Monthly Archives: June 2009

Things that annoy the hell out of me on a daily basis

Every day here in Munich I’m annoyed by the same things. Here are a few of them.

Germans, no matter their age, have a real problem with figuring out an escalator.

First off, when I’m on my way to work in the mornings I usually take the left hand side of the escalator and walk up, which is what everyone on the left hand side does. The problem is that Germans get scared shitless when they get about 10 steps from the top and they just STOP. I’ve seen this phenomenon many times with people of all ages and it makes no sense to me at all. I can continue walking up WHILE PLAYING A VIDEO GAME and have no problems, so umm…why the hell are they so scared?

Second, every day I see someone (again, I’ve seen it with everyone from the elderly to kids) standing at the end of the escalator pushing the LIGHT BULB trying to get the escalator to change direction. I literally see this daily. These are not buttons, they’re lights.

Queuing: Germans don’t do lines.
It’s amazing to me the balls on these bastards and the extreme contempt they have for people who do things in an orderly fashion. And this in Germany? It doesn’t make sense, but it’s true.

Barely English-speaking Germans on the trains who insist that they need to help me, while I’ve done it 300x, and THEY’VE SEEN ME BEFORE. Bad memory? Maybe. This happens all the time and it annoys me to no end.

*sigh* I just needed to vent a little. There are several more, but I feel relieved already so I’ll stop now. Have a good one.

[Listening to: Into You – The Methadones – 21st Century Power Pop Riot (4:06)]

Pictures of Me doing a tour

Nearly every day at least 1/4 of the people on my tours take pictures with me in them or directly of me giving the tour. That makes several hundred a year, at least. If you have pictures taken while on one of my tours, could you send them to me? I’d appreciate it!

send pictures to nofxmike@gmail.com please!

[Listening to: The Mistlethrush [outtake from – The Pogues – Just Look Them Straight in The (2:45)]

Lame excuses, sorry for no updates

I figured I’d have a real update today…didn’t happen.  I thought I should at least make up a lame excuse or two for why I haven’t been updating much other than the twitter feed on the left hand side.  (new pics have been posted on my Facebook as well as photobucket)

I’ve been busy. That busy? No…but busy, none the less… Twitters up-to-date, leave me alone *cough*

My earlier excuse, for May, was that I had visitors…and I did. However, I have pics from their visits that I should upload, and haven’t done that yet. I also have pics from various tours in the last week…*Sigh*…always more to do. EDIT:pics have been uploaded

So to answer any general questions as to how much time you need for a proper tour of Munich: I’d go 4 hours…be prepared for several churches, a fair bit of walking, some 3rd Reich history, so Royal history, and some beer history. This is not including BMW or Olympic park or anything off the beaten path, really.

Is the BMW museum worth it? yes
Is there much to see at the olympic park? Not really, but if you’re going to BMW anyways, it doesn’t take much more to have a walk around and/or a short ride up the tower. I’m even considering doing regular tours out there because there is such a strong interest, I just don’t understand the interest myself. It is a nice park…nice stadium…concert hall…hockey arena…we even have our own “walk of fame…”
Is the Deutsches Museum worth it? I’d say only if you have several days in Munich. It’s a science and technology museum, which is very nice…but not really what you’re in Germany to see, no?
Do you really NEED 9 hours + for Neuschwanstein? yes, at least.
Well, we can fit Schloss Hohenschwangau in there too, right? make that at least 10 hours, then…make it 11 if you want any kind of a break.
American beer is weaker, right? Wrong.

[Listening to: Alcohol – Gogol Bordello – (5:08)]