Archive for May 7th, 2008

home tourism

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

day 181: [München] = 0km

There’s a large public park in the northern part of the city:

20080507124057

It’s called “Englischer Garten” (English Garden), and besides young families, nudists, and people walking their dogs, it’s mainly populated by students from the university campus nearby:

20080507124859

One thing about the Englischer Garten that I have never quite managed to figure out was this:

20080507130440

“Chinesischer Turm” (Chinese Tower). Built and rebuilt ever since the early 20th century, this structure doesn’t seem to resemble anything that I have seen anywhere on Chinese soil. WTF? Could this be some sort of cliché version of what imperialist Europeans would imagine to be Chinese architecture?

Another thing that the Englischer Garten has recently become famous for is this:

20080507141525

The überkool surfer-dudes of the Eisbach:

20080507141348

From what I understand, local authorities have officially been trying to get rid of this rather anarchic display of sportsmanship.

But then the people and the tourists just seem to love it, so…

-speaking of which, I ran into a large group of Chinese tourists on Marienplatz square:

20080507154622

They seemed sooooo busy taking pictures of each other, I thought it was hilarious!

The treat of the day:

20080507155654

Topfenstrudel. There’s quark in it, and raisins, it seems sort of like a cheesecake, only much better:

20080507155748

…awesome.

We later ran into one of the rare dudes dressed in traditional wear:

20080507160630

I snapped a tourist pic, because that’s what I am.

A tourist in my own country.

Soundtrack: Eric Clapton - “Layla”

—total: 2275,5km