Munich: Toys, Markets, and Chocolates

It's not often that I've been able to repeat my travel experiences. Paris was a giant exception to this, plus my annual volleyball camp in Holland, an accidental two visits to Rome within six months of each other, and our random short trips to London.

Besides Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, and London, where else in Europe had I gone more than once?

I can happily now add Munich (as it is essentially our new Paris) to that list, and our list of repeat places is only going to grow this year. I see it as a good thing; we are finding our favorite locales, and, instead of trying to constantly "one-up" each previous destination, we are thrilled to have really found new homes away from home.

It was Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, and London. Now add Munich. Soon to add Madrid (Christmas) and the Algarve in Portugal (May) again. This is a pretty good line-up!

Anyway...MUNICH.

I hadn't really taken an evening off from volleyball yet, and, with no German lessons this week, it was the perfect opportunity to get to Munich before it gets too cold.

But, for September, it was cold. I wore boots, jeans, a sweater, a coat, a scarf, and mittens all day. I used to be able to say, "No scarves until October." Not in Bavaria!

Vilsbiburg is about one hour and fifteen minutes from Munich by train, but you have to change trains in Landshut. It's "inconvenient," but at least the trains run once an hour in both directions and it can be timed out well enough.

I mentioned the Lander ticket strategy on my post from the Baden-Württemburg in 2014. I will mention it again. I will continue to mention it until every traveler to Germany is made aware of it. In any region, or state, or "Lander," in Germany, you can pay 23€ for a day pass to go anywhere in the region.

It was great for me today, as a normal one-way ticket from Vilsbiburg to Munich costs around 20€! But it gets better - you can travel in a group of up to five people, and it's only 5€ for each person after the original 23€. Do the math, if you want, or just trust me that this is a great way to explore Germany!

I had one task to remedy from my original weekend trip in 2012. I had to go to the Toy Museum.

The Spielzeug Museum is housed in the tower of the old city hall in the main square, Marienplatz. I entered through an opened wooden door to a spiraling castle staircase. There are only three exhibit rooms, but the arrangement is full and adorable.

The Toy Museum takes you back to your own history and memories of presents under the Christmas tree, dollhouse worlds, Barbie outfits, and miniature figurines that our imaginations could entertain for hours.

True confession: I totally went to see the Barbies. The general nostalgia (antique toys in a medieval tower!) was awesome, too, don't get me wrong. The Spielzeug has Barbies #1, #2, and #3, plus the original twenty-one outfits from the first Barbie doll in 1959. I had no idea that the first Barbie was literally white, like the color of a wall. The clothes were fantastic, showing the style of the era and how much vintage and retro clothing have come back into style today.

After my self-guided tour of the toys was finished, the museum host at the Spielzeug advised me to take a walk through the Viktualienmarkt. (This is why it's good to talk to strangers.)

"Hello, my favorite area of Munich, it is so delightful to finally meet you."

I don't know why the Germans feel like they need to do Christmas markets if they already have a daily market like this one, complete with fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, coffee, spices, cafes, flowers, bakeries, and so on. I'll be eating every meal in Munich at the Viktualienmarkt because it's like the Christmas markets everyday.

After snacking on fish and chips in the market area, I found a bathroom and wifi (a.k.a. Starbucks). Google has always been there for me whenever I've typed "best hot chocolate in [name city]."

In a corridor to a hotel, the Chocolaterie Beluga is tucked into the diagonal, serving one of my favorite things in a very fun way: the chocolate cube. Over thirty choices were staring back at me, and I loved at least ten of the options. But the Sea Salt Caramel cube won me over in the end, and it was absolutely delicious. The cool thing is that you can buy the cubes to take away, so I can "re-visit" Beluga at least four more times at home now until I get a chance to return.

My day didn't end here, but I'll wait to give you my impressions of Oktoberfest in the next post!

Munich: Toys, Markets, and Chocolates on iOS & Android

Find the rest of my navigational GPSmyCity app article cities HERE.

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How I Travel: Why Bother?

And finally, the fifth and last installation in the "How I Travel" series! (Sorry, I was too busy traveling to finish it for a while....)

Travel has been continuously transforming my life since I was six months old. That's how old I was when my mom took me on my first airplane from Ohio to California while my dad drove the moving truck across the country. In more real memories, we flew to Texas and Oklahoma from California every summer from the time I was five. We moved houses a lot, and a few times to different cities and schools.
 
We were extremely mobile, and adaptability was key.

I don't think my parents' ultimate objective was to have a daughter who would move to a different hemisphere, but they definitely prepared me for it!

But even if I hadn't had an "in-motion" childhood, this choice of mine to travel through adulthood stands on four main points.

1) People
I love asking lots of questions and listening to long answers. I love chatting and laughing with strangers and new friends. Travel brings foreigners together in a beautifully temporary way. You meet people from all walks of life; children, old people, families, couples, drifters, workers, immigrants, people who love where they live, people who hate where they live, and everything else you can imagine. These people are the ones who tell you where to get the best pizza, what kind of coffee to order, and provide a composite view of life wherever you are. The people paint the picture of a place in a deeper way.

2) Education
I am a junkie for learning. I devoured books as soon as my mom taught me how to read, and the library was one of my favorite childhood places. I may have dove headlong into technology and social networks during college, but moving to Europe has charmed me into discovering the stories of the past by traveling. I feel like the last five years have been overlapping courses in French, European history, geography, Spanish, German, navigation, cooking, international relations, cultural intelligence, and engineering (from tutoring English at a science university). I love that I can set the pace of learning for myself, and all it takes is for me to step outside wherever I'm living. My expat journey has been another sort of college experience, and one that I'm extremely fond of continuing.

3) Food
For me, traveling has a lot to do with the local cuisine. I love to eat. I want to try dessert, or some variety of ice cream or chocolate, in every country I go to. The food I eat on trips has almost everything to do with whether or not I will return to a place. Marc and I will return to Madrid for Christmas again this year because - OMG - the food is AMAZING. We all know that crêpes are best in France, pasta (and gelato and pizza and olive oil and so on) is best in Italy, sausage is best in Germany, and tapas are best in Spain. Nothing beats an original.

4) Experiences
Of course, experiences! This is THE reason to travel for anyone and everyone. We all crave the ability to make and keep memories during our lifetimes. The most powerful and lasting experiences are usually the ones that take us out of our comfort zones and to a completely new place in every way: physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, whatever. There is high value in solo experiences, partner experiences, and group experiences. I find that I end up sharing my travels with everyone, regardless of whether I'm traveling alone or in a group of ten. My travels are my stories and my stories are my life.

The great thing about "travel" is that it is not defined by an airplane. By another continent. By a different time zone. By speaking two languages. No! Travel is anything you make it. I traveled constantly when I lived in California/America. To the National Parks. To historical markers along the freeway. To the lake. I'd get in my rickety old Buick, or Tanya's Camaro, or Amanda's Saturn, or Jenn's Toyota, and we'd go places. Anytime we went somewhere, we learned something, even if it was just something about ourselves.

Why bother with travel? Because we should never stop growing - which means we should never stop going.

Why do you travel? Where are you going next?

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Double Days in the Austrian Alps

The last time I did three days in a row of two practices per day was in 2007.

The only time I had ever been to Austria was in 2011, to pay homage to one of my favorite movies ever, The Sound of Music.

This time around, the hills were still alive, but with the sound of sports and awesomeness.

We stayed at a sports resort (yes, I feel like that's a thing now) called Maria Alm-Hintermoos, south of Salzburg.

We played a ton of volleyball. But we also had fun team bonding playing floorball, enjoying the sunshine, learning about Austria, climbing every mountain, and having way too much fun in the cafeteria at meals. I don't know what it is about volleyball players and hysterical laughter and cafeterias, but, for whatever reason, mealtime brings out the best in us. Maybe we just love food so much, that we are happiest when we're eating!

I didn't quite have the energy to go hiking like the rest of my young teammates did, but I did thoroughly enjoy the pool during our long afternoon off. The views of the Alps were incredible even from the valley where we were staying. We were surrounded by traditional Austrian chalets, grazing cattle, and forests and mountains as far as the eye could see.

Our coach did a good job of balancing the practices so nothing was too hard on our bodies. There was also the super cold pool and sauna and steam rooms to help with our recovery time.

It was interesting to see how six trainings affected me and my teammates. Some of us grew stronger and tougher, some of us got too tired or cranky, and some of us just ended up in a cloudy daze. It showed me that I still have something significant to give: a diehard love for volleyball.

Most of them at least like volleyball a lot; but I can tell that some of them probably have never had volleyball taken away from them, or have never had to face a world where a spot for them on a team doesn't exist.

When you don't know anything different than a seemingly invincible body and constant opportunities to play volleyball, it is so easy to take it for granted. I hope I can communicate the value and pricelessness of the ability to play sport - and to play sport with your friends - this year.

By the third training, I was physically sore and beat, but I was still excited through the sixth training because I GOT TO PLAY VOLLEYBALL. I got to strap on my ankle brace and volleyball shoes. I got to jump on two (mostly) working legs. I got to set great attackers who made great plays. I got to dive and sweat and block and shout and high-five and run all over the place.

These are the grand and wonderful moments of sport. These are the moments I missed so deeply that it broke my heart to the point of changing our entire lives and moving across the world.

It was an excellent weekend.

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German Swag 101: Counting Blessings

I was about a week behind the rest of the German Learners crew, so I had to catch up quickly or be lost forever.

Here's what I've gleaned so far:

Verb conjugations. Always key. There's this funny arrangement of personal pronouns where the formal you (Sie), she (sie), and they (sie) are all the same word.

Perfect past tense. It's a lot of extra letters, and I have a feeling I'll be saying sentences and just finishing with "ge-verb."

Every time I see or hear "schmuck," I laugh because that means, "jewelry." And, yes, it's just a bunch of schmuck.

I think "schwaig" is technically where "swag" came from. Especially since all it translates to is: schwaig. Swag is swag anywhere you go.

Numbers. After 1-10, I always struggle with this! Maybe high school Spanish ruined me because those numbers were all so basic. French numbers were always brutal (try having my birth year of 1986: "mille-neuf-cent-quatre-vingt-six" - or better translated as: one thousand, nine hundred, four twenties six).

Now I've got German numbers flooding my brain, and the tricky part here is they say it opposite of English. So, "24" is "4 and 20." Then we started learning how to tell time, and were told that while we can just say the literal numbers (6:35, for example), it is more common to say "6:35" like "5 after half until 7."

I say, "Whyyyyyyy meeeeeee?" to my slow death by numbers.

Do you use Duolingo for any language learning? We can connect our profiles to keep track of and encourage our progress! Mine is: "whatupswags" (of course). I'm using it primarily for German these days, but also for reviewing French, and still trying to add to my pathetic Spanish level. Join me!

Outside of language learning news, volleyball is settling nicely. Apparently, being a part of the "Rote Raben" (red ravens - and, no, they are not a real bird) volleyball club is like being a celebrity in this town. We get into the community pool complex for free, we get wifi in restaurants, and so on. The general assumption seems to be that if you don't speak German and do look slightly sporty, you're probably a part of the Rote Raben.

We've had our volleyball gear fitting, photo shoot, and newspaper interviews. The sports reporter didn't believe me when I told him my first impression of Vilsbiburg was that it smelled like Christmas. He responded, "Does California smell like something else?"

He also asked me what the difference between French and German volleyball was. I took a few moments before answering as tactfully as possible, "The level of player is similar, but the level of effort is much higher in Germany."

I could have answered with many more differences, but I think the effort level stands out the most to me. The other wonderful thing is that every team I've seen so far is totally committed to attacking out of system. I loooooooove this kind of volleyball (mainly because it's real volleyball). I also adore the fact that everyone comes to practice everyday, and my Swedish coach makes sure we always have twelve players so we can work on game situations for a large chunk of practice. (We NEVER had six players on even just one side last season because my French coach didn't like team volleyball. You should have seen him at matches....)

So all these volleyball things are different and better, but the most ironic thing is that I was named captain. Why is that ironic? Not because I'm not qualified, but, rather, because in the last four years, all of my French coaches weren't comfortable with me being a captain because, they said, my level of French could be a problem. Never mind that starting my second year in France, my coaches only communicated with me in French, I spoke to 90% of my teammates in French, I coached multiple teams in their clubs in French, I was doing job interviews and tryouts in French, and I was managing our entire life in France on my own.

It's ironic because I SPEAK GERMAN LIKE A 2-YEAR-OLD. But my team doesn't care; I'm the setter, I'm the oldest, and I'm the captain. End of story.

You know how when you make a big life decision and you hope someday you'll be able to know that it was the right one? A lot of people have to wait months, even years, for evidence of this. Sometimes we always end up waiting for proof because it was actually the wrong decision.

Marc and I are beyond blessed to be able to say that God has already made it clear that we made the right decision - and we haven't even been here for three full weeks. We know it won't all be sunshine and roses (the snow will damper that quite a bit), but whatever challenges arise, we know we are in the right place to face them.

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