a day in the life

By this point, you probably recognize that Ryan and I are taking as many opportunities to travel and explore cities and countries across Europe as possible. But I promise you, we are really enjoying living in Munich, too! Rather than only show you other cities, I thought I'd give Munich the spotlight for (at least) one post.

The sunrise from our back deck

Our apartment is located in the northern part of the city, in an area called Schwabing. Our front door is literally 100 yards away from the U-bahn, which is incredibly convenient. Schwabing has some great restaurants and bars, and we have spent many evenings out in this part of town. Our favorite pizza and Mexican restaurants are located in this neighborhood, as are all of the stores we generally go to. Recently, a coworker asked me what I was enjoying about living in Munich thus far. My initial and very honest response was that I really love the supermarkets here! Despite the obvious language barrier, which sometimes results in me wandering around the aisles of the store using Google translate, I really appreciate the combination of price and quality. I have been on a total yogurt bender over the past three months, with my only hope being that I completely overindulge and get sick of it by the time my Amazon rotation is over. It is so good and so cheap, I can only imagine how much I will miss it when we move home! Also, the wine here is also really cheap! Generally, the bottles we buy, including German, Italian, French, and Spanish wines, are between two and five Euros. The 5 EUR bottles even feel like a splurge! It's amazing! (Am I using too many exclamation points?)

Ryan and I are trying to keep up with one of our favorite hobbies while living abroad. At times, Ryan and I would see a movie per week while living in Seattle; our rate has slowed significantly, to say the least. We have found two movie theaters in town that generally only show "Original Version" movies (i.e., English). However, movies are typically released a month or so later than they are in the US, so it is a bit painful knowing a new movie came out but we can't see it for weeks. Rough life, I know. On the plus side, all theaters here serve beer!

So what is a normal work day like, you ask? I usually mosey down the street to work around 9 AM and come home at 6 PM. The Germans are pretty strict about working a standard workday and work week - overtime is heavily frowned upon! When we work a Saturday or a holiday here, we get an extra comp day to take at a later time. This is basically unheard of in my past experiences. The Amazon office is a little over a mile from our apartment, so I have three options for my commute. On a nice day, I ride my bike or walk. On a rainy (or, perhaps, snowy) day, I can take the U-bahn one stop north and then walk the rest of the way. It's a very easy commute, but Ryan's got it even easier. He generally wakes up, showers, puts on his cozy bathrobe, and walks down the hall to the guest bedroom/office. The end. Oh, and Marley lovingly follows him and curls up on his lap. I think he really likes his new coworkers.

Mikey enjoying his limited outdoor time on our 4th floor balcony. He jumps up on the rail every time we are outside, usually trying to walk across into the neighbors balcony, so we only let him out when we can watch him.

Marley being weird. She's back to normal, folks.

Every day for lunch, my male coworkers all take an hour and head to a restaurant. They diligently rotate between an Italian restaurant and the local canteen, which serves standard lunch fare and German food. Everyone tells me Germans only eat one hot meal a day, so that means that these men would likely be eating a cold dinner at night. However, given the amount of people I see out at restaurants at night, I find this hard to believe. Which brings me to my next point: how is everyone here not 500 pounds with the heavy food they are constantly eating?

The ladies in the office (my team, plus one other British girl) usually walk two blocks to, you guessed it, the supermarket. They have a Whole Foods-esque salad bar which does not get refilled during the day. Therefore, if you snooze, you really lose. Sometimes when I'm late I end up with a very bizarre salad (lettuce, green beans, beets, and mozzarella, mm). One thing to mention: salad dressing options here suck. Really, its just olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a bunch of crap.  I really like olive oil and balsamic but I just got so sick of it that I ordered powder packets of Ranch and Caesar dressings while we were in Seattle at the end of September!

Sunset at the Amazon offices. Yes, it looks just like South Lake Union with cranes everywhere. 

On the weekends we are in town, we usually take a stroll or bike ride through the Englischer Garten, which is a five minute walk from our apartment. When the weather is at least decent, the beer gardens are open and we enjoy eine halbe Hendl und eine Maß (a rotisserie half chicken and liter of beer). Occasionally, Ryan will order a pork knuckle, which is exactly what it sounds like. It is pictured below, on the right. The hendl is on the left. I'll stick with the chicken, please.

At the Chinese Tower - the largest and most popular beer garden in the English Garden.

Since our sea shipment arrived, we have also been riding our bikes on the weekend. Recently, we rode to Olympiapark, home of the 1972 Summer Olympics. I was expecting to just see some athletic facilities, but this is a gorgeous, huge park area. We also grabbed some beers to accompany us on our ride, since we forgot our water bottles.

Well, that's basically the gist of it. Sounds a lot like our lives in Seattle, huh? More to come on Munich as the seasons change - The Christmas markets open on Thanksgiving day!

Until the next post!

xoxo,
L & R