Week of Oww: The Isar

Since the high today is only going to be 52 F/12 C (doesn’t that make it sound even colder?), I thought I would talk about sunning and surfing on the Isar in Au.

Here is our river after heavy rains (i.e. all the time). The tower in the background is of the Deutsches Museum, which is an enormous/boring science museum in the middle of the river. Its basement is constantly flooded. The museum marks the northern border of Au.

Anyway when life gives Munichers floods, they make weirs, which allow for…

surfing!!!

This is Germany so you need to line up and take turns. Of course you need to guard your spot in line with your life.

If you are like me and surfing is way too active for you (also did you see how fast that water is moving?), you can go to the southern edge of Au by the Wittelsbacherbrücke and catch some skin cancer.

There is the Wittelsbacherbrücke in the background. The city of Munich has been working to make the areas around the Isar nicer and more environmentally friendly. Here a bank is made and you can go sit out in the shallow relatively clean water.

But be warned the water is FREEZING! Those surfers were wearing wetsuits if that gives you any idea about the water temperature.

Now I am off to brave the August cold in my wool coat!

Week of Oww! (My Neighborhood and its Evirons)

In Munich I live in the neighborhood of Au. Stub your toe and if you are not inclined to profanity like me you will have correctly pronounced Au.  It is southeast of the Altstadt just on the other side of the Isar river.  If you know German (especially the Bavarian/Austrian variety), you will know that Au means floodplain. When you see “au” at the end of a town name it usually is by some water.   If you go to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum you can see really cool maps and wooden models of Munich (yes I just called maps and models cool) and you will see that this part was mostly made up of farms even in the nineteenth century.  A lot of what is now built here is pretty modern by European standards. This is just one of the reasons I often forget I am living in Europe.

Anyway to start the week of Au, I thought I would be a good art historian and talk about the three large churches that surround me.

The only one of these technically in Au is Mariahilf:

It is the main parish church of Au and was built between 1831 and 1839 in a Neo-Gothic style. There was an earlier church here, but it was smaller (I think a church for a small monastery). Like the other two churches it was enlarged for the growing population and to celebrate old Germany. It was all part of the Romantic movement that swept over Europe at this time. In the foreground of this picture you see the tops of the stalls set up for the Auer Dult, a big market they hold here.

The Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche (I see from my window, technically it is in Giesing to the south)

This nineteenth-century church replaced a twelfth-century one. It is cheesy, but pretty to look at night while I fall asleep.

Maximilianskirche is across the river, so it is in Glockenbachviertel and not Au, but i can see it from my side so it counts.

The church was finished in 1908 and I think it is an interesting mish-mash of architectural elements. Like many things here in Munich it was heavily damaged in WWII.

If you can’t pronounce my neighborhood correctly after this boring blog post, then there is just no hope for you.

Warning! This post contains material which some readers may find offensive ;)

So one of the main newspapers that you will see sold around town is Bild (lit. picture).  You will also see it in the hands of many a commuter. Usually there is some real news on the front page above the fold. Much of the rest is like an American or British tabloid. Supposedly it is the best-selling newspaper in Europe and has the sixth-largest circulation worldwide.  What makes all this interesting, at least to me, is what is below the fold.  Almost every day you see this:

Except without the black box. They are known as the Seite-eins-Mädchen (page-one-girls). Apparently it takes a huge news story to move them off the front page.

Anyway it is another thing that reminds me I am not in the ol’ US of A.  Also it makes me wonder, which country has it right? Is it better to have soft-core images right out in public? Is this better than what some might think of as our hypocritical, puritanical approach?  Should I be offended at this?

I don’t know…what do you think?

Mail Call

Often I forget I am living in Germany. It is now just home. Things that once looked odd are now commonplace. I rarely even have to speak German. But then I walk by while the postman is delivering the mail and all at once I realize that I am not in Kansas (or, more accurately, Oklahoma) anymore.

Here (at least according to their website) are Deutsche Post’s high-tech mail bikes

Since my own bike is always falling over, I think the extra support in the front would be useful. Unfortunately I can’t just steal one, since it would be pretty obvious where I got it.

The Great Fruit Fly Plague of ’10

I don’t think of myself as a slob (although I know my mother does). I try to do the dishes often and keep the kitchen clean. But if you stepped into my kitchen this morning you wouldn’t be able to tell…

The air was black with fruit flies.

It started out as just a few pesky guys hovering around my bananas. I blinked and they had multiplied. Finally today I had had enough!  I tried just cleaning the kitchen and removing the fruit on the counter to no avail.  With a little internet research, the help of a blog post entitled  “DIE DIE DIE YOU TINY BASTARDS”, and a quick viewing of a youtube video on making fly traps, I think the tide may have turned.

A photo journalist documented the most recent battle.

The Swarm

Setting the trap

Success!!!!

You have to look closely, but they are in there!!!

Would you like to make a trap of your very own???

Here is how:

Schwarzfahrer

As you may know I am currently lacking in funds, hence the babysitting. This means at times I must be a Schwarzfahrerin (lit. black rider) and ride the UBahn, SBahn, bus, or tram without a ticket. They do not check for these every time you board public transportation (unless you are getting on a bus at night), which means if you don’t guilt easily by all the signs saying not to do it you can get away with not paying. Occassionally they have undercover ticket inspectors that will board and wait for the doors to close and then whip out their id and ask for tickets. Even though it is a 40 euro fine, I always imagine getting caught will go down like the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he throws a Nazi out of the plane and then explains this action by saying, “No ticket.”

Anyway the only good thing about this situtation is that it makes me think of this excellent short film from several years ago.