March 25, 2013

Spellbind

All fairytales end with happily ever after but little do people know what happens after that.

This is a short and sweet continuing tale from my Sleeping Beauty castle adventure as we drove from fictional looking town, Schwangau, directly to Munich, the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria. The transition felt almost otherworldly as we arrived as knight and princess from 1880’s mode: ON, to the new era of 2010’s, as the hungry and homeless. i felt like i was still in the process of transferring my soul from one place to another like it was a huge computer file.

Standing right in front of the enormous, elegant Neues Rathaus aka New Town Hall building glowing with secret dreams and desires of wandering Munichers encompassing the city, i decided to speed up the connection and complete the remaining download. There’s no time to waste! Barely carrying my light head and hollow stomach, i slowly placed my feet foot by foot right in front of one another on the manicured pavement until i reached the steps of a true Bavarian restaurant, am Marienplatz (the birthplace of the Munich white sausage year 1857), every inch of my skin yearning for warm air breathing out from the heaters. Dinner was a double set of classic Baravian meal, Fleischkaese mit Spiegelei und Brezel, one for each.

It’s funny how you don’t know what to do with your knife and fork when served something as simple as ham and eggs. i don’t mean that i don’t know how to use cutleries, i just want to eat it the right way – the way Baravians do. So i fiddled around with them until Leo officiated the feast by mouthing in a huge slice of meatloaf dipped in golden runny yolks that was starting to flood his hearty plate. So that’s how you do it!

And i did the same.

Can i just say, it was purely orgasmic.

The thickness and consistency of the meatloaf was just right; with each bite settling nicely in your mouth, bursting with flavors. Then there was the freshly baked pretzels that radiate warmth between your fingers, soaking up every drip of ‘egg sauce’, finally all washed down by a good ol’ pint of German house beer. i pleasurably released an uncontrollable massive burp that would scare all man kind away.

After celebrating our wholesome dinner, we decided it’s time to carry out our mission to look for a place to stay seriously. Mandarin Oriental wanted to charge us 500 euros (RM2000) a night. All the nice cosy recommendations on Foursquare around the area were completely booked out. After performing 3 circles of limping catwalk around the outline of Munich’s heart, we finally relented and took the Volkswagen.

{the famous landmark, Muenchener Hofbraeuhaus – remember to take a picture there if you can}

{queueing for our Gebrannte Mandeln, roasted almonds lightly crystalized with crunchy sugar to make our hotel hunt sweeter / more enjoyable}

Before the car heater could warm our buttocks, i saw a familiar friendly green sign that shone “Holiday Inn”. That, i tell you, is a name i know too well. You see, i used to join my family for trips to China before my brother and i decided that our love for the mainland cannot be forced anymore. For various reasons, i can never love China. i draw a big question mark on my head whenever i meet a Caucasian who goes all hoo hah about ‘China’ and decorates his / her houses with feng shui ornaments, Balinese furniture, burning Thai essences . . . which are not Chinese by the way but yes, it could be that they were made in China. Back to the main point though, it was through these trips to China with mum and dad when i noticed that our tour guides always arranged for us to stay in Holiday Inn. So the next time you are lost in a new city with no arranged accommodation, it doesn’t matter where in the world you are – just find Holiday Inn. Why? Because it is the most affordable yet complete with all the basic stuff you need, and is promisingly hygienic. Price: 100 euros.

In our beds we decided to go out and paint Munich red with some cognacs in a minute; which then turned to half an hour, 1 hour, to basically never. i fell asleep and dreamed of Neuschwanstain and that was it really.

Munich, i’ll get more of you tomorrow . . .