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