A little bit of Munich

It's been about 7 months living in Munich, and while I am still adjusting to the language, this city has started growing on me quite a bit. If the language wasn't an issue, I wouldn't hesitate to say this city was probably one of the best places to live in. Munich is both charming and cosmopolitan. It's called a big village due to it's feel of a relaxed town or village, rather than a busy city.The main city is not that huge either; most destinations around take you no longer than 30 minutes on public transportation to get to. The public transport system is actually pretty darn amazing. Imagine having GO trains running to the east and west suburbs frequently enough while only costing what a TTC ride would cost - that amazing.  

Summer time in Munich

the chess area - pic credit here.
i haven't got around to taking pics
of the area i live in.

I have to say that the best part about living in Munich is the ease of traveling. Being able to get on a train whenever you like and go to a completely different place - it's awesome. And most of my last summer weekends were spent doing just that. So in some ways, we didn't even spend that many weekends doing much around Munich. But Munich in summer is absolutely gorgeous. There's a stretch of an area called Munchner Freiheit, about 8 minutes walk from our place, and it's all so Europe like (for lack of a better word) with adorable buildings, side street cafes, variety of restaurants, some cute stores and even some clothing stores like Zara and H&M. All just an 8 minute walk away! They've also got a big chess game on the ground. It's too cold these days, but during summer, I enjoyed just walking around there or taking a book with me to one of the cafes. 

There are a few ice cream places around here too, so during summer, we always had after dinner walks to one of these ice cream places. I love post dinner walks! And it's just so great that within a 10-20 minute walk from our place, we've got a lively and happening place with tons of ice cream and dessert choices. I know this probably isn't limited to just Munich. If you live in Toronto downtown, you can probably do the same but I've always lived in the suburbs of Ajax and anywhere we needed to go, we'd have to take the car. So I am personally really liking just being able to walk everywhere (although during these winter days I do miss a car). I miss summer time and cannot wait for the weather to get better so we can resume our daily ice cream walks! If you walk 30 or so minutes further down, there's an area filled with some great restaurants from all different cultures. The walks around are also picturesque, including a big arc in the middle of the street, that we would just walk to those restaurants for dinner during summer. And then there's the huge English Garden right in the middle of the city, again only 15mins walk from our place. Whether it's picnicking or BBQing in the beautiful English gardens, or going for a run or strolling around the lake there, or eating at the beer gardens - that place is just always buzzing with people. 

Oktoberfest

oktoberfest 2012. and this is just one small section of it!

I had heard so much about Oktoberfest and was really excited to check it out, and to buy myself a dirndl. It wasn't easy understanding how to buy a dirndl at first - a dirndl consists of more than just one piece of clothing! A short blouse, the actual frock, an apron and an underskirt. So when we first went dirndl shopping, I was completely lost. So many different styles, colours, options; regular cotton dirndls, fancy satin dirndls,  lace blouses, cotton blouses...you get the picture. Some stores have them all assembled for you, whereas in some stores you pick your own separate pieces and put them together. After looking through a few stores, I finally decided on buying the pieces separately. I opted for a lace blouse and cotton dirndl.  It was my first time and I didn't want anything fancy. Plus with the crowd Oktoberfest has, you can't really wear fancy ones anyway! I loved wearing the dirndl, it's just so feminine and pretty. 

My very first time at Oktoberfest was the very first Sunday - and boy was it packed! I don't recall seeing this many people in one place at one point in time. It was insanity! The next few times that we went were weekday evenings, so it was slightly less crowded but even then at one point in time there would be about atleast 10,000 people there. I did get the chance to sit inside the tents a couple times but I personally enjoyed the outside atmosphere more. The food stalls, the lights and the rides! I loved the rides! My favourite was the olympic roller coaster with 5 360degree loops! I dragged Umair 3 times to that ride, I think. Of course, my head was spinning by the end but I love roller coasters! I also really liked Toboggan. It's a conveyor belt ride and it's just so amusing! It's got the biggest crowd of watchers. People just stand there watching and cheering or being amused. Here is a video of what it's like:

For the ladies, they actually hold their hand and glide them up, and I wasn't in the mood to embarrass myself so that's how I did it. It's fun, and then you get to go up and there's a really good view of the Oktoberfest. The slide back down is fun as well.

Okay this ended up being much longer than I intended it to...so the rest of my 'little bit of Munich' will continue in part 2 later; which will consist of the adorable and fun Christmas markets and the horror that is New Year's Eve in Germany.