Dragon Tour of Duty, part II

In the land of Germans order, peace and prosperity reigns. Planes and trains ran on time, there were no traffic jams, the streets were impeccably clean and the shops were literally bursting with merchandise.

Munich literally oozes wealth: nowhere, not even in the heart of LA did I see so many flashy cars (granted, lots of people in Munich work for the German car companies with HQs located in the city). City center was straight from a tourist guide: Bavarian gentlemen in their leather trousers and tirolian hats sipped beer and ate huge platters of sausages. My hosts told me that good leaderhosen cost thousands of pounds and they are passed from father to son.

And yet not all was quiet and peaceful: A humongous demonstration of students and union workers swept through the city centre, protesting against planned cuts on education and union rights. This was a concurrent theme on my trip: Munich, Madrid, London and Milan all had their share of big demonstrations while I was there, which kinda gives me hope: European youth has not succumbed to complete apathy after all.

I had little time to get acquinted with the nightlife of Munich before my press event. I visited plenty of exclusive clubs and restaurants (some you could only enter if you knew the secret knock on the door) and to my surprised learned that all the top-end nightclubs now have young men instead of women as waiters. Height of the fashion, apparently.

The press event next day itself was very easy: Germans are big game players and they are eagerly awaiting my game. The fact that there is quite a bit of violence in the game is bonus in their book, as the Germans resent their strict laws on video games. Needless to stay there were no technical hitches, no slippage of schedules or vistors arriving late: after all, this was Germany.

Afterwards, while the PR girls went shopping once again, I viewed the architecture of the city. Since the war had not devastated Munich unlike so many other German cities, I could visit a lot of original historic sites: houses of government, the house of the reagent, the monument of first world war, the cathedral of Munich and many others. I paid my respects on the grave of Emperor Ludwig (he was mad as a cuckoo, but the people of Munich remember him fondly as he was the last Bavarian emperor). I even learned where the name of the city comes from: the heraldic symbol of the city is a young woman dressed as a monk.

You can't add any more comments, but if you wish you can email the author.