Journal, January 31, 2018
I am in Munich! And I am laying in bed in the hotel because the moment we saw 'Wilkommen in München' signs, I got my period and I'm not being any more dramatic than usual here, the worst cramps of my life. Philipp is in meetings and I am in a hotel bed in Munich with none of my period necessities in sight. HOW DOES ONE GET THROUGH A PERIOD IN A COUNTRY THAT DOESN'T HAVE MEXICAN FOOD?! HOW! I went to the Apotheke and asked for the equivalent of Midol, and it's been three hours and I can say with certainty, this is NOT the equivalent of Midol. I turned on the TV to binge watch something truly unimportant on E! and started crying when I remembered that the Kardashians don't speak German and no one on this hotel tv speaks English. I'm wondering how expensive it would become to fly home for these four days every month.
I am sitting in the cutest antique store/coffee shop combo-- Café Maria. It is so cozy here with mismatched tables and chairs, good German cakes, and mediocre coffee. This morning, I walked through Munich. I was headed toward Marienplatz-- this is the Munich Rathaus (I understand this to be the equivalent of 'town hall') and is what Philipp's parents most-highly recommended. I was walking down this tiny cobble-stoned street and it started snowing and oh my goodness, the tiny street opened up to this town center, and in the most beautiful building I have ever seen in my entire life. Honestly, I swear the Universe was like sorry for yesterday, here is this incredibly-detailed, perfectly-placed building with a little dancing puppet show and cuckoo-clock going off just as you walk up. Okay, and fine sorry about the Mexican food thing, we'll throw in some snow. Top 5 most charmed moments of my life. So, naturally I sat down at the café across from this masterpiece and ordered a Glühwein, and dear reader, if you've never had a Glühwein, call your life choices into question, book a flight to Germany, and order the first one you see upon landing. This is where the charmed moment fell flat. Do you remember Ariel brushing her hair with a fork and trying to convey her thoughts to Prince Eric without a voice? Yeah, that was me wanting a Glühwein. I got so caught up in the charm of it that I completely forgot the sentence Philipp told me to use when asking for something. I also completely forgot where I was, at all. The only word I could remember was the word of the thing I wanted to order, and to sit down and say to the lady 'Glühwein' is against every single thing I was raised to do. So, I said nothing. And I know it can't be true but I swear to The Little Mermaid that we stared at each other in silence for eight minutes. I wanted to crawl inside of myself and not exist. As I sit here and write this, I know that tourists bustle in and out of here every day. I know that if I were touring Germany on vacation, I would have pointed to the drink, smiled, awkwardly counted my converted Euros and moved on with my life. But because I live here, because this is my new normal, I just feel like such an idiot. Maybe it's the way the kids in my high school treated the foreign exchange students. Maybe it's the way my country sometimes treats immigrants. I just hate this weird and necessary level of the not-knowing. Anyway, she brought me the Glühwein, I paid. I left, and then I called P for the "can I have a..." phrase and I practiced it the whole way here. Thank God, the German word for coffee is kaffee.
Last night, Philipp and I went to the cuuuutest little German restaurant. When I left New York, I thought I would have a hard time asking P for help but honestly at the end of that day, I felt like I only feel after a marathon. He translated the menu for me and asked the server for what I wanted, and though now it feels really crappy that I couldn't do it, at the time, it was really really nice. Last week, we were in Ikea and I was so optimistic, trying so hard to read between the lines and guess what the furniture words meant, and this week it's like hey can you order me a schnitzel. I guess you win some, you lose some. But at least when I lose, there is schnitzel. Since I met Philipp, he has been telling me about this dessert-- Kaisserschmarn (that's definitely not how it's spelled). It's basically a scrambled, caramelized pancake with apple sauce. It certainly did not disappoint. The restaurant owner was this adorable old man in traditional, old-school German clothing. I thought this was only worn today by white tourists at Oktoberfest but I was wrong. He came over and talked with us, and even though I didn't understand a single thing he said, I could tell it was nice by the look on his face and by the look on P's. So I nodded and giggled when Philipp laughed. When he walked away, Philipp said that he said we were adorable. 'Twas a good ending to the day.
Today, I toured the Residenz Museum, and it was gorgeous! It was like a Disney movie, and I have never seen something so old and so grand. I'll have to tape pictures here because I don't really know how else to describe it. I just can't believe that one month ago, I thought that it was so cool how NYC preserved McSorley's Ale House from the 1850s. This is McSorley's great-great-great Grandma's Grandma. As the Germans say, "it is schön." Technically, they'd say the whole thing in German, but I only know the one word.
I am eating lunch in Munich's Eataly, with NO SHAME. I have walked around all morning hungry and thirsty because I do not want to ask for something and I keep forgetting the order of this "can I have a..." phrase! It will be very interesting to see what wins out in this country-- my pride or my love for food. But in any case, I have been wandering. I saw the city Library-- die Bücherei. I wandered upon this old outdoor theatre stage. I wandered through this little Marketplace (Viktualienmarkt) and had a... Glühwein in a heated tent because it's really cold here! When I ordered it, I found a booth that only serves Glühwein and walked up with a blank face hoping she would just assume, and alas, she did. So now, I am eating in a place that I've eaten at in New York many times, and even in German I can't mess up 'Pizza.'
Last day in Munich, tonight we drive to a place called Murnau for the weekend. Today I wandered hungry, thirsty, and proud again. (ha!) I toured Frauenkirche and saw this mysterious, infamous Devil's footprint. Very cool. But I can't believe how beautiful the inside of this Church is. My aunt said all German churches are this lovely on the inside. The stained-glass windows are so insanely detailed and beautifully made. I walked through Viktualienmarkt again and back to Café Maria. What can I say? I like what I like. I've also gone to see the Cuckoo clock at 12pm at the Rathaus every day since we got here. Now I think I'll just wander for a couple of hours. This is a great 'wandering' city. So many charming details, so many timber-frame buildings, so many bakeries and bookstores. I really have fallen in love with Munich. I'm excited to go away for a weekend getaway but I've really had fun lone-wandering and feeling like a fool alone and not in front of my partner. (ha!)
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