Munich, Germany

OK -- lets do pics first.

Typical Feb/March day in Germany. I was so sick of the snow and cold... it was nice to get back to Milan!

Here is the very famous Marlenplatz. I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong. This was the only sunny day the entire time I was there!

Of course, the sausage. Doesn't look good to me but was very popular there!

My first German pretzel. Pretty good :). I was standing inside the Hard Rock Cafe - Munich. Pretty cool

Yes - they still wear this stuff...
















The drunk soccer (football) fans.
They were screaming and chanting for hours!















Germany is actually very similar to Colorado - aside from the language and hours of operation. The shops close for lunch for a couple hours and almost all stores are closed by 6pm!! I don't get it... Whats the point? When do people do their shopping? Well - to give credit where credits due... most companies close around 2 or 3pm on Fridays to give people time for shopping. Pretty relaxed life out here.

I was asked to relocate to Germany for a month to help out our colleagues in our Munich office. So they put me up in a flat and said, "OK, great see you tomorrow". They weren't the most helpful for me in regards to the basics... e.g. where is the grocery store? where is the nearest subway? How do I turn on the heat? what the hell is going on ;)? Sink or swim has been a very familiar feeling lately.

There was, however, a girl named Vanessa who was very good to me. I was actually training her to take my place so that I could get back to my normal day job in Milan. She took me to the grocery store and picked me up and dropped me off almost every day I was there. In general, the Germans are very nice. Of course I looked like them so I fit in much better there. Most assumed I was German and started speaking to me in German right away. It didn't take long for them to realized I wasn't - but it was nice not to be judged immediately ;).

Germany is a lot like Colorado. The air is dry, VERY cold (it is actually colder in Germany), and the people are really nice. Food was pretty good. I'm not a big red meat eater so the weinerschnitzel and other sausage type foods were not on my menu - but overall the food was good. Same with the beer - can't drink a lot of it, but what I did have was great.

I went to the famous Munich Carnival in March. It is very similar to Halloween with out the tick-or-treaters. Lots of live entertainment, drinking and dressing up. I suppose it is a Halloween for adults!

I was looking forward to going to the Disney Castle and taking time for Dachau Concentration Camp but both weekends I was there it was snowing - blizzard like snow. Totally sucked.

All-in-all a good time and happy I spent time there.

I picked up a few words but have no idea how to spell most of them so I'll leave it alone :)!

Went to London last week - loved it!!! Will post some of those pics soon!

Ciao
jme