Sunday, October 24, 2004

Ah Sunday. Just had a proper cooked breakfast (well, as good as a vegetarian can have) and am just gonna chill today. The weather outside is pretty good - bright sunshine and fairly warm (not quite shorts weather). The weather in Munich can be pretty messed up. The month of most rainfall is actually August although I reckon most of that is in short thunderstorms. Summer is generally great and winter damn cold but it can be sunny, rainy or snowy almost any time. This is due to what is locally known as the Foehn. This apparently increases suicide rates although personally I think that is crap.

Why Munich? Well, around 5 years ago I simply became disillusioned with England. Too much crime, too many racists, bigots, xenophobes, small minded idiots ruining it for the rest of us. Talk to people in England and a large percentage would like to live somewhere other than UK. Well, I had the opportunity and took it like a shot.

Munich is a great city. Sometimes the Germans annoy the crap out of me - just little things. They have a strange sense of humour that seems to exist infrequently, they can be very rude (let someone in ahead of you while driving and see how many times they thank you) and boy are they stiff (just look at the whole Du / Sie argument). They are good, honest people though and really look after their country. If I could give them a couple of words of advise it would be 'Chill out!!'.

There are parks all over the city - this is the largest - Englischer Garten - bigger than central park...



It really is a great place to chill out. One way the Germans are not stuffy is with sex and the human body and nowhere is this more apparent that at the Englischer Garten. Just watch the businessmen come along in their suits and take it all off to perform some naked yoga.

Around Munich are several wonderful lakes. My personal favourite is Amersee, a little smaller and less crowded. One of the most popular is Starnbergersee...



For me, one of the biggest attractions of Munich is it's proximity to most of Central Europe (Germany borders 10 countries!) and of course the alps. I love snowboarding. I am no expert but I do enjoy the feel of fresh powder underfoot. We actually have a big group going to Hintertux (below) next week - can't wait!!