Coming back to Germany this time around was a little weird, I was not expecting to feel so… at home? It’s very hard to describe. I had a surprise sickness that zapped my energy right before I got on the plane, and even the day after my mom was fretting over my decision to go on the trip.
My previous “returns” to Germany were rushed with too much to do – bouncing to Berlin and Switzerland, sightseeing, going to clubs, and then zipping right away out back to the plane. Since I’d been sick, and it was the first time I’d hung out in a relaxed way in Munich during the spring or summer, it was a different experience.
I sketched some people lounging around the Muenchener Freiheit square, read newspapers, and got away from the tourist center. I guess my subconscious Berlin snobbery melted a little. Bavaria and West Germany can be artsy too 🙂 and it was refreshing to just sit around and do nothing. My cousin coddled me, and I was a lot more careful about my energy, lazing around the excellent museums and taking a slower pace of life even though Munich is by definition more of a career yuppie town than other parts of Germany. Still, by any measures, it was laid back.
Speaking, reading and listening in Germany was so relaxing. I don’t know why the language has such a reputation for being harsh. I guess the directness can throw people off, but to me it’s an instant cortisol drop. I was still a little bit sick and my stomach sensitive, so I chilled out and sat in a Cafe reading the Sueeddetusche Zeitung, still doing way more than I’d like. It felt like coming home in a weird way, something my twenty four year old self would have rebelled against.
So if you’re in Munich I highly recommend the Cafe. 🙂 https://www.muenchner-freiheit.de/home Just sitting and whiling away the day people watching, relaxing with older ladies with white perms and flipping through newspapers among students reading books, all to some massively delicious food. Despite my illness I was able to have some Spargelsuppe (asparagus soup) and strudel.
Bavaria, you are a-ok!
