arrival in munich
Written on March 28
I finally got to Germany! I arrived Tuesday the 26th, and have had no internet for most of that time. To celebrate finally getting my internet set up successfully, I'm publishing a blog post.
Munich has so much green space, and it's really comforting in a certain way to see all these plants that are the exact same plants growing in my neighborhood. Bluebells, forsythia, daffodils, and flowering maple trees just like the one in my backyard.
Munich is incredibly wheelchair friendly - everywhere there are stairs, there's a ramp to get up those stairs, and the ramps are used as much by stroller-wielding mothers as people in wheelchairs. It's amazing how healthy and vibrant the Olympic village (Olympiadorf or Olydorf) area feels - I've seen so many seniors out gardening, biking, going for long walks in Olympia Park, as well as countless adorable babies and young children. This is how to boost a country's birthrate, China and Japan – make the areas where people you live comfortable to get around with a baby in tow.
Even the trees in the Olydorf are planted in raised circular containers that make them great places to sit as I'm writing this. The cherry trees are in bloom, and everything feels so beautiful. Today it's warm enough to not even need a coat.
One thing that amazes me about German culture is that I've seen more dogs walking freely near their owners than on leashes. It seems Germans will often only leash their dog if they're going into a shop, and will leave their dog outside. Such dogs are all very well behaved – I watched a large Bernese mountain dog trotting casually beside his elderly owner, both out for a stroll, and they encountered a woman with a (leashed) tiny Yorkshire terrier. The Bernese mountain dog left his owner to go over and sniff the terrier, who hid behind her owner's legs. No one raised their voice or got angry, and just a few words from the Bernese mountain dog's owner were enough for the dog to leave the terrier alone and continue their walk. I was amazed – my dog could never. He barks and pulls and strains whenever he sees another dog, and it takes all my strength to keep him under control. To be fair, he is pretty chubby for the medium-sized Australian cattle dog/pitbull mix that he is.
The Olydorf definitely has its downsides. Buildings are literal concrete cubes, and everything is extremely cramped. When I first got here the kitchen had no table, just a 2ft by 2ft square ledge attached to the wall, and a flimsy plastic chair. The stairs are exactly 2ft wide, so taking a suitcase up or down them is a serious safety risk. Setting up the internet here was the most frustrating thing, as first I couldn't find the Ethernet port in the wall (hidden underneath the radiator so you have to get down on the floor to put anything in it) and then my router was just extremely finicky - it stopped letting me connect to even my local IP address. I got a new one, which set up correctly at first - woohoo! - but the next time I opened my computer, the network no longer provided internet to my computer, only to my phone. Unplugging and re-plugging in the router, restarting my computer, and disconnecting and reconnecting finally resolved the issue.
A lot of the bungalows have been decorated with plagiarized Banksy art. :)