You know what the funniest thing about Munich is?

You know what the funniest thing about Munich is?
What?
The little differences.

Yup, there are some different things about Munich/Germany. For example ecology and health, that’s for sure. A lot of people jog here but in Olimpiapark it’s so popular it’s getting scary. Healthy food is denoted by a special sign and a deposit of 0.15EUR is charged for every beverage in a recyclable bottle. There are bicylce road everywhere and a lot of people actually commute in this way. Bicycle are not as ubiquitous as in Denmark, though. We have 4 different trash cans [plus one box for paper] but we get charged only for the garbage that cannon be recycled.

People speak fluent English here. Well, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people do. People at my company are really good at English. Advanced, precise vocabulary in an appropriate context, that’s something I really like. On the other hand, it means that one has little incentive or pressure to communicate in German. And yeah, watch out for those folks who’d rather speak French than English, because they pronounce “very” as “wery” and “project” as “procheckt”.

Mineral water is not cheaper than Coca cola, I think it is actually a bit more expensive. There are several styles of beer [not brands], but I guess you can’t buy Heineken at my local supermarket. Which is not a problem when you can have a Paulaner or Augustiner.

Everything closes pretty early. Banks are open 9am-12am and 2pm-4pm, how the hell am I supposed to pay the rent? The last moment to buy some food is just before 8pm and don’t try skipping the shopping on Saturday, otherwise you’ll starve on Sunday. I guess you can get used to it. Everything seems strangely cheap. Maybe it’s because everything is so expensive…

Cars, obviously. The cars… I guess they merit their own post. What I may say right now that it is very disturbing to see an elderly lady in a Porsche (either 911 or Boxter, can’t remembet now). Speaking of Porsche, I don’t consider anything worse than 911 Turbo to be a Porsche, because all 911s non-turbo or Boxters are so… plain.

I have also seen some really ingenious things here. Something I particularly like is the dynamic train/subway timetable that lists a number of trains to depart within next 20 minutes (along with the time to depart, obviously). Other thing that really impressed me was some sort of soft concrete used in a kids’ playground so that they wouldn’t get hurt.

Germans seem to really like order. Maybe that’s why house rent contract is so detailed, including the number of mirrors or toilet paper holders (sic!). I guess this is the reason you usually can’t have a short fitness club membership. There is one fitness club that prides itself of its one year long membership length.

There are also some other things about Munich that make my flatmates don’t like it. But I’ll write about it some other time.