day 24: munching munchen

Huge sausages, mega ribs, juicy roasted chicken, big leg of ham and more. Besides these glorious meat stalls, carts selling fresh fruit and vegetables surrounded the Viktualienmaekt Beer Garden. I held my breath in anticipation as I wait for Jerrain to complete the Sandrmans New Munich Tour.

Instead of joining the tour, I decided to wander around with my map. That way, I could pace myself (and my recovering right foot). Starting at the magnificent Neues Rathaus at Marienplatz, my first stop was the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) and its tower. After 82 steps and an elevator ride, I stood at 86 metres overlooking the city. Before heading to Viktualienmaekt, I also checked out the Royal Residence, Theatinerkirche, Siegestor, bronze sculpture of Romeo's heart-throb
Juliet, and the Hofgarten.

The highlight of the day was the afternoon at the Englisher Garten. Viktualienmaekt had everything we needed for our picnic. We were spoilt for choice, and after 30 minutes of circling the shops and beer garden, our basket was filled with:

• 2 Knusprig Gegrillte Schweinshax'n (pork knuckles)
• Kabanossi-Pfanne (potato salad with salami)
• Bread stick with sea salt and herb
• Bag of Kelly's paprika potato crisps
• Nutella chocolate waffle
• Sporto chocolate milk
• Bottle of Coca-Cola

The Englisher Garten, which stretched across several train stations, had endless fields and streams running between them. We ate, listened to music, read, and chatted. Several dogs dropped by to sniff us out.

The park was everything we expected it to be and more. Except, we read from guidebooks and heard from our roommate Ben that there were people sunbathing in the nude. But we spotted none of that.

We headed back to the hostel early to prepare for tomorrow's 7am train. We decided to shorten our Munich stay by a day so we could spend more time in Interlaken. We needed to get away from the city.

• Location: Munich, Germany
• Cost: €2.20 roasted chicken leg for breakfast, €3 entrance to Turn Tower, €1 tea at Subway, €5.50 pork knuckle, €0.80 500ml chocolate milk, €1.30 bread stick
• Highlight: Friendly and extremely helpful locals! More than three people came up to me asking if I needed help with the map or to take a photo. A guy near the Englisher Garten even walked with us for a distance to make sure we did not get lost, when he was actually
  heading the opposite direction.

day 23: my best 55 minutes

I gave 55 minutes to Paul Clarke and he rocked it!

On the way to Munich, I listened to him while I ate my kebab (pictured). Speaking on a highly controversial topic 'Is Jesus the only way?', Clarke wrestled this issue in a clear, concise, logical and engaging manner.

Some questions which he intelligently discussed included:

• My close friends who are Muslims and Buddhists live sinless and selfless lives, are you saying they will go to hell?
• Why can't all religion be right? We could be all walking towards the same mountain peak, just that each religion is a culturally unique route.
• How do we know the bible is true?
• Many (mad) people have claimed that they are God, what makes Jesus different?

If these are questions you do not have answers for, I strongly recommend you hear this talk, easily downloadable to your laptop or iPhone. It might just be your best 55 minutes too.

• Location: Munich, Germany
• Cost: €4 kebab, €20 Jaeger Hostel, €9 dessert and drink in beer garden
• Highlight: 200-metre dash for the only Kentucky Fried Chicken in Vienna, near the Westbahnhof train station before our 10.20am train. But the hunt was fruitless as that KFC only opned at 11am. The hunt for original KFC chicken and coleslaw continues...
• People: Our two pretty and party-crazy roommates. Kamilla and her friend, from Salzburg
• Injury: Walking speed has increased slightly. I had less people staring at me since the limp was not as obvious. I could place some weight (not my full weight though) across the entire foot but it would hurt when I walked more than 200 metres. 5.5/10
• Train: Wien West to Munchen Hbf 4 hours

day 14: black out!!

We ate in complete darkness. I tried waving my right hand in front of my face and I could see nothing. Not even shadows.

When I was told that we were eating in the dark, I had no idea it was going to be pitch black. In fact, I do not think I have been in such a dark room before.

The restaurant, Unsicht-Bar, had a well-lit lounge where we first chose our drinks and type of meat - fish, beef or poultry - from a set menu. Our waitress then led us in a row, hands on the shoulders of the person in front, into the main dining hall.

Our €43 four course meal was served by a friendly and professional visually impaired waitress. We had:

• Starter: small selection of fish pralines with a sauce of honey and dill and leaf salad
• Entree: fried pike perch under a crust of sauerkraut served with saffron-fennel and risotto out of vegetables, on white wine foam
• Dessert: cream of passionfruit in a mini-preserving jar and fresh couls of raspberries

I always wondered what it was like to be blind. I think I had a 'glimpse' of how it was like this evening.

• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Cost: €1.40 sweet flat doughnut for breakfast, €6.10 day trip train ticket, €43 dinner
• Activities: Topographie des Terrors, East Side Gallery 1.3km of graffiti and art

day 13.5: dance craze in berlin

My trusty Lonely Planet guide describes Berlin as a city with night owl stamina. So we did not need much persuasion before signing up for the €12 Sandemans New Europe Pub Crawl.

The new friends we met from our hostel and the New Berlin tour quickly caught our contagious enthusiasm. And we made even more new friends along the way!!

• Ben from Canada: Taught me how to say 'ey' at the end of every sentence
  
• Tim and Chris Smith and Steve from Texas: Tim and Chris are brothers, Chris hates it that everyone thinks he is the elder brother
  
• Jin Sha from Hunan: Grabbed attention with her alluring eyes once the spectacles came off
• Ariana from Brazil: She had the best party hair that night
• Diana from Columbia: She did not look like a party regular but she danced and drank as hard as me when we got it going!!
• Carlos, our 'Arrmano' or big brother: He made sure the guys we do not want to dance with are behind the wall, there was like a 'death zone' which he was guarding. He is the best!
• Kelly and Sarah from Kansas USA: Hot babes!!

The bars we covered were:

1. Zapata
2. Silberfisch
3. Ruderclub Mitte
4. XO Berlin
5. Matrix Club

day 13: and then there was silence

Jerrain and I did not exchange many words this afternoon. No, we did not fight. We were moved and deep in thought after visiting the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Walking through the memorial was like passing a massive cemetary with oversized tombs. I guess that was the idea. The 2711 tomb-like concrete stelae represented the innocent deaths of more than six million European Jews between 1933 and 1945. Unlike a regular memorial, the 19,073 square metre field of stelae of varying heights must be walked through. Nobody could pass through that memorial without being engaged on a certain level. It does not leave you a choice.

The information centre in the basement put faces and names to the rather impersonal memorial right above. It was sad to hear personal accounts and track the stories of families.

This was not an easy day. But I am sure Auschwitz will be worse.

• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Highlight: The free New Berlin tour is excellent. Finn, our enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable guide brought us around twenty over key sights in three and a half hours.
• Cost: €5 tip for free Berlin tour, €2.90 muffin and tea for breakfast, €2.80 croissant and coffee for lunch, €2.60 train, €3 computer in the hostel lobby, €3 currywurst
• People: Met many new girl friends - Our roommate Gougou or Madelaine from Nanjing China now studying in France, another roommate Kelly from Kansas USA, Jin Sha from Hunan China, and loads of Singaporeans!! Rachel who is studying in UPenn and her two girl friends, and four more people who are studying in Hamburg.