Christmas in Munich, part 1

5am, Friday, 22nd Dec and both Matt's and my alarms go off. We jump out of bed, throw on warm clothes and head towards the taxi rank with our suitcases. We're off to Munich for a couple of days- away from London and from work.... Beer, sausages and pretzels, here we come!

We get to City Airport and discover that our flight's been delayed indefinitely, due to the blanket of heavy fog hanging over London for the past few days. In a few minutes, our worst fears have realised- they've cancelled nearly every flight leaving from the airport for that morning. We line up for almost two hours at the Lufthansa desk. When it comes to our turn, they put us on another flight heading into Dusseldorf, with a connection into Munich. This flight's out of Stanstead Airport, which has been the least affected by the fog. We're thankful, until the lady behind the desk says that it's at 5pm in the evening. However, they do provide us with a car to the airport, and we share that with two other girls who were booked to fly the original flight with us.

We spend the rest of the Friday at the bar at Stanstead. It's not a bad way to while away the hours, I guess.. Our flights to Dusseldorf and then to Munich were both on Air Berlin, and we find it hard to believe that Air Berlin's considered a budget airline- it's pretty spacious, clean and the staff are so pleasant! We arrive in Munich, get to our hotel with minimum hassle- thanks to plenty of useful advice from Phil, a friend from work.

The next day, we head straight to the Christmas Markets in Munchen Freiheit. It's a cute little place... wooden stalls selling hot food, lots of gluhwein (mulled wine) and crafty things. The stalls are all painted bright colours and there are lots of festive, colourful decorations everywhere, but we're almost too cold to take it all in... Whilst not cold enough to snow, the cold seeping through my boots prevents me from staying too long in one spot. I find myself marching Matt around the place, looking for the perfect German (hot) snack to wrap my hands round and sink my teeth into.

After steering Matt away from the stall selling Thai inspired pizzas, we head to the sausage stall and ask for a 'currywurst mit semmel'. Phil had mentioned that this was one thing that we absolutely had to try, and I had thought it was a curry flavoured bratwurst... it came in a cardboard tray, pieces of sausage swimming in a hot curry flavoured sauce and a bread roll to dip into the sauce. I didn't think I'd like it... but it was excellent. We also had a white sausage in a roll with ketchup and mustard. That was nice, too. I could definitely taste the thyme in the sausage.

Wandered around some more. Plenty of really interesting and pretty things- I got a pair of felt shoes for Hilda... we then walked past another stall selling what looked like little pancakes with toppings... (I got told they are called 'Kartoffelpuffer'- they're potato pancakes) We asked for sweet toppings- the people before me had melted cheese and ham... yum... but we just had our sausages. We got our pancakes sandwiching some cranberry preserves. The mix of warm, salty and sweet was oh so yummy... Kinda like when you put your McDonalds fries into a soft serve icecream....

We then had a bit of a walk throught he shopping district. Must've been a pretty upmarket place.. lots of women in near full-length fur coats, walking their dogs. Not as many canine friends as in Paris, but do these dogs have an access all areas pass? We saw dogs in shops, in cafes, in our hotel, on the train... Even in the departure lounge of the airport!

We then walked back to Marienplatz. When we got closer towards the city centre, we started to see some statues of lions dotted around the place. These had been painted in all different themes. The one you see here, with Matt... I presume the artist wanted to represent the inner Lionel Ritchie???? What say you?

We finally reached the Christmas market in Marienplatz. It was a lot larger than the one we went to, that morning. Lots more places selling roast chestnuts, gluhwein, and there even was a stall selling chocolate covered fruit on sticks! This is the only time you'll see me eating a banana, outside of Brunei...

We had some gluhwein... this was really, really good! With extra rum. We walked on, holding the warm cups... stopped at a place with a roast haunch of pig. Had a pig sandwich... There was something that they were selling in the stall. Something white, with speckled bits, spread on toast. The stall owner said it wasn't pork fat.... Matt didn't let me buy it.... but I'm quite curious as to what it could be.

Just did a google search: Schmaltz- pork dripping with crackling in it. Damn. Missed opportunity!

Dinner was at a little Japanese restaurant. It is so weird, after living in Australia and then in London, to head into a Japanese restaurant where the language they speak after Japanese ISN'T English! We still got by, though! Great food, and great atmosphere. I needed help from the diners next to us to ask for dessert!

Next post: Christmas Eve and the big day itself...

Nitin Sawhney at Jazz Cafe

Decided to organise another work/friend outing. Sometime in Nov, I'd read an article on Nitin Sawhney in the newspaper and it said that he'd be holding a gig at the Jazz Cafe on the 5th of December.

Amazing man. A talented flamenco guitarist, he's written compositions for orchestras, and is in the midst of doing the soundtrack to a Playstation game (?!) , I know him from the ambient cds he's released. I've also heard him play live, in Melbourne (thanks Joelsy!) and it was one of the best shows I'd ever been to.

So, reading this, I got all excited and looked to see who would be game enough to come check this out with me.

Most people came back with a "Nitin who?!!" but in the end, found 10 willing participants and on the day itself, a few of us trooped off to the Camden Kitchen, a little cafe and had huge falafel and beef burgers... we then met up with the rest inside the Jazz Cafe.

The place filled up pretty quickly. The Jazz Cafe had a huge main floor with a stage at one end where acts perform. The floor has a small bar on one side and another, larger, bar which services the floor as well as small lounge area, near the entrance to the venue.

Anyway, at 9pm, the band, Nitin included, trooped onto the stage. They had a person on the drums, a cellist, a bass guitarist, an Indian flute player (I assumed that the person playing the Indian flute was Indian, too) who sang sometimes, a tabla player, a human beatbox and Nitin played the piano and the flamenco guitar. They also had an assortment of female singers who sang in various different styles (Arabian, Indian, French, blues, rapping in Spanish... ) and it was a curious and glorious mix and match of instruments and styles.

Anyway, it all ended at 11-ish to an amazing encore. We sat around for a bit, waiting for the main press of people to head home before we went to collect our coats. It's been a month since the gig, and I still have this sense of awe, thinking back to it.

If anyone's interested in finding out more about Nitin Sawhney, you can check out the albums on Amazon here, or else visit his website here.

chocolates and Primal Scream

I've been slack, I know. So much has happened since my last post and since I haven't been forcing myself to sit down in front of the computer, it's now nearly a whole month of things to blog about!

Let's see... we've had Denis over from Melbourne- it was great catching up with him, as well as checking out the new Hotel du Chocolat, over near Moorgate Station. It's 10 mins away from work, guys. The first week that I found out about it, I was over there three times, in the same week! I was definitely wallowing in choccie heaven. Being the lovely person I was, I decided to appropriate Denis' pack mule services and deliver some to my workmates in Melbourne!

So it was appropriate when Keeley (boss lady) was over in the last week of November, that I tell her exactly where the shop is located, incase she wished to top up on supplies! Keeley was over to roll out some training in London and that sort of broke my routine for a bit. I also went over to New York for a couple of days to help roll the training out to our offices there.

New York was unseasonably warm. So much so, that in the last couple of days in Nov, we were wondering around with no coats! Bizarre, but eh, pretty enjoyable. Finally checked out Central Park. It's great! The squirrels are so much more friendly, in NY, and so not shy!

Unfortunately, I only bought my camera on my last day, hence the extreme lack of photos. But it was a too short visit, so I'll make sure I'm more prepared, the next time!

Back to London, and that same Friday, I head off to Brixton to check out Primal Scream, with a couple of guys from work. I don't think I've ever really listened to them before, but it was a spur of the moment thing to expand my horizons, awright?

Brixton's a little dodgy. We went into this pub where there were people wandering around that looked like they probably slept on the streets... and I was nearly caught between two such people, having a stare-off over who got to pick up the 10pence on the floor. I grabbed my half-pint and scurried back to the safety of my seat, with the boys.

Anyway, we then moved on, to look for dinner. It was weird. Brixton's supposed to be an area with a high Afro-Carribean population, yet every eating place we saw was Thai or Japanese food?! We were getting desperate when we decided to go into this Columbian restaurant. It decor was basic, bright florescent lighting, but it was reassuring to note that the waitresses and other diners seemed to be Spanish speakers. We ordered heaps of food, tapas and mains alike, to share. The tamal and the deep fried pork fat stood out.... bit stodgy, but oh so tasty!

We then wandered over to Brixton Academy, which was the venue for the gig. Nice- sloping grounds, not all that packed... we listened to the support act, "The View", who happen to be getting decent airplay on the London radiostations.... I got told that the acoustics make the singing and words a little muffled, but listening to The View on normal radio just supported my opinion that that particular band don't enunciate very well!

Anyway, Primal Scream came on, performed a lot of songs, of which I recognised two... and then it was time to head home! I'm sure you can tell that it didn't really affect me all that much... but I'm still glad I went. I liked the venue, and I liked the meal we had before the gig. Don't think I'll be rushing out to buy Primal Scream's CD anytime soon, though!

Ps- Matt didn't come to Primal Scream. Are you kidding?! The Cricket's on!
Pps- Finally wrote about Croatia- Have a look at the index on the right.