Postcards from... Munich

Friday, 9th December, 2011. All that stood between me and my long-awaited Christmas market trip to Munich were three Kindy classes. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything as it happens. I'd accidentally left my Kindy songs CD in the house. No CD = no singing, and I needed the CD to drown out my tuneless warbling! Then I made a kid cry and his grandmother complained. She went quiet when I showed her (and several other nosey parents) the worksheet little Mikołaj had just defaced. Thankfully the brat that is Maja decided to behave (after a fashion anyway) so my second class was fairly painless. I had a new and VERY chatty child, Nikodem, in my final class. In just one lesson, he managed to take over from Karol and become the new class clown. Karol, realising that his crown had been stolen, played up even more. Unfortunately I couldn't complain to Nikodem's mother because she's one of my students! And I didn't want to complain to Karol's father because he's really rather attractive! (How wrong is that?! Ha ha!). Anyway, in all the furore I forgot to give out the gingerbread to the kids, so I took it up to the teachers' room and enlisted several staff to help me eat the evidence! (Gingerbread? What gingerbread?!).

Mission accomplished, it was time to head to the train station. My half-hour wait in temperatures of barely 1°C (34°F) turned into an almost hour-long wait, by which time I was freezing and thoroughly fed up. I arrived in Katowice at 21:20 and realised that I had no idea how to get to the airport. Oh and I also only had 70zł (approx. £12/€17/US$19) on me. Thankfully I located a bank machine and drew out a further 200zł (£35/€48/US$54). I decided that it was worth paying for a taxi. But it hadn't occurred to me how much a taxi might be. And when we had been driving for 30 minutes and the meter said 185zł (£32/€44/US$50) I was getting concerned. I swear the bloody guy saw me coming. He was driving on empty roads at around 30 miles per hour. When we finally reached the hotel the meter said 225zł (£40/€54/US$61). I paid him through gritted teeth. If the journey had taken any longer I wouldn't have been able to cover the bill. Thankfully the hotel was nice with in-room tea-making facilities and free WIFI...

*****

The next morning I got up at 04:15 (blurgh!) and got the 04:45 free shuttle to the airport. Everything went pretty smoothly... until I got on the plane that is. A huge man with rancid breath flopped into the seat next to me and then leaned sideways till his face was almost touching mine! Seriously, WTF?! He kept shifting around and I even got elbowed in the face! TWICE! He then pissed the air hostess off by waving his arms around and saying "Me, me" when they were handing out free papers. The air hostess said icily, "There's no need to make a fuss, I'm coming". When he finally got his paper, he opened it as wide as possible so that, yet again, something was stuck in my face! I'm amazed that people can be that bloody selfish!

To make matters worse the plane had to be de-iced which meant we were sitting on the runway for an extra 15 minutes. Which caused untold problems at Frankfurt airport, when I had just 20 minutes to get from one side of the airport to the other. I swear it was about three miles, most of which I had to run. Cue a big sweaty mess all but collapsing on Lufthansa's desk at Gate A20 gasping "Is this the Munich flight?" Luckily it was and boarding commenced just two minutes later. Phew.

More de-icing meant that we were late arriving to Munich and by the time I got to the city centre it was 11:00, but as I exited the S-Bahn station at Marienplatz, I was captivated. For there, right in front of me, was the most beautiful Christmas market I had ever seen.

The delicious gingerbread stall

Handmade Christmas tree decorations

The honey stall

Another gingerbread stall

And there was better yet to come. As I wandered around I stumbled across an amazing food market (not sure if it was part of the Christmas market or not!). To my delight there were lots of little 'tasting' stands where you could dip little bits of bread into jam, honey, sauces, pesto, etc. Some of the things were so delicious I kept coming back for more, but making subtle changes to my appearance (hood up/down, hair up/down, glasses on/off, etc) so as not to look too pig-like!

One of the many tasting stalls

A Christmassy delicatessen

Chocolate-covered apples

Gingerbread hearts

One of the many meat stalls

I wandered between the stalls, from the food market to the Christmas market and back again. I bought some sausages, a handmade cinnamon and pine cone decoration for a friend and some spices to make mulled wine – a bargain at just 80c (£0.59/US$0.91) a pack. I also bought and quickly devoured sausages in bread rolls, some gingerbread and some Glühwein (mulled wine) and then went back for more! I could have stayed there forever but the temperature had dropped to around -5°C (23°F) and the weather was alternating between light snow and heavy rain. When I realised that my feet were soaking (thank you boots!) and beginning to freeze, I decided to chill out (or should that be thaw out?!) at the hotel for a bit. The next problem was finding it. Luckily the tourist office helped me out and after a two-stop S-Bahn ride (€1.20/£0.88/US$1.36) followed by a three-minute walk, I was snuggled up in bed.

But, as my trip to Munich was so short, not to mention expensive (thank you Lufthansa), I decided to brave the elements again. Besides which, Christmas markets look magical in the dark! So off I went, pausing for another sausage in a roll and some Glühwein before ending up at the tasting stands again (pig!).

On my travels I came across a cheese stall and was lured in by some bright green cheese. It turned out to be wasabi cheese, which seemed rather unusual so I decided to buy some. I stood in the queue for ages waiting for an American couple to stop arguing and just pay for their goods. (He wanted to "see everything"; she was "just too damn cold to care anymore" and wanted "to go back to the airport now". She scowled at me when she noticed me eavesdropping, although it was pretty hard not to!) Cheese procured I wandered around and tried to take some more photos, a pretty futile task when you are being jostled by would-be shoppers and trying to avoid losing an eye to the sea of umbrellas.

Cheese stall with green wasabi cheese in the centre

By 17:30 it was bitterly cold. As my jeans and boots were soaked through (again) and I had seen what I'd come to see, I headed for my hotel, stopping off en-route for a quick Starbucks. The warmth of the hotel was a welcome relief! As I thawed out, I reflected on my brief trip. I absolutely loved the market (or should that be markets?) and I can't wait to come back to Munich. I will choose a warmer month though as sightseeing when it's -5°C (23°F) outside is hardly tempting!

Marienplatz