Munich Day Two: New Year's Eve

In the morning all four of us, after a long German breakfast (lots of different breads, cheeses, meats, fried eggs, coffees) headed into see Munich. With our trusty tour guides we managed to have a whistle-stop tour of Munich, including seeing all the main buildings, and including the square to the right of this photograph, the Odeonsplatz. With many mentions of “you bombed here”, or rubbing various statues for luck there is always fun to be had just exploring the streets! At the moment I’m pretty certain I’m going to get lost quite a lot, it is a lot better than I expected!

Being in Germany, with Germans, we had to then go and sample one of the various breweries around the city, and with a few sentences and a lot of smiling on our parts, we managed to get a table in one of the busiest. And very nice beer it was too!

We then set off to Tobias’ house in the countryside for a New Year’s Eve party. What he had neglected to mention was that it was an absolute mansion! We had one of the best New Years I have ever had, complete with homemade food, and scarily alcoholic homemade drinks, and two types of hot wine. Oh, and at midnight there were fireworks in the garden, that people held in their hands to let off. Yes, you read that right, no sort of health and safety in Germany…just let them off in your hands and you probably won’t lose a limb!

One thing that is embarrassing is just how good everyone’s English is. Everyone at the party spoke to Thom and I in almost faultless English, and one of the hot topics of conversation (as ever!) was how to say certain things in English. Think along a sexual line and you’ll get the gist! It just made it clear how ignorant we are about other people’s languages when they think it is a given to speak ours to a high level. I would say that people are more surprised if someone doesn’t speak a second language to someone who does. The fact that I speak French fluently does not surprise them in the least, unlike in England.