It has always been my dream to visit Europe, and finally the opportunity came! An immersion programme to Germany, Munich and Goettingen, sponsored by the Physics Dept, 20 days and I spent only SGD1650 in total!
In classic ray-style, I almost couldn't get the chance, cos I procrastinated and procrastinated until I missed the deadline, so I went to find the prof, and luckily he could slot me in. I think I'm the last person cos I heard about another girl who tried to join last min but didn't get it.. phew.
and then I almost missed the plane! cos I kept thinking for the longest time that the flight was 1pm when it was actually 1am.. phew, luckily i checked on the last morning, cos I wanted to find when I was returning. and I still went out for a SciFCG gathering at ECP on the same day before gg back to pack, heh
all things put into place finally, I embark on my trip to a whole new world, stepping for the first time on a new continent..
Around Munich City
"München mag dich" - Munich loves you
Munich's the capital of the state of Bavaria, Germany. München actually means 'monks', and its colours of black and gold, the colors of the Holy Roman Empire, have been the city's colours since the time of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor. No wonder you can find a catholic church along almost every street in town. Finding a church has never been easier, only problem is I can't understand, since mass is in german.
The central area within the city is called Marienplatz, named after the Marian column in centre of the square.
In the main picture above, you can see the view from the top of St Peter's spire. You can see the twin towers of Frauenkirche (the Cathedral) and the Town Hall steeple, irritatingly under renovation when i was there, hence the white sheets covering it.
Some of the things which I didn't particularly like about Munich is the fact that toilets are so hard to come by, even though there's this really high-class looking one below Marienplatz that costs 1euro per entry.. heh.
When we first reach Munich, it was raining and raining for days on end, and the weather got really cold, esp the chilling wind, and our prof told us to bring summer wear! Terrible, freezing away at the start.. Also, I didn't particularly like the food there either. Don't quite understand how people can survive on bagette and croissant everyday of their lives. By the first week I was alr missing chee cheong fun and prata.. heh
On the other hand, I like how the whole place is so environmentally and pet-friendly. Every dustbin comes with 4 sections, one for glass, plastic, paper and anything else. And the whole time I was there.. I saw so many dogs! Huge ones, small ones, yet I hardly see any of em barking, so nice and tame, makes me one to adopt one. Pets are allowed into the trains and restaurants as well!
Other random pics!
The train system, v well planned I would say.. (no honestly I'm not being sarcastic :p)
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The golden path. During the Hitler's regime, people were forced to make the sign of the Nazis each time they cross this particular square, for those who didn't want to but needed to cross, they can actually make use of this 'hidden' way.
Other random pics
If we had gone during Octoberfest, would have seen a lot of people wearing costumes like these
River Isar
He can make robotic noise to accompany his movement, spray water from his fingers and holes in his body as he wills it.. totally cool
Old town hall
Victorian Market
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Christians doing evangelical work.. wa they really go all out man, sing and dance in the middle of the platz
Munich's the capital of the state of Bavaria, Germany. München actually means 'monks', and its colours of black and gold, the colors of the Holy Roman Empire, have been the city's colours since the time of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor. No wonder you can find a catholic church along almost every street in town. Finding a church has never been easier, only problem is I can't understand, since mass is in german.
The central area within the city is called Marienplatz, named after the Marian column in centre of the square.
In the main picture above, you can see the view from the top of St Peter's spire. You can see the twin towers of Frauenkirche (the Cathedral) and the Town Hall steeple, irritatingly under renovation when i was there, hence the white sheets covering it.
Some of the things which I didn't particularly like about Munich is the fact that toilets are so hard to come by, even though there's this really high-class looking one below Marienplatz that costs 1euro per entry.. heh. When we first reach Munich, it was raining and raining for days on end, and the weather got really cold, esp the chilling wind, and our prof told us to bring summer wear! Terrible, freezing away at the start.. Also, I didn't particularly like the food there either. Don't quite understand how people can survive on bagette and croissant everyday of their lives. By the first week I was alr missing chee cheong fun and prata.. heh
On the other hand, I like how the whole place is so environmentally and pet-friendly. Every dustbin comes with 4 sections, one for glass, plastic, paper and anything else. And the whole time I was there.. I saw so many dogs! Huge ones, small ones, yet I hardly see any of em barking, so nice and tame, makes me one to adopt one. Pets are allowed into the trains and restaurants as well!
Other random pics!
The train system, v well planned I would say.. (no honestly I'm not being sarcastic :p)
. The golden path. During the Hitler's regime, people were forced to make the sign of the Nazis each time they cross this particular square, for those who didn't want to but needed to cross, they can actually make use of this 'hidden' way.
Other random pics
If we had gone during Octoberfest, would have seen a lot of people wearing costumes like these
River Isar
He can make robotic noise to accompany his movement, spray water from his fingers and holes in his body as he wills it.. totally cool
Old town hall
Victorian Market
.jpg)
Christians doing evangelical work.. wa they really go all out man, sing and dance in the middle of the platz
Where we stayed!
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This is the hostel-hotel which we stayed in for the first 2 weeks, and also the best one we stayed in Germany. After that we were staying in what we call 'concentration camps' haha. Prasanth and I got a really spacious room cos it was originally meant for 4, and plus our room can get wireless access (must pay of course) from the lobby cos its relatively nearer, meant that it became the common meeting place for our gang to surf, play bang!, drink beer, attempt to cook cup noodles w/o boiling water..
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Chilling out
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Bang!
trying to cook cup noodles in the sink..
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i can't believe cheetat and sean actually ate it
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as the days went by we started coming down later and later for breakfast, till eventually we had to ta-pao
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if only I was a fan of beer, they're so cheap! like 70cents each from the supermarket
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU) & Research Institutes
A lot of our time in Munich (much to our dismay) is spent in LMU. Afterall, this is a 'school' trip, so they had to make us attend lots of lectures, see the laboratories, reseach institutes etc etc ....
This is where we usually meet our student guides in the morning, at the fountain outside LMU, where they'll then bring us to our lectures.
those litter look-alike thingys on the floor are actually not waste paper, but actual tiles, replicated from the flyers given out as part of the anti-Nazi campaign conducted by the student-led White Rose group.
Here's a peek at what we do during lectures..
hahaha.. oh well, i'm guilty myself (according to prasanth I start nodding my head in 'agreement' before the prof even introduces himself), so I shall not comment :p
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I quite like the culture there though. It seems like science has a higher regard there, as compared to singapore, and the students really seem interested in what they're study. Also, there are more girls doing physics :p
Unlike in NUS where the lecture halls are shared, the lecture halls there are dedicated, which means that the prof can also use the lecture hall to put lab equipments and have the lab technician conduct 'live demo' while he's talking.
Also, they've really cool 3-tier black boards that can scroll vertically!
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Besides having to attend lectures at LMU, we also had to take the U-barn (train basically) all the way to the last stop where all the physics research institutes are located. The train station's pretty interesting though, its got posters of famous physicists, something which we'll nvr find in singapore
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Dunno what this is, found it outside the nuclear reactor
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the actual reactor
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This is where we usually meet our student guides in the morning, at the fountain outside LMU, where they'll then bring us to our lectures.
those litter look-alike thingys on the floor are actually not waste paper, but actual tiles, replicated from the flyers given out as part of the anti-Nazi campaign conducted by the student-led White Rose group.
Here's a peek at what we do during lectures..
hahaha.. oh well, i'm guilty myself (according to prasanth I start nodding my head in 'agreement' before the prof even introduces himself), so I shall not comment :p
.jpg)
I quite like the culture there though. It seems like science has a higher regard there, as compared to singapore, and the students really seem interested in what they're study. Also, there are more girls doing physics :p
Unlike in NUS where the lecture halls are shared, the lecture halls there are dedicated, which means that the prof can also use the lecture hall to put lab equipments and have the lab technician conduct 'live demo' while he's talking.
Also, they've really cool 3-tier black boards that can scroll vertically!
.jpg)
Besides having to attend lectures at LMU, we also had to take the U-barn (train basically) all the way to the last stop where all the physics research institutes are located. The train station's pretty interesting though, its got posters of famous physicists, something which we'll nvr find in singapore
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Dunno what this is, found it outside the nuclear reactor
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the actual reactor
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NUS should have something like this: Summerfest
Too bad we've got no seasons..
our student guides brought us to the university's summerfest!!
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one of the courtyards of the school become the 'pasar malam', selling foodstuff, beer and this rodeo challenge (but none of us tried, later kena thrown off the bull damn malu haha)
sean, cheetat and i unanimously agreed that we tried the best steak there (the one in our hands)! and its not even from some famous restaurant, but from this obscure 'roadside' stall, hehe, 4.50euro!
meanwhile.. live music rocks on in the other courtyard!
atrium by day..
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performance arena by night!
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its really cool, its like the university turned into this massive club overnight, with diff areas for diff music, indie, jazz, rock etc
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cheers!
our student guides brought us to the university's summerfest!!
.jpg)
one of the courtyards of the school become the 'pasar malam', selling foodstuff, beer and this rodeo challenge (but none of us tried, later kena thrown off the bull damn malu haha)
sean, cheetat and i unanimously agreed that we tried the best steak there (the one in our hands)! and its not even from some famous restaurant, but from this obscure 'roadside' stall, hehe, 4.50euro!
meanwhile.. live music rocks on in the other courtyard!
atrium by day..
.jpg)
performance arena by night!
.JPG)
its really cool, its like the university turned into this massive club overnight, with diff areas for diff music, indie, jazz, rock etc
.JPG)
cheers!
Makan!
Honestly I don't quite like German food, cos unfortunately I don't like sausages (much prefer taiwan sausage) and don't like beer (prefer liquor).
German beer is really cheap, you can one bottle at like 70cents in the supermarket. and they're famous for their beer gardens. Our profs treated us to one on the first day we arrived..
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Quite interesting, we actually had to climb this narrow stairwell down into the basement cellar where the beer are kept in huge barrels for our dinner :)
We also visited the Hofbräuhaus, notably one of the world's most famous beer hall. apparently Hitler organized one of his first public propaganda event here, including this twenty-five point programme of ideas which was to become the basis of the Nazi party.
It feels like a really happening place, with this cute looking but great sounding band!
The other thing I love there is the ice cream! so cheap and serving so huge! and there're so easy to find cos every ice cream shop has got this huge plastic ice cream outside the shop!
not forgetting to mention that their ice cream girls remind me of kiera knightley and kirsten dunst :)
I had my first experience eating in a north indian restaurant and trying naan too! (oh my i sound so suaku haha)
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At hardrock cafe, most expensive meal in Munich..
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At the mensa (something like their canteen) in the university. Thank goodness for these, help to save alot of money. One filling meal costs only abt 2-3euros..
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German beer is really cheap, you can one bottle at like 70cents in the supermarket. and they're famous for their beer gardens. Our profs treated us to one on the first day we arrived..
.jpg)
.jpg)
Quite interesting, we actually had to climb this narrow stairwell down into the basement cellar where the beer are kept in huge barrels for our dinner :)
We also visited the Hofbräuhaus, notably one of the world's most famous beer hall. apparently Hitler organized one of his first public propaganda event here, including this twenty-five point programme of ideas which was to become the basis of the Nazi party.
It feels like a really happening place, with this cute looking but great sounding band!
The other thing I love there is the ice cream! so cheap and serving so huge! and there're so easy to find cos every ice cream shop has got this huge plastic ice cream outside the shop!
not forgetting to mention that their ice cream girls remind me of kiera knightley and kirsten dunst :)
I had my first experience eating in a north indian restaurant and trying naan too! (oh my i sound so suaku haha)
.jpg)
At hardrock cafe, most expensive meal in Munich..
.jpg)
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At the mensa (something like their canteen) in the university. Thank goodness for these, help to save alot of money. One filling meal costs only abt 2-3euros..
.JPG)
Churches of Grandeur
After such a long time, I've finally found time to blog here again heh.. Sorry to keep you guys waiting!
As mentioned earlier, Bavaria is actually a predominantly Catholic country, so of course one of my major highlights of this trip is to see the many beautiful churches around!
Smack in the centre of town, right next to Marienplatz, is Peterskirche, or Church of St Peter. It is the oldest church in town, built in diff flavours of gothic, romanesque and renaissance style. This was also the first church we entered in Munich, and I attended mass here as well, but it was all in german haha. The churchgoers here are more reverent I feel, and the mass is more solemn and reverent as well. Like they still use certain aspects of the traditional latin rites, such as the altar facing the front, going up to and kneeling at the pews in front to receive communion etc.
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During the war, half the building was destroyed.
It even has a corpse of one of their matyred saint, St. Munditia (patron saint for single women) for public view!
It also has a 92 metre spire, which we can climb to see the majestic view from the top! What a tiring climb, but well worth the effort!
apparently you can see the outline of the alps even
From the top you can actually look across Marienplatz to Frauenkirche (Dom zu unserer Lieben Frau - Cathedral of Our Lady), serving as the cathedral for the Archdiocese of Munich.
Another really pretty church we went to was the pilgrimage church of Wies.
Located in the foothills of the Alps, story has it that in 1738 tears were seen on a dilapidated wooden figure of the Scourged Saviour. This miracle resulted in a pilgrimage rush to see the sculpture. In 1740 a small chapel was built to house the statue, but it was soon realized that the building would be too small for the number of pilgrims it attracted, and thus Steingaden Abbey decided to commission a separate shrine.
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Designed with really nice roccoco elements, the Wieskirche was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.
As mentioned earlier, Bavaria is actually a predominantly Catholic country, so of course one of my major highlights of this trip is to see the many beautiful churches around!
Smack in the centre of town, right next to Marienplatz, is Peterskirche, or Church of St Peter. It is the oldest church in town, built in diff flavours of gothic, romanesque and renaissance style. This was also the first church we entered in Munich, and I attended mass here as well, but it was all in german haha. The churchgoers here are more reverent I feel, and the mass is more solemn and reverent as well. Like they still use certain aspects of the traditional latin rites, such as the altar facing the front, going up to and kneeling at the pews in front to receive communion etc.
.jpg)
During the war, half the building was destroyed.
It even has a corpse of one of their matyred saint, St. Munditia (patron saint for single women) for public view!
It also has a 92 metre spire, which we can climb to see the majestic view from the top! What a tiring climb, but well worth the effort!
apparently you can see the outline of the alps even
From the top you can actually look across Marienplatz to Frauenkirche (Dom zu unserer Lieben Frau - Cathedral of Our Lady), serving as the cathedral for the Archdiocese of Munich.
Another really pretty church we went to was the pilgrimage church of Wies.
Located in the foothills of the Alps, story has it that in 1738 tears were seen on a dilapidated wooden figure of the Scourged Saviour. This miracle resulted in a pilgrimage rush to see the sculpture. In 1740 a small chapel was built to house the statue, but it was soon realized that the building would be too small for the number of pilgrims it attracted, and thus Steingaden Abbey decided to commission a separate shrine.
.jpg)
Designed with really nice roccoco elements, the Wieskirche was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.
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