Munich

For so many years, I've wanted to visit Munich. I'd seen it on travel shows and read about it in books and I was convinced it was the most beautiful city in Germany. Alas, that is not the case.

I spent 4 nights in Munich, just before the start of Oktoberfest, and was underwhelmed with what I saw. I knew before hand that Munich is big on beer but I didn't realise just how much. It seemed everyone was drinking 1 litre jugs of beer from the early morning to late at night. I did have one myself, just to give it a try, for fun, but I'm really not the least bit interested in drinking beer.

As for the food, meh. The problem with German food is that the menu consists of 99% pork and 1% beef. F and I don't eat pork and I don't like beef so eating in a local/traditional Germany restaurant was out for us. We ate mainly Italian and Spanish which was fine but nothing special.

I've always loved the berliners and cream cakes in Germany but aside from one amazing deep fried pasty shop, I didn't like any of the sweets they had on offer. That shop is definitely worth visiting if you are planning on going to Munich. Visit Cafe Frischhut, 8 Pralat-Zistl Strasse, near the Viktualienmarkt where they deep fry doughnuts and other pastries right before your eyes and you can sit and eat them warm, sprinkled with sugar.

Walking around siteseeing was a little boring. There are lots of beautiful parks in Munich and some pretty squares but it just didn't hit the spot for me.

Before returning to Paris we spent 2 nights in Stuttgart in the very nice Arcotel. 125 euros a night for a 5 star luxury hotel definitely cheered me up, along with my favourite Kase Sahne Torte.

The trip was a nice break though as I hadn't been anyway since early June and I hadn't seen F for more than 2 months. He'd spent most of the summer in Albania, taking care of some family business, so it was great to finally spend some time with him - even though it wasn't long before he started annoying me again.