Germany - Munich Zentrum (City Center)

This post was long overdue. I had been busy coping with exams, and now the results were out. I passed both of them :D

After drinking a couple of 1L glasses of beer at Oktoberfest I decided to take a walk around Munich's Zentrum. 

Similar to the Netherlands, a lot of the buildings still look classical. The churches are beautiful.

I also managed to see the Glockenspiel in work at exactly 5 PM. At first I did not even realize that I was looking at the famous Glockenspiel; I only stood there because there was a huge crowd of people taking photos, and I saw very detailed arrangement of statues moving around.

It was like a giant cuckoo clock. But instead of a cuckoo, it was a parade of beautifully crafted statues.

Close to the Glockenspiel lies an Apple Store. If I remember correctly, when I went to Munich, only a few weeks had passed after the release of iPhone 5. I'm not a really big fan of it especially after witnessing how badly Apple Maps perform (and they said goodbye to Google Maps; how stupid).

Apple Store. Crowded as always. Not sure if people really buy something there.

Well, I didn't have much time to explore the entire Zentrum. My goal at that time was to find drindl, the traditional Bavarian dress people wear to Oktoberfest. I call it a costume, but my friend who has been accustomed to the culture refuses to call it a costume, but rather a dress :)

My friend was still wearing the fancy beer-barrel hat he got from Oktoberfest. Even on the street you could still see people dressing up in drindl (females) and leatherpants (males). People were still in the Oktoberfest mood.

Most shops closed at 6 pm even though it was a Saturday. I am still not used to the fact that shops close early. In Asia, most shops close at 8 pm. And even in the United States, I believe. Especially during the weekends, the opening hours of shops normally extend to 9 or 10 pm. But in the Netherlands and in Munich, shops close really early. Even one bank in the Netherlands, ABN Amro, opens at 1 pm on Monday. It's the first day of working day, and they open at 1 pm. I find this somehow weird, as if they are not keen to run the business LOL. Well, it's a cultural difference. Life is somehow more slack, which is nice.

At night, the city turned even more beautiful.

It gives a really romantic feeling. There are no blinding city lights like in New York City, but you could still see the city scenery.

Oh, I have to tell a funny story here. So basically there were quite a number of drunk people on the street. In contrast to the Netherlands where every non-Asian person, local or not local, greets all fair-skinned Asians "ni hao" no matter where the Asians come from, people in Munich greet you "konnichiwa" instead. I wonder if it's some sort of European joke, greeting random Asians on the street with the language of the Asian country that occupies the highest population in the area.

I love Munich and I'd love to explore more of it. I'd love to revisit it again someday!