that had likely poured their life into the art in that space, and to the old building itself.
After that I just walked. Picked a direction and just starting walking, for the sake of seeing more of the city. See it I did, and I also learned how truly insane these Italians are behind the wheel. Trieste isn't quite mountainous, but it is very hilly. So the streets are narrow and often on a pretty extreme incline with sharp turns and sudden dead ends. Still, everyon drives at breakneck speeds, often honking as they go around corners rather than slowing down. Streetlights seem more like suggestions than the law, and pedestrians are constantly double checking behind themselves to be sure they don't need to dive out of the way of some car or moped.
I also found my way to the Piazza Unita, which is (according to a local I asked) the biggest seaside square in Europe. Its charm was lost on me, because most of it was occupied by construction crews setting up some sort of stage for a concert or show of some sort. All the same, nice to see, and it was nice to take a break sitting on the docks with my feet in the water. Sadly, however, the weather was starting to turn for the worse. It's a pretty neat thing to watch a storm rolling in over the ocean. Pretty intimidating, honestly. So I made my way back to the airbnb, sat down in my room to enjoy a beer and maybe write a little bit, and had a knocking at my door. It was the other guest that was staying there at the time, a Swiss guy named Jorg. He wanted to know if maybe he could pay me to use my cellphone so he could call a woman he was trying to woo back home! I may or may not be a hopeless romantic, and I also love Swiss German, so I said sure thing and let him in to call her. We ended up talking for a while after, and he invited me to go to dinner with him since he was travelling on his own as well, and wine and food is best enjoyed in company. So we got our shit together and went for dinner, again, extremely well priced and high quality. The neat thing about European cities is that street musicians are not only fairly common, but also usually very talented. The old man in a suit that started playing violin in the restaurant was certainly no exception, and also the inspiration for the title of this entry.
La Forza Della Destino
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