One Night Stanzas

Last week, Lovely Boyfriend and I ended up in Munich. I say “ended up,” because it’s not a city we’d ever have thought to go to, really (sorry, Munich!). However, I was offered a lovely writing-related opportunity there, so we decided to take advantage of the trip and have a mini holiday.

Turns out, Munich’s pretty fab. We loved the fact that there seem to be green spaces all over the place — and the city is full of trees. Almost all of them were turning for autumn, so we got to see all the beautiful coloured foliage.

For a city that was almost completely rebuilt not all that long ago, it feels amazingly full of history and culture — at times, we felt like we were in Paris! (And you guys know how much I love Paris.)

Speaking of Paris, we spent a lot of time stomping around Munich’s “English Garden” — a huge public park designed to resemble the parklands of an English country house. While there, we came across a little bridge covered in “love locks” — padlocks scratched, painted or engraved with the names of couples — just like on the Pont de L’Archevêché, Paris.

We did a lot of wandering around Munich’s various neighbourhoods, nosing in shop windows and seeing weird and wonderful sights. I’d recommend the University area around Maxvorstadt (especially Turkenstraße), and the neighbourhood of Schwabing (especially Augustenstraße — number 100 Augustenstraße is an amazing English language bookstore!) for this sort of activity, if you’re Munich-bound!

If you do ever find yourself on the aforementioned Turkenstraße, you need to stop by Cafe Katzentempel, which translates, of course, to Temple of Cats! These folks are passionate about two things: great vegan food, and taking care of their resident gaggle of rescued cats! I particularly loved Gizmo, Munich’s own Grumpy Cat, who took up residence in the window seat (on top of a customer’s coat) and sat looking at the world and all its horrors with total disdain…

Munich seems pretty cat-friendly in general, actually. No dogs allowed, but cats may, apparently, tip-toe in!

And of course, I can’t go on holiday without photographing some local graffiti! “Blood on the streets” was on one of the University buildings near Turkenstraße, “Love you til the end!” was in Schwabing, and “Stop Amazon” was near Rosenheimerplatz S-Bahn.

What are YOU loving this week?

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Budding writer? Creative person in need of a fun job? Check out the various resources and services at Bookworm Tutors. Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!