16 Aug 07: Geneva-Munich (Day 3)

Another xiong day! Had to catch our train to Munich which would depart at 0604h so had to wake up at 0445h! What complicated matters was a heavy drizzle. It’s no joke rushing to the train station with the cumbersome luggage in that weather!

The journey to Munich was 6h long and cost a princely sum of 110 €, the most we’d paid for a train ticket thus far.

the bustling Munich train station

The locals we met didn’t leave me with much of a good impression, they weren’t very helpful when we asked them for directions to the nearest pharmacy. Most of those we asked didn’t speak English or were pretending not to. It was quite frustrating as we needed to get the medicine as soon as possible for Lynn who was puking again. Finally Andi managed to locate one, where we finally saw the renowned German hospitality and friendliness. The kind lady even threw in some sweets, meant to provide energy to someone who can’t stop puking, at no charge.

Met Eugene and Shaowei, who started traveling a week earlier, at Wombat’s City Hostel, which was true enough, only a 5 minute walk from the train station! Two thumbs up for the location! Wombat’s is a very young people oriented hostel, with a bar, a common area lined with pillows and bean bags where you can just take a nap or mingle. Pretty neat! We could see why it was voted the number 1 hostel in Europe.

the common area

Lunch was a beef goulash dish (7 €) at a Turkish stall near Wombat’s, the first of many beef goulashes we would be eating during the rest of the trip. Haha.

After the meal which totally invigorated us, we went for a walk around the old town, where we saw at least 4 Pantheon-like buildings (those with a triangular roof and many vertical columns on the façade). We had no idea what those buildings were. Haha.

The German Horse of Troy?

The ugly purple thing at the top is my trusty umbrella. Haha it was raining and we were freezing cold!

Other sights along the way:

A rushing river
Daredevil surfers riding the waves - Hot stuff! haha

For the video:

The highlight of the day was the Hofbräuhaus, this world-renowned beer hall. The moment we stepped into the hall, the fatigue that we had been feeling was immediately forgotten. The hall had a carnival-like ambiance, with a live band playing traditional music (the kind that makes u wanna spontaneously grab the hands of the person next to u and dance) and deafening chatter that left us overwhelmed. The place was large but it was packed! Waiters with trays of beer and food scurried past us. The air was saturated with cigarette smoke but even the cigarette-smoko-phobe in me wasn’t bothered that much cos the lively party atmosphere more than made up for it!

With luck, we found seats next to this kindly Taiwanese lady with her Swiss husband. We were soon engaged in conversation and found ourselves shouting at the top of our lungs in order to make ourselves heard above the racket. We had been seated for quite some time but no one wanted to come and take our orders even as we gestured several times to the waiters. A Chinese businessman at the adjacent table told us that we had to offer a 2 € tip to the waiter before he’d come around to take our orders! Like what?? But no choice man, we were famished! True enough, the waiter only came over when he saw that we were ready to tip.

What tainted our pleasant experience there was the rude waiter! As the menu was in German, we took some time to clarify what we were ordering but he had zero tolerance for anything of the sort! He just kept tapping his watch, growling ‘quickly quickly’ and when our food arrived, he just slammed it on our table (and I mean slammed!) Urgh a bit uncalled for.

We had pork knuckles, some strips of ham, goulash and of course the house beer. But the Hofbräu beer was too strong for my non-alcoholic tastebuds. Haha.

Hofbräuhaus

Went back to Wombat’s on a high! =D