A Return to the Scene of Several Crimes

I am not generally a fan of nostalgia. Fond memories tend to color and eventually alter reality completely if too much sentiment is attached to them. As such, I knew that a return to Munich, especially after ten years, would make a bit of a hypocrite out of me, because I would not be able to resist, at least for a day or two, indulging in a few misty walks down memory lane. I know that many of you are eager to hear about what happened in Basel over a week ago now and many of you may not have known that I spent a week in Amsterdam and I will get to all of that. Eventually.

Carrie was kind enough to lend me her U-Bahn pass and so I did what any JYMer who lived in the Studenstadt would do with access to the U-Bahn: I took a trip down the U6 (Carrie happens to live on that line already - just on the opposite side of town). Munich is in the process of upgrading it's subway cars, but  many of them are still the dingy blue and white ones we all know and love. It was just the cars that looked the same; somehow the U-Bahn has managed to smell the same as well. Truly, uncanny.

Even more uncanny was my arrival in StuSta. My legs were on automatic pilot. They took me right, down the hall, past the posters, up the stairs to the right and then a left, past all the recycling containers, followed by the sign and the crazy three dimensional bronze rendering of the map of StuSta which couldn't be more useless if it tried. I bore a little bit left aiming for the green, crossing Christoph-Probst and ducking into the little bit of greenery amongst all the cement of the StuSta. It was as though nothing had changed. The tall green house looked cleaner. The orange house was a bit dingier and Pot was advertising it's presence im Orangenhaus. TriBühne had just open for business, but with the hint of winter in the air, they hadn't bothered to set up the tables outside. I would have eaten there, but it was a bit early in the day for it. I contemplated taking pictures of the place, trying to fix it forever, as forever as digital bits can be, but I decide that there will be no pictures. The faceless buildings belong to us and our memories. It's nice that it hasn't changed (at least on the outside) since we were there, it validated my trip down memory lane in a way. I was not wrong to come here: the orange building practically begged to see if the elevator had changed at all. But I contented myself with the outward view of the buildings, ducked by the blue house, with a nod to our old haunt in Eric's room, took a left past the bicycle rack (which been placed in a front of a sign that says you are not allowed to lean bikes against the door) and straight out onto Ungererstrasse, with just one look back, and a good laugh at the giant Franziskaner monk smiling, toasting the road with his beer from the orange house.

The walk from Ungererstrasse to Münchner Freiheit and Schwabing is a long one and most of the time we took that walk it was late at night and we were not paying attention to the view, which really doesn't exist; it's not a street with a view, just great wide swaths of concrete to help you get where you are going. I was going to Leopoldstrasse to see which of our favorite restaurants were still there. Along the way, some strangers were accosted by a crazy person, which was also reassuringly familiar. I was momentarily lost looking for Parea, the great like Greek restaurant that served a grill platter fit to split the incautious diner in two. But I got my bearings back, went one street further down and found, much to my delight and surprise that Parea is, in fact, still in business. And still serving the grill platter. I am no longer in my prime as far as putting back the found goes, so there is no way I will test myself against that mighty platter during this trip, not without reinforcements anyway (it was all I could manage to get through an entire McDonald's value meal - an unfortunate necessity when Travelex traps your money on a credit card, which is a terrible terrible idea when you are going to Germany). Not only is Parea still in business, but Cafe Adria is still serving up Calzone, though considering the current exchange rate, it is no longer as günstig as it used to be (for you non-German speakers, that means good value for money, the exact english word is escaping me at the moment). Still, both places are now on my list of places to go while I am still here. We spent more time at the Adria, but we enjoyed Parea's food more, so I'm aiming for that one.

As I was walking back down Leopoldstrasse, I realized that with my camera now firmly digital, it would be time to visit that cemetery whose name I can never remember (der Altnördlicher Friedhof, which I always confuse with Westfriedhof for some reason). I've been wanting to film something here every since I stumbled on to it. I managed to take a few pictures before the raindrops forced me to put the camera away. Sadly, I didn't the ravens until it was too late. Now I have to go back. Can you imagine how awesome that picture would be? A shaft of light through the trees, illuminating a raven standing on someone's tombstone? In yet another validation of my first full walking day in Munich, this cemetery was exactly as I remember it, a beautiful solemn place in the fall just before all the leaves are stripped off the trees.

After my picture taking session, I headed to the JYM office and discovered much to my disgust that McDonald's still occupies it's accustomed place across the street. I didn't go near it, but a placard on a wall announced Subway's continued presence as well. The JYM door was closed (as I recall, we had not yet begun our classes at this point, so I was not surprised), so that will have to wait for another day. I ducked around the corner and down the side street to our favorite chinese place and I was finally greeted with disappointment: Der kleine Chinese had closed, though I suspect this is a recent development. The name was still on the restaurant and all of the tables and chairs were still inside. The little white paper attached to the window announced that it was for rent. I was mildly disappointed, but that did not last because my next trip was to Cinema where the Friday night sneak lives on (and hopefully I will be able to go - being at 11:15 at night always makes it an adventure to catch the U-Bahn home).

At that point, I was quite tired and I went, as I mentioned to McDonald's to get rid of the last money on Travelex's stupid card (I have never waited more anxiously for a card to say that the charge has been approved) and then I explored Marienplatz, another area of the city that has remained more or less unchanged. At this time of year, the whole pedestrian area smells like chestnuts and roasted candied almonds (the almonds are definitely on the list, but they didn't make any sense after McD's). The major change was the addition of an Apple store (a real one, from Apple and everything - have you seen the new iPod nano? Holy cow, it's cool), and a few churches are undergoing renovation, etc. One thing had changed - instead of a Planet Hollywood across the street from the Hofbräuhaus, they have an actual Hard Rock Cafe (which tells you all you need to know about the Hofbräuhaus, doesn't it?). I don't suppose that is much different.

My next task is to explore the parts of Munich that I never managed to discover before (and getting everyone up to date on the rest of my travels, I know, I know). I can only hope that will be as successful as today was.