Finding cute reading spots & practicing German

Today started off a lazy morning, I don’t think I got out of bed until around 11:30am. Alex is still pretty sick and can’t really go anywhere fun right now, so it’s a good excuse to flop too. Spending most of yesterday in Munich and how warm and hot it was really took it out of me, I definitely needed a bit of chill time.

I did eventually get myself out of bed and decided to venture around the corner to the local farmers markets that are held every Saturday in Freising’s Marienplatz (main square). Spoiler alert they were so bloody cute. And literally just around the corner from Alex’s apartment, it took me within the minute to find the first stalls. I think they were closing around 1pm, so honestly, I didn’t have all that long, and all the stalls were clearly very popular so there wasn’t too much left, but I got what I could. Including some absolutely delectable strawberries. Honestly if I’m not eating a punnet of some sort of berries every day, is it a day of Lauren in Europe? I don’t think so.

I was very proud of myself for at least one thing today, that being going to buy bread from a cute little German bakery down the street. The girl there was so nice to me and didn’t mind speaking English which was so kind of her. She even let me taste different breads to make sure I bought one I actually liked, and taught me how to pronounce the names of all of them (I’ve forgotten now, but it was very sweet). This whole interaction really made me feel more confident about being a bit more extroverted with new people, especially with my not-being-able-to-speak-German complex. She was so generous and patient I felt so welcome.

I was practically skipping out of the bakery and decided to explore further down the main street than I had done yesterday. It went further than I thought, and I ended up coming across the Tourist Information Centre. I thought that could be a good idea to check out, so I walked back up the street then up a little alley before I found the Centre. The women this time were not very nice at all, and seemed really inconvenienced I was there speaking English, which I found ironic considering their whole job is to cater to tourists. This was the one place I really didn’t feel bad about speaking English (initially at least) as I just assumed they would be used to it. I guess I was wrong? I asked her what her favourite spots of the town were, what she would recommend, and she just handed me a map and said I could look through it, before completely ignoring me all together. That did put me off a bit, so I left pretty quickly after, but it actually didn’t affect me as much as I thought it would. I think it was helpful having such a positive experience earlier, I could boil this one down to someone having a bad day and taking it out on me, rather than me being at fault.

I walked back to the apartment and we had some brunch consisting of the fresh bread with some really yummy German cheese and meats (it tasted similar to prosciutto). So tasty! I knew I didn’t want to go all the way back into Munich today, especially since it was already past 1pm, so instead I hung out at the apartment for a bit then decided to go on a little walk to find a good spot to get through some of my book and get a good view of the town. Turns out there’s a beer garden and university campus on the bank of a hill just a 20-minute walk away, so I thought that sounded good. It was also much cooler today, and though the humidity was definitely still there, there wasn’t really any heat attached to it so it was much more bearable.

Whilst the walk did get a lot steeper than I thought it would, it was quite short and it wasn’t too long before I found the cutest bench seat under a gorgeous tree with a beautiful view out over the town. Exactly what I needed! I settled down and got stuck into my book. I’m currently reading Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley, and it’s probably not the best holiday/travelling book I could’ve chosen. It’s an incredible book, and would definitely recommend it, but it’s not light reading at all. It’s not that it’s not easy to understand, it’s just got quite depressing themes that didn’t mix too well with my slightly still-fragile emotional state. For some reason I ended up getting really emotional, probably more so than if I was fully secure emotionally. But that’s ok, it’s healthy to let that out sometimes. I hadn’t been feeling quite myself the last couple of days, and adjusting to a new environment has taken a little longer than I expected it to, so I think I needed a good cry to not feel so ‘out of sorts.’ Does that kind of make sense?

Anyway I moved between probably 4 or 5 different spots within the same garden area whenever I could feel my attention span waning, which meant I got to spend probably over an hour and a half in the precinct. The gardens were absolutely beautiful. They were very quiet, I only saw a couple of other people out and about, and since the beer garden wasn’t open it was so peaceful, exactly what I needed. The flowers were out in full bloom, but my favourite part was definitely the trees. They were mostly willows, which are some of my favourites. It felt so welcoming and safe to walk in underneath them, like I was hiding myself from everything outside. One of my spots ended up being just on the dirt next to one of the trees, and though I left pretty soon after when I realised there were ants there, it was so calming to feel engulfed by its canopy, like no one could bother me with questions in a language I couldn’t understand.

Although I enjoyed finding these little spots, it did feel a little like a waste of a day to spend it reading in the afternoon. Even though I took a bit of a detour back down the hill and ended up following a small river in a forest for a couple of kilometres I’d say, I still felt like I hadn’t really done anything today. And compared with how much I saw yesterday, I was feeling a bit antsy about having ‘wasted’ a day. But then I started to rationalise like a normal human being. I’m going to be in Europe for the next 3 weeks, which is a long time in my head. After leaving Alex in Munich I’ll be in hostels as well, which will make it harder for me to have my precious alone time. So it’s probably a good idea to take these days at a slightly slower pace, knowing the chaos that I’m sure is about to ensue.

When I got back to the apartment Alex was feeling a bit better and we walked to the shops to buy some things for dinner. We decided on a charcuterie board, and I let Alex loose in the deli section as he picked all the Bavarian items he wanted me to try. And (spoiler alert) not one of them were a disappointment, he did really well in his selection. On the way back we decided to drop the groceries off then find some gelato, cause why not? It was around 7pm at this point, and it was way too early to be having dinner, it felt like it was midday with how gorgeous the sun was, so we walked back into the Marienplatz and found a cute gelato shop. Alex had written me out a little sentence in German so I could order in German. I was completely freaking out about this obviously, if it’s not obvious already, I can speak 0% German, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to try. And the girl at the gelato shop was an actual angel, she understood what I asked for on the first try so it went as well as it could have. I was so proud of myself after my little German practice sesh. I was so happy I was almost giggling with giddiness. We sat on the steps near a section of exposed river in the centre of the town and enjoyed our gelato. This was easily the most at ease I have felt so far. We chatted for a while and laughed about stupid things we randomly remembered from 5 years ago. It was so much fun, we really enjoyed ourselves!

We made it back to the apartment and I arranged our charcuterie board, which we ate on the mattress Alex’s landlord brought in for me (what a cutie) whilst we watched some really bad real estate reality show on Netflix. It was really bad, but so entertaining, truly the most perfect vibes. Unfortunately for me it was hair wash day, so Alex went to bed when I went to go wash my hair.

Don’t have any concrete plans for tomorrow, although I don’t think it’ll be too riveting, we’re expecting lots of rain and thunderstorms, so possibly another rainy day, I promise I won’t complain about not being so productive! I’ve got to remember that whist I’m travelling I’m also holidaying, so I’ll try to actually do a bit of both.

Currently MIA,

Lauren x