Honestly, a lot of my time in Munich over the past three days was spent thrift shopping… or simply wandering around. I had less of a concrete plan.

The urban chaos of Munich has started to leave me a bit frayed, even more so than Berlin. I think it’s because my hotel is in a busier area this time — there’s more activity, people soliciting money, traffic, construction, and nightlife. Even the hall of my hotel is a mess most of the time, as there’s a small construction crew loudly installing new doorframes daily from approx. 8 AM to 4 PM.

Shopping has been interesting. Next to the farmer’s market in Munich’s core are some wide promenades with many souvenir stores and famous brands. I was hoping to find little antique curios to take home — you know, unique German knickknacks — but it wasn’t easy! Most of the secondhand stores here just sell clothing (including a ton of traditional Dirndls and Lederhosen, actually).

In the end, I did manage to find two antique stores and walked away with some interesting things for relatively few euros: vintage brooches, small books, a stein, scarves, a plate. All of them are currently sitting in a big green purse that I also got secondhand. Maybe I’ll take a picture of it all at the end of the trip?

As for walking here in Munich, my favorite place so far has been the English Garden. Don’t be fooled by the quaint name; it’s actually a massive green space, even bigger than Central Park, right in the middle of the city. It’s famous for having a river in it where locals go surfing.

Also, I spend plenty of time sampling local food here in Munich. This is definitely the place to get traditional Bavarian food such as pretzels, weißwurst (white sausage), sauerkraut, and ham sandwiches; food like this actually wasn’t easy to to find in Berlin. Apparently, all of Munich’s taverns and beer gardens are on real estate controlled by the big local breweries. If you want to open one, you must agree to serve only that particular brewery’s beer. The only exception is the huge central farmer’s market, the Viktualienmarkt, which I suppose is a sort of neutral zone. The beer that I drank most of was from the Augustiner brewery.

On my second full day, I did a food walking tour lead by a soft-spoken German local. The rest of the food tour guests were Americans from the South — Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas. It was quite the friendly and lively group!

Even in such a big city, all the shops close at 8 PM. So, that night, around 10 PM, I impulsively went to see a movie in a German theater.

I’m not sure if you all have heard, but the new Minions movie (“The Rise of Gru”) became a meme recently, with teenagers dressing up in suits to go see it as if they were attending a red carpet event. Being a fan of animated movies, and knowing that understanding the dialogue would be in no way essential, I figured it would be fun to see Minions 3 in German.

The theater was packed with teens who were reacting loudly to everything, and even clapped at the end. I had an absolute blast — even though I literally understood the Minions better than the human characters (Minions generally speak a combination of nonsense, English, Italian, and Spanish).

Before Minions, I also saw some trailers for bizarre German movies that I want to see ASAP. And y’all… I’m driving myself crazy right now trying to Google the German film trailers I saw. I can seem to find none of them, so they feel like waking dreams. I really wish I could share some. One trailer was for a comedy set in the Old West about a Native American child befriending a cowboy child. Another was for a children’s movie featuring a sort of ominous Rumplestiltskin-like entity with snaggly teeth called “The Knopflerpopfler” or something equally silly.

Today, my last day in Munich, involved a visit to the palace that Bavarian royalty has inhabited for centuries. It feels like an opulence overload to walk through room after room after room of gold accents, vaulted ceilings, sculptures, antique furniture, and classical art. I wondered how young Bavarian royals felt growing up in this place, with so many sculptures and portraits of their ancestors staring at them. I’ll let these photos speak for themselves.

I decided to end the final day with a bang by going to the Augustiner Braustuben, a beer garden attached to the Augustiner brewery. This is a very famous beer garden, and it was bustling with people, all drunk and merry.

As I’ve mentioned before about Bavaria, English speakers are less common, and everyone I talked to could just do basic conversational English. I’m getting better at asking for things — I say “Sprecken sie English?” (“Do you speak English?”) often, or else “Hallo! Bitte [pointing to item I want]. Danke.”

As I approached the beer hall, two guys on a smoke break outside asked me if I needed help because of my confused expression. I kindly explained to them that I looked confused because one of them was dressed in a weird sort of Halloween costume. (Some kind of neon 80s jumpsuit and a wig.) Turns out it was his bachelor party, so I wished him congratulations and headed in.

I tried to get guidance from a series of vest-wearing waiters as I took furtive steps into the hall. There were lots of long communal benches, and the staff seemed to expect me to find somewhere to go on my own… but eventually a waiter helped me out and ushered me onto a bench next to two ladies. One was a local, and the other was her good “girlfriend” visiting from a German town near the French border. They both welcomed me warmly, asking about my trip and giving me advice on what to order.

I had more Augustiner Helles beer… and a shot of hazelnut liquor, too. If you ever wanted to know what it’s like to drink a bottle of almond extract from the kitchen cupboard, give it a try!

OK, off to see a castle in the town of Füssen tomorrow. 🏰