Burghausen (29 Nov 2008)

Burghausen: Kahai & Mingli's hideout in Deutschland.

Started off the day with Frühstück at Kahai's place. Had a hard time making hard boiled eggs. Kaya was supplied by Mingli & Weisswurst was prepared by Kahai (Danke schön!). A simple yet delicious meal. Then, we went walking around the New town, & went shopping at Aldi, Kahai's favorite bargainplace. Then, Mingli's freund drove us to her Haus for Chicken Curry lunch. Everything was yummy, but the black pepper beef was a little too hard...(but definitely delicious)...
After lunch, Kahai brought me to the Schloss Burghausen, which was the longest castle in Europa...abt 1km long. But I gave up walking after awhile, because it is now converted into a residental area, so there was nothing much to see.

We went to the Altstadt for the Weihnachtsmarkt...small, but cosy...

Time flies, and I had to return to grab my bags and head to the Bahnhof to take the RE back to München.

Thanks Kahai, for the nice chocolates & candy treat prepared for me to stave off boredom on the trains & also the nice pencil gift from Budapest!

Reached München Hbf in time for dinner at BurgerKing and currywurst before boarding ICE 990 back to Mannheim.

Exhausting trip, but it was nice to see familar faces again...

3 Days 200€....gosh, traveling is really expensive...esp coz i like to eat so much...

München & Ingolstadt, Bayern (28 Nov 2008)

1st visit to TUM, Garching.

The chemistry building is in urgent need of funds for restoration.

Had lunch in the Mensa (lunch treat from Serina, Vielen Dank!)

Then, went back to the Hbf & hopped on the RE to Ingolstadt, not without buying some snacks and a sandwich to munch on the train.

Visited the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt & the Weihnachtsmarkt too! Nice city.

Travelled back to München & found that the temp had dipped badly. So I went to the big shopping center Olympia Einkaufzentrum...this place was very big, with many shoe shops, departmental stores & food hunts (I think it was bigger than Vivocity..haha!) It felt wonderful eating Eis in a comfortably warm shopping center while the outside temp was close to -6 Grad.

Had dinner there & was extremely full & sated by the time I made my way back to the Hbf & collect my luggage at the Hotel to board the train to Burghausen.

München (27 Nov 2008)

Arrived by ICE515 & checked into the hotel. Then, I took a strassebahn to Schloss Nymphenberg. Nothing much there, since now it is wintertime & the gardens were filled with snow. But the 1km-long river that leads to the Schloss was frozen ( I heard that people can eis-skate there).

Later, I went back to the Hbf & made my way to Marienplatz & to my favorite chocolate shop-Alois Dallmayr. Was super happy when I located that shop...& found that it was crowded as usual...& the chocolates were devilish-Spent 10€ there!

Took U3 to Olympiapark, hoping to visit the BMW Museum...but I got didnt know how to walk there & the sky was dark, so went back to Marienplatz for more street food and visited the Krippermarkt & Christkindlmarkt. Maybe because I have been living in a small city, I was a little shocked by the number of shoppers on the streets.

Dinner-date with Serina, Vin, Cuiliu & Mabel at a chinese restaurant in Karlplatz.
It was close to 11 pm when I finally got into bed in the tiny hotel room.

1st Snow (22 Nov 2008)

The first wave of snow came early on Sat, while I was asleep....
I woke up & saw the garden was white....a pretty sight.
Washed up & dashed outside to the street, yup, snow on the streets. But the snow trucks were already actively clearing the pavements & the roads, next time must wake up earlier to step on fresh snow!!!!!
But then, walking on melting snow was rather disasterous...the ground was really icy & slippery & I had to be extremely careful while walking slowly ......
Just 12hrs, and the Weihnachtsmarkt at Berlina Platz was different.

When it snows, the weather is cold, brrrr...must start gearing up with proper winter wear to fight this unexpected coldness.

A day as an unusual VIP (20 Nov 2008)

Woke up with a Big sore eye! EyeMo didn't help, so i went to work to see the co doctor.
The thrill began here:

1) First, I went to the Ambulance dept (this is the co hospital) at 8 am. They inspected my eye, and agreed that I needed to be sent to the eye specialist. I was not very shocked, afterall, here in Deutschland, people are all specialists...

2) But I forgot that my money was still in my locker, so they drove me back to my bldg, but in an Ambulance!!! No shit, I had to sit in a fully equipped ambulance. They drove me to the doorstep of the bldg, I was so embarrassed to walk out of the ambulance... & people near the door were inspecting me from head-to-toe. When I came down again, the ambulance was still there, waiting for me patiently...so I jumped into the ambulance again. And off we go to the eye specialist in Lu.

3) I was excorted up to the clinic, and my 'excort' explained to the receptionist that we had an appointment (Ja, the guy in the co hospital had called the clinic before my 'arrival') & that I could speak only Englisch.

4) After taking down my details, I was told to wait in the room, but before that, my excort told me that once I am done, just let the nurse know. The nurse will call him & he will return to the clinic to fetch me....ah...I felt so lost!

5) So I waited in the room, but not for long, abt 10min, coz I was VIP!!!hahaha (by the way, there were abt 10 others in the waiting room)

6) The nice female doctor told me not to worry, it was just a small infection, so some eyedrops & antibiotic cream was sufficient...

7) So I went out with my precription (here, doctors do not sell medicine, i had to buy it at the Apotheke downstairs) & told the nurse I was done. Paid a hefty 30€ for this tiny visit.

8) Waited for the ambulance man to pick me up & once again, I was excorted to the Apotheke & issued my eyedrops (16€-unbelievably expensive for a 5mL liquid).

9) Finally, I hopped into the ambulance again, back to my work place at 10am.

10) I thanked them for their kindness in driving me around Lu (they even volunteered to drive me home , I had to decline coz I needed some time to pack up then leave <& will not let my neighbors see me coming home in a ambulance>

I am so glad my Chef away this wk, she would have freaked out (typical Italienish) that I zoomed around the co in an ambulance... But i think my kollegen will volunteer to tell her on Mon.

Lessons learnt:
Get german insurance, no matter how much it cost...I had to pay a grand of 46€, if i had an insurance, I only need to pay 15€ !!!!!!
Company rules are very short & simple...We go to the specialists, the hospital here treats only injuries that a handplaster can solve!!!
Company has a big budget for Ambulance dept for them to drive patients around the city, in full armour.

PS: I just hope that my eye will recover by Sat, I dont want to see snow with a swollen eye!!!

Adventskalender (16 Nov 2008)

Adventskalender in need of contributions !!!!!!

Twenty four pockets, with a number ranging from one to twenty four on each. Beginning on the first day of December, one gift each day, counting down the days remaining until Heiligeabend (Christmas Eve), from twenty four to one!

It is currently hmm...empty, but I didnt want to fill every pocket with the same Schokolade, else I would have bought the prepacked calender...

So I shall go all the way to Munich and look for some nice stuff...

So, who can be an angel & send me some thing to fill up my calender? I need it before 1 Dec...

Neustadt an der Weinstrasse (15 Nov 2008)

Lunch & Shopping in Neustadt, not for clothes, but for some gut Deutsche wein & for gifts at the local weinguts...

Others become broke because of excessive shopping, I become broke because of too many trips to weinguts and fests... & come Dec, I will spend my Freitags, Samstags, Sonntags in Weihnachtsmarkts until 23Dec!

I carried a big box(with 6 bottles) home from Neustadt, people on the train were looking at me as though I had "Hallo! I am alcoholic!" written across my forehead...omg!

I had no choice but to go shopping after depositing the box at home....had a nice evening in Mannheim (it has been a long time since I walked around at nite), & I think a Bundesliga match was played and the Ma Hbf was filled with die Polizei and erm, loud drunken boys...