Thursday, October 4, 2012

Deutschland Über Alles: Au Revoir, Munich!

Ony a few hours left before I left the motherland of beer. After I washed myself and packed my things, I went downstairs, to the hostel's cafeteria, and had my last bagel-wich. This time, I ate a round bagel with sesame seeds decoratin the outer skin. Filling it with, of course, different kinds of cheese and sliced meat, then I started munching. As I savor the crusty bagel and the juicy meat, I was wretched by the fact that it would by my last bagel for the time being.

My last bagel-wich

The sound of my luggage being dragged echoed around the hostel's lobby. As soon as we checked out, we said goodbye to the hostel that has a very funky popcorn machine and prepared ourselves to ride a train to the airport. I made a quick stop at a pastry shop located at the train station and bought myself a big chocolate chips cookie. But of course, we can't forget about the high-tech vending machine, so I paid my last visit and bought two packs of Haribo gummy candy.

The petite pastry corner

My disc-sized chocolate chips cookies

Smurfs Haribo, woohoo!

Who could resist these sour worms?

Remember Louis, my Dad's friend who looked like Iron Man? Before we grab a trolly and check in at Qatar Airways flight counter, my parents and I visited his office that was located near the airport, only a train-ride away. Iron Man, apparently, worked at Lufthansa as a flight planner. He gave us a tour around the headquarters, and even stopped by at the cafeteria to drink some juice and eat ice cream, his treats. He even gave me a bar of chocolate! It was a very cool place, I felt like I'm in WHOOP Headquarters.

A bottle of mineral water and a glass of apple juice, Louis' treats

Three flavored ice cream sandwich

That ice cream was so good

A bar of Duplo Chocolate

Unfortunately, Louis was very busy that day, so we had to say goodbye and let the man of steel do his duty. We still had four hours to spend before our flight to Doha, Qatar, so we backpacked around the airport. The airport, you see, is really big. Even the terminals are separated into two buildings. I visited a lot of souvenir shops because I haven't bought any for my friends and myself. There, I found lots of unusual stuff worth to spend money on, for example the Chocolate Spoon. This chocolate, ladies and gentleman, is attached at the end of a wooden spoon and it is designed that way so that we can make an instant hot chocolate out of it. Cool, huh? We just have to pour some fresh hot milk into a cup and stir it with the chocolate spoon. Later on, the chocolate will melt and voila! your hot cocoa is ready to be indulged. I couldn't help but to buy me one of those genius spoons.

It came in two different flavors, almond and cinnamon

Then, I found another product made by a genius, which is Magnum ice cream. Now, this ice cream over here does not exist in Indonesia, and it was my first time to see such flavor. "Magnum Infinity" was written on the packaging. As a person who love to try new things, I bought myself a pack and undress it. I was welcomed by a solid chocolate-covered ice cream. I took a bite and I understood why its' name is "infinity". Infinite chocolate, baby!

To infinity and beyond!

And by "infinity", they meant "chocolate infinity"

I'm sad by the fact that there is no Magnum Infinity here in Indonesia,

"See if you can find any pork for lunch," said Dad. I went full-bloodhound and immediately spotted a restaurant that has lots of pork, including wurst and pork knuckle. Mom and Dad ordered a plate of Pork Knuckle, served with a ball of potato dumpling, and a bowl of salad topped with bacon pieces. Of course they ordered beer as well. We shared the pork knuckle, and it didn't take an hour for us to finish the whole thing. It was beyond delicious! The gravy was deliciously savory, the meat was nicely cooked, crispy pork skin everywhere, what more could you expect?

The refreshing and juicy sour salad

That pork knuckle is way bigger than my fist

Big-boned pork, with its' thick meat, we devour it all

Only a couple of hours left before the staff lady told us to board the aircraft, I spent the remaining time I and the remaining euros I had left buying more food and eating them. It's a bout time you go, "Damn, this kid is an eating machine!". I had a pretzel, some more sausages, and a loaf of sour-dough bread. I even bought myself another stick of ice cream that tasted like fruit syrup and fireworks. No, seriously! The top of the ice cream was filled with pop rocks candy, and it literary popped and exploded like fireworks in your mouth, minus the fire that is. That was a really funky ice cream!

Bought myself a pretzel because of reasons

A bag of sausages and sour-dough loaf

"X-POP with Fizzy Effect" sounds awesome, huh?

It tasted like fireworks

"Passengers are welcome to board the aircraft," said a lady on a speaker. The next thing I know, I was on my seat sitting like a good and polite passenger, munching on crackers that was given to me by one of the stewardess.

I love the pillow-shaped cracker the most

It was a six hour flight from Munich to Doha. I spent the entire hours watching Tv series from the in-flight movies. Two Broke Girls, New Girl, Glee, The Universe, Raising Hope, I watched them all. When I got bored, I turned on my iPhone and played Epic Meal Time's game, in which we are commanded to feed the sauce bauss with only meat and liquor, and the game will be over if we feed him with veggies. My kind of game. 

A couple hours before the plane landed, the stewardess came with a food tray and handed us our dinner. The choice was between chicken and fish. I was in the mood for some nicely fried fish, so I didn't chose the poultry. It's a good thing Mom ordered the chicken, that way I could taste how nice the other meal was.

Mom's chicken that tasted delicious

"Here's your fish," said the lovely Caucasian steward. My meal tray was filled with numerous kinds of food I got flustered a little bit. There were my plate of fish with some mashed potatoes and spinach, a bowl of lentil, a small bagel, crackers with some butter and cheese, Toblerone chocolate, a piece of chocolate cake, a glass of mineral water, and a glass of apple juice. They all looked tasty, so I made sure I tasted each and every one of them. 

My tray of dinner

The lentil was very fresh and nutty. It was bathe in some kind of sour broth, along with some slices of bell peppers and purple cabbage. It was my first time eating lentil, and it wasn't that bad. I like it, actually. I think it would be great if we can eat it with some rice and nicely grilled fish.

A bowl of lentil

The fish was also delicious. Perfectly cooked, the meat was white, and it was soft. The spinach was creamy, and it's a good thing it didn't dominated the whole plate because I was not in the mood to be a vegetarian.

My plate of fish bathe in gravy

The three-layers chocolate cake was a bit hard for me to enjoy as it has strawberry jam on each layers. But the whipped cream, on the other hand, was delightful. If only I can ask for more whipped cream and less strawberry jam on the chocolate cake, I would give that dessert a two thumbs up.

Chocolate cake with whipped cream

Last but not least, the crackers. I ate the crackers with some cheese, making it look fancy and tea-time-snack-like. In my opinion, crackers and cheese spread as math made in heaven. They blend with each other well, not to mention each foodstuff complete the other, which make the whole thing very delicious and enjoyable.

Biscuits and fancy cheese for dessert

"Flight crew please be seated for landing," said a steward over the speaker. Soon, I was walking down the airplane and putting my backpack through the scanner. 

My experience in Munich was awesome and epic! I ate lots and lots of delicious food, especially pork. I met a lot of people, most of them were drunk and wasted. I spent a lot of money on food and I didn't regret a thing, I repeat, I didn't regret a thing. I gained three kilos after my four-days-stay at Munich and I'm okay with it. Let's just hope that, next year, I can get another chance to visit Munich and stuff myself with some wurst and pomme frites. 

Deutschland Über Alles: Visiting the Royal Family


Day three of our stay in Munich. My parents and I woke up a bit late that day because we were very very tired from party-rock-anthem at the Oktoberfest. Our schedule for the day was to go out of town and visit a castle located at a a mountain. Of course, before we head to the train station, we had breakfast. Consuming food in the morning is essential, people!

I had another make-yourself-a-bagel-wich for breakfast, but with different kind of bagel bread, with different kinds of cheese and sliced meat. A bowl of cherry yogurt that tasted like cough syrup and a bowl of cereal with fresh and cold milk. A glass of hot tea, fruit-flavored if I'm not mistaken, and a glass of cold apple juice. I have to say, my second bagel-wich tasted better than my first one. Maybe because the square bagel is decorated with freshly roasted sesame seeds, which blended well with the cheese and the meat. I couldn't help but to want another round of that bagel-wich, but I had to spare some room in my stomach for some crunchy wurst. 

My breakfast that day

That's some holy cheeses. Get it? 

Simple, yet luxurious!

The thing about train stations is that you can always find things that will entertain you. In my case, the vending machine. There are some vending machine here in Jakarta, but it usually contains bottled drinks and it costs you around Rp10.000,00 per bottle or so. If it were a Magnum Ice Cream vending machine then I'll be cool with it. But, come on, Rp10.000,00 for a bottle of mineral water that you can get for Rp2.500,00 at a convenient store? I don't think so.

In Munich, the vending machine are filled with snacks that I'm not familiar with. For example, this vending machine over here that I stumbled upon at the Munchen Hauptbahnhof. The machine was filled with numerous chocolate bars, gummy candies, crackers, biscuits, gums, wafers. How can an easily-entertained person like me resists such glorious machine?

I took a step closer to that machine and examine each packs of treat. The word "nutella" caught my attention, then I immediately took some coins from my coin purse and put it inside the big metal box. "24" I pressed the button located at the bottom of the coin entrance hole. "Zzzziiinnnggg~" said the big metal thing that was taller and wider than me. A "clank" was heard at the bottom of the machine. I stuck my hand in and grabbed the so-called sweet treat, and there it was.. a pack of Nutella & Go, ready to be devoured!


What is this, Narnia?!

I've been wanting to try this snack ever since I saw it on Tumblr

"It's gonna be a long trip to the castle," said Dad, "two hours long!" It's a cue for me to buy some snacks incase I get bored during our trip. As we approached our platform, I spotted a few food stands that caught my attention. One of them was this lovely dessert stand named Brioche Doree. What amazed me was the dessert stand's giant macaroon. Is it considered giant if it was as big and as thick as my palm?

There were only three flavors, which were chocolate, strawberry, and pistachio. Those macaroons costed 2 € each. I decided to buy the Pistachio Macaroon because it's my favorite flavor when it comes to those petite meringue-like cookies.

The macaroon was very big and I knew that if I finished the whole thing in one go I would feel nauseated, so I ate it slowly. It was crunchy and soft like how macaroon would tasted like, and it tasted delicious. It was worth my 2 €. 

Brioche Doree is the name of the petite patisserie

My, why what a beauty

My lovely Pistachio Macaroon

See, I didn't lie when I told you that it was as big as my palm!

We finally arrived at a beautiful place named Schwangau, Germany. A two-hour train-ride from Munich will get you this this majestic place, where the mountain with snow at the peak and abundant pine trees where Slender Man lives surround you. The weather was a bit chilly as well, judging from the fact that the area is usually visited by tourist for skying.

I spotted some of Loki's little ones

Can you spot a lake?

Ain't that gorgeous? 

Autumn is right around the corner

It was a very beautiful place

The lake was crystal clear

Have I mentioned that the lake was crystal clear?

It was in the afternoon when we arrived at Schwangau, so we decided to grab some lunch first before we do some hiking. There was a restaurant, a lot actually, near a castle. My parents and I had lunch at the restaurant, a plate of sausages with french fries and a glass of beer to be exact. As for me, I bought myself Nestle's Smarties Pop Up, despite the chilly weather and my freezing fingers, that tasted milky and amusing! Then I ordered myself some sausages and pomme frites and digged in. 

Smarties Pop Up!

Vanilla ice cream with smarties in it

I was very entertained by this ice cream

Mom's lunch

My lunch, same as Dad's

We visited a castle named Hohenschwangau Castle, which was a summer house and the childhood residence for the royal family of Bavaria, King Maximilian II and Queen Marie of Prussia. The castle was decorated with lots and lots of swan-related drawings, murals, and miscellaneous. 

The childhood residence of Prince Otto

"It's five o'clock," said the watch. Our train came and we left the royal residence and headed back to Munich. The three of us basically slept like a baby during our two-hour trip, passing the white and black cows and the beautiful meadow that looked like Windows' desktop background. When we arrived at the Munchen Hauptbahnhof, we made a quick pit stop at a food stand and grab some dinner. I was in the mood for pizza, so I bought myself some thin-crusted meat pizza. It was delicious and fulfilling! Other than pizza, I also bought some vending-machine goodies. I just couldn't resist.

Had dinner at Rubenbauer's Pizza corner

Those were the veggie pizza, with cheese on top

Aren't they just delicious?

My salty and floury pizza

Kinder chocolate with a toy inside

Chocolate wafer that was bigger than my palm

It was still early when the three musketeers arrived at the hostel, so I took the liberty of my time to use the free wifi available at the hostel and grabbed myself a bag of popcorn. The popcorn machine was very high-tech! We don't have anything like it here in Indonesia, or so I think. Put some coins inside, place the bag at the proper place, then your popcorn will come out. It was a fun machine to operate. Unfortunately, the popcorn tasted a bit sweet for a supposed-to-be-salty popcorn.

See how fun it is to operate such funky machine?

I was mesmerized

I finished my popcorns and called it a day