In Deutschland: Warum Nicht?

I Left My Voice in München. Ich last meine Stimme im München.

As I write and you take no notice of your precious working vocal chords, my poor voice is wandering German wilderness in hopes of hitching a ride towards Berlin. I guess I left it underneath my pillow in the hostel I stayed in, because it was certainly with me before I went to sleep (though, in my defence it was giving out on me a little before that). I guess I will explain a little, no, I will get to that, first I will go over a boring point to point of my train ride to Munich (aka München).
It started at 7:30am and ended around 13:45 in the München HBf. I could tell you it was long and boring, but it wasn’t really, it was quite enjoyable to relax and have no responsibility whatsoever. Getting to München, I was expecting a bigger city. Or at least to see some mountains in the background, but I guess chalk that up to my ignorance. I walked around the block a few times, and by block I mean the one around my Hostel because I had to wait until 3 to check in. It was dotted here there and everywhere with strip clubs, which was odd. I kept an ear out for Bayerisch because I had heard on many occasions that it is so different from Hochdeutsch that no one can understand it. I didn’t hear any, but I did see some postcards with it on them.
Finally I got into my hostel, set down my bag and got out my trusty but extremely outdated guide book. It told me of a good walking tour that started at the HBf, which was really close to my hostel. After searching for the place for about 30 minutes, I decided to check the HBf floor plan. I found the place I was looking for on the map and made a bee line for it, only to find that it had been replaced with the Starbucks I had walked past about 15 times. I decided just to take the subway someplace cool and walk around. I ended up at Marienplatz, home of the Glockenspiel and whatnot. While walking I heard quite a bit of English. I even helped a couple find something, though I only pointed as to be mysterious and possibly German in case they wanted to tell their kids about the nice German guy who understood them.
I finally ended up back at my hostel, hoping to be caught reading an English book and thus implored for English conversation. It finally worked and I met a college kid I will call Steve, though I think his name was like Eric or Paul or something with four letters. We talked about various European cities I should visit and about how Steve was in college and a business major. The lounge was pretty loud because there was a rock and roll band playing. Also the lounge area of my hostel was a bar. Well as soon as the rock band quits playing a flashing orange light graces the air. This was embraced with loud cheers and amplified by a person in a moose suit. A miracle? No, it was just the Jägerettes. But now I can at least report that I have been to a Jäger party, even though it was really quite lame. A few free Jäger shots later I found myself pretty tired, and sat down. I was then invited to join a conversation by having half a beer slammed in front of me with the order ‚You, Drink this!’ shouted at me. Not wanting or able to cause a scene as the background noise deadened my voice almost entirely, I decided to just take the mug and at least hold it. What followed was a German conversation. A short one, but at least I understood what was going on.
The next day I slept until I couldn’t sleep anymore, which was around 9AM. I was planning on meeting my friend at 10, so I had a good hour to kill. I walked to a park and read a little, knowing I would see a bit of München that day with a proper tour guide. I was only slightly bored. Meeting my friend was a bit more difficult than I imagined, Marienplatz, where I was to meet her, is a busy place for one, plus I didn’t remember exactly what she looked like. After a couple of phone calls I was able to find her. It was an enjoyable time. I spent most of it just talking to my friend and she showed me some of Munich’s best sites. I know this because we kept running into bike tour people. The first thing I did with her, though, was to eat Weißewurst, which is apparently the Bavarian thing to do. It was okay, but I was more impressed with the mustard.
After my friend left I was hit with a wave of lonliness that didn’t quit until I was halfway finished with my dinner of falafel. I decided at that point to meet some people at my hostel. I stormed the lobby and found some English speakers. There were a pair of Canadian girls on a random tour of Europe. A couple of English people who were living in Germany working on German skills. And the most interesting, a married couple from Chicago which consisted of a Packers fan from, of course, Wisconsin, and his wife from China. I ended up talking so much that by the next morning I had a sore throat.
On Sunday I had to check out by 10AM, which gave me about 5 or so hours between that and when my train left. I check my stuff at the train station and headed out to the Deutsche Museum, which was amazing. I spent my whole 5 hours there, though admittedly I was tired of it after about 3 hours. I had no where else to go really, and I paid 8 Euros to get it, so I was going to see every dang thing in there. My favourite were a few movies about Ginkgo biloba, and a gigantic model of the inside of a cell. Sorry if you don’t like Biology, but I am a big fan.
On the train ride home, I had a seat reserved. So I found it and settled in for a long haul to Berlin. A problem arose when a mother and her 3 year old daughter got on the train. They had also reserved tickets, but the good old Deutsche Bahn didn’t deem it necessary to seat them together. The 3 year old was next to me. Luckily I did the noble thing and switched with the mother. This put me beside quite a fateful passenger: An English speaker. An American. It was a woman from Arizona that was teaching English in Berlin. We had a long conversation about the specifics of English teaching. I ended up talking the rest of my voice out (which gave me a day off of work, because you can’t teach without talking). It was cool and I got a contact in Berlin, though, I have yet to email her. But things have been busy, which is, of course, another story.

PS Sorry this is really late.

posted by Keith @ 11:05 PM