A little update before I forget any of the details, the last few days have been all different kinds of fun :) I am currently sat in the living room of the house I stay in, watching the DVD extras for the (quite frankly terrible) film 27 Dresses. I already fell asleep wathing it earlier in the week and so, consumed by the thought that I should really see it through, I popped it on whilst eating dinner tonight. I really shouldn't have bothered...
Anyhow, this week has seen the family go away for a while (as I think I mentioned but can't be bothered to check...) and so, initially pegged by me as a time to explore further afield, I actually still felt that I hadnt seen enough of the main city, plus found myself a little thin on the ground with cash whilst refusing to go into the little amount I have saved. Also, the sun has been shining x loads and I really want to know where things actually are, instead of just the Tram/UBahn stop. This means I've been donning my most comfortable of footwear and exploring zu füß, piecing together all the parts of the city into a mental map-type thing. I've also sort-of accidentally started this new project whereby I go the end of each UBahn line, just to see what it's like there...so far, Ive found a place that is pretty much exactly like the street my own UBahn stop is on (time-warpXcore) and visited the Munich version of some blocky soviet-y creepy-man-infested hole. It takes all sorts, after all...
Saturday saw an impromptu night out that involved (in no particular order) donations from a house clearance sale (including lovely hats), drunk americans x 4, shoulder-beards, horrendously rude german rap songs and people who knew all the words, as well as heads in recycling bins from certain members of the team :p - all in all a bunch of fun, and once again I found myself letting myself into the house as it was getting light. Woops :p
By the time Sunday arrived in my world, it was somewhere near 2 o'clock, and even though I was tired I felt pretty ok - nothing a couple shots of espresso couldn't fix. Although this was later than I wanted to be up, I knew that I still had plenty of time to have a wander, and was in no rush anyway due to it being Sunday and everything being closed. I decided to continue on my mission to see the end of each UBahn and ended up on a bench in Arabellapark, writing reply letters to those I'd received. The sun was shining still, and even though the area was somewhat grey and tower-blockish there was something really nicely done about it, there were plenty of people milling about and chatting, as well as a nice leisurely flowing fountain, so all was well at that moment... :) I had a write in my travel journal, caught the UBahn back to Isartor, and this is where my favouite part of the day happened in that I took a leisurely walk by the River Isar and just drank in the atmosphere. There were people everywhere, just sitting in groups and having picnics, students studying, old men in deck chairs, grebs sharing a spliff, dog walkers, people cycling and jogging and talking excitedly...it was just great, and my favourite bit by far was that it was a little bit run-down, so felt more like a meadow that everyone had just accidentally flopped down in together - rather than a government-owned public space. The sun was just about to go down, which is hands down my favourite part of the day anyway, and I was just...well.... happy being there :)
Monday I didnt't realise was a public holday yet again, they sure do love an excuse to close stuff here! This means I spent pretty much all day trying to find an open post office so I could send my written post and packaged packages. After a bit (possibly longer than it should have taken to realise) I gave up, catching the tram to the English Garden (in fact just by this monument) to sit about chatting with various people. I had a little sit, had a little lie down and some beer and was re-reminded of how crap I am at frisbee and why I never play it. Henceforth said afternoon evolved into yet another impromptu night out which started with an AMAZING (if a little spicy) burrito, went via a shared 5 litre bucket of rum, and ended in a coaster war which I'm ashamed to say was entirely my fault. Eh, whatev Trev, in the moment I was totally Gambit in my own X-Men fantasy. Put it this way though, I felt the same the next morning as that time I got everyone to write on Hanny at one of the West Avenue parties. Good Clean Fun, but just a little mean to the poor person being written on/sleeping people/bar-cleaners...woops :/ and as I once again found myself cycling home at stupid o'clock I decided to have a little listen to my iPod to break up the journey. Horror! It had run out of battery...this therefore resulted in me having a nice little (ie. quite loud) sing song to myself as nobody was around...think I might have disturbed/worried/scared a few 5am drunks however. Never mind, it made me happy!
Tuesday I had a few people round to the house in the evening and we had a rather scrummy barbeque, not much else to tell apart from I had a lovely time. I pretty much spent the rest of the day in the forest, flopped down on a piece of grass and continuing to read Harry Potter which is morphing from something I looked upon with complete disdain to something of a page-turner...
Which brings me to today, in that I really wanted to get out of the city for a bit so headed right to the end of the S6 to Tutzing (hard to find the beachy bit but worth it when I did, otherwise a little dull) and Starnberg (lovely and lots to do but by the time I got there everything was closed...I see a recurring theme here not sure about you :p). Both of these were on the coast of the Starnberger See and it was just so nice to be near the coast again, even if it was the coast to an inland and not actual sea. There were all these little huts on the boardwalk that reminded me of the ones at Dunster Beach, some of them were just covered boat moorings but some had been converted into shops and/or restaurants, and I suspected holiday homes for posh people for the summer. Pretty but I bet they cost a bomb... :(
Anyway, christ it's 2am and due to the fact I can't seem to turn the heating off bloody boiling. I am to retire to my quarters in the basement where it will hopefully be cooler...but before I do I urge you all to read some of these as they really are fascinating.
Ciao....x
I've had a fair few blogs in my time and I consistently struggle with this first post...in which case, a small history!
I am 24 years old (you probably knew this already).
I am currently marooned in deepest Somerset (again with the probably knew thing).
I have been thinking about starting this page for quite a while (not so known).
I will be moving to Germany in roughly...11 days.
I think this will be a really nice way to let people laugh at all the German social faux pas-es I am bound to make. :)
I took inspiration for the web address from some guy whose name quite literally translates to English as Total Lion King (true story).
"Deutsche Märchen" simply means "German Tales". I have probably got the grammar and gender all wrong however :p
Me Meeston is the alias I always use when signing up to email mailouts...I always get creeped out using my own name so...this might be why :p
So, I guess the main reason behind this whole saga could possibly be laziness, as I already have a lot of peoples addresses as well as a rather large travel journal to record things in. I still intend to make the most of both of these things by jotting down various happenstances, saving tickets and whatnot as well as sending various german crap to everyone (ever) in the post...but the web is such a universal thing these days (the "world wide" bit in www would kinda give that away, right...) that I thought it would be easy for people to read, easy for me to write and...i don't know. Just nice.
Also, I'm really looking forward to having a reason to write again. You know...write, the very thing I defined myself by for three whole years then completely spurned (lol spurned) afterwards? If I ever wake at 2am with the weird sinking feeling in my stomach that needs to be satiated by creative means, I can tappy-tap away for a bit and all will be right with the world :)
A little more info, then...if you didn't already know, the reason I'll be off to Munich is to help out in a family by teaching their girls English, taking them to hobbies, cooking them small meals, generally keeping them entertained and such with crafts and funny hair-dos...that sort of thing. How this all came about...I happened to be bored of a Saturday at my full-time job in Derby and joined an aupair website...got a few emails here and there, nothing special, quite a lot of awful families (sorry but true :p) and then out of the rough came this amazing email! I read it, re-read it, forwarded it to the people that meant the very most to me to get their opinion...then sort of decided to go on the spot. I was fed up of my jobs, and although everyone I knew was sound as a pound I didn't really see what I was achieving anymore just existing in Derby. For the first birthday ever I'd felt older than usual, and maybe I was just needing to do something out of the ordinary to keep myself interested in life. Whatever it's attributed to, I just knew it was the right decision. I spoke to the family at length, I spoke to the girl who preceded me again at length, and kept in regular contact with them both. This morning, I spoke with the family again - even managing to speak with the girls, agreed a date and bought my flight over. I've also been on the look out for crafty things to do and am pretty set on getting them hooked on Decopatch - even if the base of that decision is cause I also want to have a go :p
Which brings me to now. I've been moved out of my Derby flat for just over two weeks but it seems like foreverandaday. I've temped in this crappy office filing away the largest amount of files I have ever seen IN MY LIFE, for a bit of extra cash. I've received my new passport and look successfully smackaddict-y. I've had super-fun weekends away in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and Oxford, revisited my teenage haunts by having nights out in Minehead and Taunton, have seen and intend to see some of the faces I've met over the years. I'm currently selling most of my life on eBay to again raise a few extra funds. And I think that just about covers it!
I'm so happy life got exciting again. :)