European Backpacking 1.0 : München

When you are young, you are scared. Scared of what the future holds in store for you. You start doing damage control in the present, under the cloak of that fear. In a hope that the future is better, the future is rosier, we make the roses of the present wither under these thorns.

One year of lacklustre work, that was paying me grand, but leading me nowhere, helped me have the best 3 weeks of my life. All I needed was, some hope, a lot of courage and a childhood friend to help me take the plunge.
P.S: I quit my job 2 days after coming back. That story, and plenty more, in the posts that follow.

“After all, we all live for the stories”

The Bavarian countryside

This story is from the Bavarian city of Munich. These people do not like calling themselves German. Do not speak a lot of German tongue, and definitely get offended when you mistake their beer for the German brew!
By our Indian watches, it was late late into the night. But the Bavarian horizon was alit. Alit in the European Summer dusk. Getting off, we had to run. Yes, run. Germany vs Algeria at 10pm. We hustled for tickets on the automated ticket machine. Zones, circles, single tickets were confusing us. So some nice Germans helped us, and off we were after a 10 euro ticket (Yes, the airport is far off from the main city). Got off at Hauptbahnhof (Central train station) and ran off to find the nearest bar. It was crowded. Rajeev Chowk crowded. We stood outside.
Suddenly we noticed standing outside was not a very good idea, as we were literally being pulled into bars around. Eureka! It was a red light area. We ran inside the Rajeev Chowk (Yes, I do not remember the name) bar.

The Old White Haired German in a heavy grunted voice (Germany is playing, and he can’t see the match, what should have we expected) shouted at us to order 2 drinks as varun said he didn’t want to drink. “You’re at a bar not a public park, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DRINK”. A beer and a coke arrived in a jiffy. In extra time, Deutschland won. The streets went crazy. Like mayhem.

After the match we were in for a surprise. Found out that peeing costs half a Euro. Rs 40 to pee. WHAAAAAAT?

Took a tram ticket to the hostel. * Deutschland Deutschland singing in the background*. The hostel was called the TENT! Yes, it actually was a humungous tent with 100 dorm beds in it. While checking in, the receptionist handed us over 5 blankets. We very proudly mentioned, we are from North India, we do have winters and the weather right now is okay. By next morning, I could see the hostel guy secretly laughing at me. I had all the 5 blankets over me, and still was trembling. God bless the European summer.

This is how ‘THE TENT’ looks like

Hungry as ever from the cold, we got into the guest kitchen, cooked some readymade Bhaaji Varun had got. The kitchen had some items donated by fellow travelers, and we found bread and butter among them. While eating, we met an Irish guy, who was interning in the Chinese Biergarten. He told us the water in the taps is drinkable. We (Being Indians) laughed and told him, that drinking undrinkable water from our taps has made our stomachs relatively immune.

We took a day tram pass (valid for 24 hours) and were off to see the city. Our first stop was the city centre, MeriemPletz with a score of big designer showrooms. Every sixty minutes from a high rise building, statues were propelled out telling old Bavarian tales with ear pleasing bagpipe music. Seeing the architecture we thought it was a church, but it was the townhall(Gothic Neues Rathaus)! The church Peterskirche was just behind us. Being a typical European city centre, the streets were abuzz with musicians painting the air melodious.

Gothic Neues Rathaus

After a cold rainy European summer night, it was bright and sunny. We sat around a park near the city centre and followed the German tradition of mixing the sun with some Beer. After the beer, we wanted to see some fast cars, Comes naturally you see. Off to the BMW Museum we were. It was located in the Olympic Village. If you’re a cars fan, you will definitely have an orgasm. Add a couple of Rolls Royce to them, and you may even die.

We were thirsty. But water was very very expensive. And it was still sunny, remember the German sun rule? Abiding by it, we took the train for the English gardens. Reaching the station we found out that there was a wing of the Munich University nearby. Was glad to see majority of students cycling to college. Hello Indian students, I too drive motor vehicle to college. We are (un)cool like that.

Let us cycle people!

English Gardens was a huge piece of Green! A stream passing through the middle of it made it the perfect picnic spot. Frisbees flying around, football kicked over the stream, sunbathing people AND people SURFING. Eager as hell to join them, I quickly lied down on the grass on the edge of the stream, and started dreaming. After a lot of sun soaking and surfing, we walked to the other side where the Chinese Gartens were. We said Hi to the Irish guy we met at the hostel, and bought a couple of Hell Beers (most famous in Oktoberfest) and a BBQ chicken. A couple of liters in those big big mugs made us thirstier. After devouring the chicken, and burping the beer aftertaste, we headed off to Hofbrauhaus, the world’s oldest beer hall. We were to meet a friend there. Here came the 2 liters of the heavenly wheat Brew. The hall smelled of chicken and pretzels and the atmosphere was ripe with the melody of the trumpets and the din of the drunken people. The company and the atmosphere made us love that place even more. (Thank you Madalina :D)

Hell Beer and Chicken 😀

We went to our hostel, very tired, very sleepy, but still managed to watch the match with 40 other travelers who had made ‘THE TENT’ their night abode. Amidst the warmth emitted by the bonfire, guitars and jokes made the atmosphere even cosier. Slept late, but slept content. Checked out early in the morning to catch our tram to the bus station. On that wee hour tram we found a couple of fellow English travelers. One of them was joining the London Police next month (Yay, I have a friend there too now) we were too early at the bus station, had some Fafda with pickle (Yes, Varun had that packed with him too) and waited some more. The bus was late, and empty. With just 6 people on board, and the no speed limit rule on the Autobahn, we were on the high road to Prague 😀