Muellersches Volksbad

It's been a long time I think that I blogged. When was it the last time? I cannot remember lolx. Na ja. Saturday evening; was yearning for a little hideout, a little getaway, from all the expectations of the world and focus on something simple.

Was looking through the mails, and stumbled upon a Muellersches Volksbad, or public swimming complex. It is interesting because it is not the very modern kind of complex you get in Singapore or even here in Germany. It is an art nouveau jewel under the baths in Munich and one of the most beautiful public swimming places in Europe. It was opened in 1901 and is situated next to the Isar river in Munich, at the Rosenheimerplatz. It includes not only a swimming pool; you can also find a sweat bath, Sauna, different baths and a solarium. Well, as usual, like everything in Germany, saunas probably needs money as well. I din care to try that, I just needed somewhere comfortable, and I think an indoor swimming pool in ancient style catches my attention somewhat. Well, anyway, it was probably just lucky that there were not many people.

Well, the system here is that you pay, get a card, get a different coloured key to a small locker with the card, then with THAT key u get a locker where you can put your clothes and stuff. Pretty unusual, took me sometime to figure out, since Germans aren't exactly known for impracticality and my number 176 was like in some desolate corner of the complex. But the place is worth one go, I think. Wouldn't for the second though.

31m big swimming pool was the main hall. The architecture is really elegantly simple. Pallid, white-washed, not too pompous. The water is cool, but the whole hall is not. Liked it.

I really had a good time, swimming. And of course just soaking there in the water. There is this spout of a lion's head that fires water into the pool. Just go under it and let the water fire onto the body forcefully, something close to massage. Water's really a good relaxant. I guess that's what they meant by aqua-therapy. Oh, and the main pool goes up to 3++ metres.

The only thing I liked about swimming is the refreshing sensation that comes after that. Haha. So refreshing that when it mixes with the damp cooling air of the night, it mulls your senses to a very dreamy state, such that everything in the world around you doesn't seem so harsh anymore. And everybody you meet seems to shine.

That's when I decided to take a walk at 2130 in the night haha. And I realised Rosenheimerplatz houses lots of hotels. The international Hilton Hotel (Muenchen City) is there too. There is this Gasteig, Holiday Inn as well. Lots of tourists there. Coincidentally, I met a US mechanical engineer, Chris, this morning, on my way back from Oly, who is staying at Hilton Hotel as well. We had fun talking haha. Well he was pretty impressed with Singapore to start with. LOLX.

I was never really a swimming person. But once in a while, you have to let yourself try something out of the normal routine, I guess. There are just too many things to care about and hold on to, but too little things you want to let go off. Most of the time because you do not know what will happen if you let go...

Well, I enjoyed the relaxation, enjoyed the night walk home and the lights of Munich, after the swim... So, why don't you?

TSV 1860s Muenchen - Die Loewen...

My first football in my ENTIRE life, I gave it to TSV 1860s Muenchen, at the Allianz Arena stadium... Haha, it's MUCH cheaper for one, than the all-mighty Bayern Munich's ticket. That can reach hundred over Euros!!

But the main reasons were to go into Allianz to take a look and to experience the Bayern football fever! I had experienced Bayern Munich and Nuernberg's fans' fervour.. Definitely petrifying... So this other team from Munich I wanna see too....

Allianz seats are really good from the top and the view is good even for the lousiest category of seats...

It's the last match of the Division 2 Bundesliga in Germany for 1860s, 1860s is up against FC Hansa Rostock, which is supposedly second on the table now and 1860s is 8th in the division 2 table (first is Karlsruhe)... I am not really into soccer as you all know, but it was not exactly the perfect day for 1860s I think. About 5 and 6 balls came to this number 9 player (striker supposed) but he couldn't get it straight! It's always wide OPEN AWAY from the goal!! Something's wrong with the radar somewhere!

So yahz, they lost in the end, 1-2, the only goal was by their apparent star player - Berki - they affectionately called and the only player they cheered for... IT is really obvious, because he was the only one wearing a striking yellow boots... I was told most European star players do that... Oh well, so much for humility haha....

But it was a tight fight lahz, if it wasn't for alot of flukes, I think 1860s might even win... Pressure wasn't on them either. Rostock is now on his way to promotion to the first division in the next season :P

But one thing I am really impressed is the fighting spirit of the 1860s, and the unwavering support of the fans for their football teams even where it is in the disadvantageous position, no matter how bad the performance was. It is something which I think I lack very much and I don't think I would ever possess... They really fight and fight and fight even when they know they are on a losing streak... I think these people are those that have this X-factor to break through the odds. I have always marvelled at these people I met in my life, because I can never do that.

**** "Blau bleiben, bis zum letzten Tag" ****

Blue is the colour of 1860s and "the lions" their name (sounds familiar). "Stay blue, until the very last day".... Says it all, doesn't it?

060507 - Stammtisch

Mehr Fotos (PHOTOS) mit Captions zu anguecken, klick mal hier...

Wir waren dran Essen zu kochen fuer den Stammtisch dieses Semesters. Was lustig ist, haben wir nicht so viele typische singapurische Gerichte dass wir in Deutschland kaufen koennen. Dennoch entschieden ein Paar Leute fuer ein einfaches Gericht von gebackt Reis mit Gemuese, Eier, Schweinefleisch und Chili. Ich dachte trotzdem dass Chili von Singapur ist! Es scheint so...

Sowieso war ich verantwortlich nur fuer dem Bedienung, seit ich spaet gekommen war.

Damals habe ich viele Leute, denen ich kenne, getroffen - Jari, Linka, Ernesto, Ergoltz, Ane, Rafel, Mikhail, Fausto! COOL! Aber der ganze Abends habe ich viel Deutsch gesprochen. Sehr gute Uebungen oder was! Na ja...

********

The Stammtisch (click to find out what exactly is it) night was full of people of different nationalities, of shuaiges and meinvs from different lands from all over the world. Cool huh?

I was in charge of serving since I am not involved into the main cooking, so I shall volunteer to do the "mai4 xiao4 de" - "sell smiles one"... But it wasn't at all a chore: you get to interact with people, talk to them, get to see pretty girls (oh yeah manz, there are lots of them), and friendly guys and some of my Austrian (Linka), Finnish (Jari), Spanish (Ergoltz, Ernesto, Ane, Rafel, Mikhail) and Italian (Fausto) friends turned up too! And best of all we get to speak and practise a little bit of German. Not too sophisticated but normal conversation. As of always, we were praised for our efficiency and organisation haha.... Well it's Singaporeans, what you expect. And of course the food, which turned out quite well. It is not alot but it does look good and suffice for a little gathering where the main topic isn't exactly the food either.

Like the old Chinese saying "The sparrow may be small, but it has a complete set of organs", the food is, so is Singapore. So dun mess with us haha...

Wow, sometimes I am really amazed at myself for coming up with such literary relationships... *diaoz*

040507 - Hainanese Chicken Rice

Oops, I forgot about this set of photos... That's the problem when you left your blog for so long...

Yucheng came specially for the Semestersanfang Dinner!! So lucky that he got his boss to drive him down all the way from Erlangen. He brought his Singapore-sent Hainanese Chicken Rice!! Yahz so me CW and Yucheng end up cooking dinner together.... We invited Xinli over as well. But since she has nothing to do, she became the photographer of the day LOLX.

It smelt good!! Like home :P Even though this is second time I had it (the first time was during my birthday).

Check out the stark difference between the successful and failed baked potatoes attempt!

Squash and Toytown

I found these people who play squash in Munich!!

Well they call themselves Toytown. The general idea of Toytown was that Munich's quality of life is too perfect and unreal to be a town, so the analogy of a toy. The website service extended to the whole of Germany. It is really a well-maintained and very informative website. It provides information about food, sports, news etc etc and most importantly, there are forums which is catered to the transient nature of the people registered in TT, such as auctions and sales of furniture and electronics, they even have a forum for free give-outs; Chongwee got a 17'' monitor lorz... It's catered to the English-speaking community in Germany, so naturally alot are expatriates. Enough of TT, if you want more info, check it out! And it's really worth it.

The courts are at Schwabing fitness centre at Winzerestrasse, near Hohenzollernplatz U-bahn. Check out the signs which read 'squash' and initially I thought that room was a squash court.. It can be like that in Singapore because it often leads underground. But it turned out to be a parking lot!!! OMG!!!

Anyway 6 people turned up for squash today. There was John, who deals with Magnetic Imaging, James, who is the main organiser, both of whom I think were from UK, from their accent, then there's Conrad, from Australia, a lawyer, and there's Andrew and an Egyptian Fady, a beginner in squash. The Schwabing squash centre can rent out squash shoes and rackets!! Amazing! Shoes are for free even!! But it was very expensive, considering 9 Euros per person, for 3 hours, 2 courts, shared between 6 people. The games were pretty fun, at least I was having a fun time relishing the feeling of holding the racket and stepping into the court again... Haha I played almost all of them except James whom they say was supposed to be the best that came today and recommended me to play with him... Well, I din get very good games, but ok lahz, just wanted some fun and some workout.

Oh I got along quite well with Fady, so we decided to catch lunch together after the games. At Hohenzollernplatz near the squash place, at a Greek restaurant. Fady lives opposite the squash club, so knows the areas pretty well though the first at that Greek restaurant, Eala. Dun even know how to write the name... Check out my dish. It's called Mousaka. Supposedly because Egyptian food and Greek and Turkey food are almost the same, Mousaka is a native dish to all 3... It's made up of layers of eggplants, onions and lamb... Looks really like Lasagne!! Amazingly the eggplants (Aubergine, auf Deutsch) tasted delicious! Usually I dislike eggplants but it was really good, and it was served with salad. Normal Greek salad with sunflower seeds. Nothing much. But Mousaka is really worth. It's smooth and not too creamy; just right for my taste :p

Apparently it seems people in Europe are pretty into squash, I find that pretty nice hehe... But I think I won't be playing squash so often cos it's too expensive, but I would definitely play like once in a month perhaps? It's after all my favourite sport and the probably the only one I could beat the hell out of people haha.... Must play James manz... Challenge!

060507 - Semestersanfang Dinner

I experienced my first rain in Germany since I came! It was drizzling when I looked out of the window this morning. Weather forecast has mentioned 30% chance of precipitation LOLX.

Let me go back to my cosy nest please.... *qoooo*

The Semestersanfang Dinner is supposedly a ritualistic dinner organised by the Singaporean full-time students here in Munich, for all Singaporean students to come to meet at the start of the semester. A little get-together I would say. This time it is held at Jade, a China restaurant, which they supposedly ate there last year too...

Well not too bad, Gladys, Yucheng, me, Kat are the only exchange students and 2 others new full-time students, Jiadong and Verlin turned up. The rest are the 'lao-jiaos'. In the photo above, from my table only, there's Chuanzong, Eddy, Gladys and Gladys Korean friend, Kim from Linguistics at LMU. Chuanzong is doing Electrotechnik, Eddy aeronautical engineering, oh and he is the one who had stayed here since young and a German girlfriend. I think most, if not all, of the full-time students, their German is really tokkong liaoz... It sounds even soothing to hear them speak... haha so fluent. The Singaporean students here in Germany give me a very different feeling as those in NUS and NTU in Singapore... I could see a lot of conviction in the work that they do, like research or thesis or even their travel experiences. And there is always this sense of direction in their presentation, one way or another.

Kim is from Yonsei University in Seoul and she speaks very good English, super fluent. Well speaking to her really helps u know more about Korea. Did you know US films and drama series are very popular in Korea?

After the dinner, we had another beer drinking at Cafe Munich at Giselastrasse. And lasted till 12 midnight! Cos it started to rain... Again...