My days in Munich as it started

München as people call it here, seems to be well paced for a normal slow life. To signify the first point I made, even at peak office hours you could find some underground train lines running in a ten minute frequency. I had landed here for work in early October where people recommended to be the last month with Sun before the master star goes in hiding and hibernate. As usual, I could guess that this is not going to happen this year as per my track record. People here are more weather driven than the Englishmen that I met. Often the predictions remains negative and sun keeps surprising the crowd. While in the Lufthansa flight, I got a good gist of what is in offering as I browsed through the on-air shop. There where multitude of good gadgets that I have never even heard off. I am not able to recollect any at the moment and signifies how unimaginable it could be. My workplace here was no different with cheeky gadgets and systems all around. The rest rooms had a cloth towel which runs on a belt and gets cleaned after use and furnishes a new part for the next person. The double doors at office which would open one at a time and only permits one person inside. The automatic weather sensor blinders and screens on all office windows. The card driven vending machines for coffee, snacks, lunch and ice creams for folks around. The lift where you could enter your floor to travel to and allocates the cabin you should board out of the six elevators. Much more than I could list down here but it really is interesting to see and learn. The fog is so notorious here that at times it totally eats up the 25 storey building opposite to my apartment. And some nights its a clear that you could locate the tiniest of the stars. 

Munich is in particular has more of its own identity compared to rest of Germany being the Bavarian capital. The ocktoberfest was just over when I set my foot here in Munich. It is easy to travel to Switzerland, Austria, Liechenstein(most of you won't know this name), Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. It is also easy to access France and Italy from Munich. In short, Germany is well placed in the centre of Europe and no wonder why it is the epicentre of the European world. Most of us might not have heard of many of the German brands without realising being German. To share the power it has in modern economy, I feel it is worthwhile to list down few brands which speaks for itself and for the moment you could visualise it as the top of its segment or best in class as you prefer. I may not wish to go in depth of what these brands do and would leave it to the reader to figure out, let's start with Allianz, MunichRe, BMW, Bosch, Braun, Mercedes, Volkswagen, MAN, Hugo Boss, Ferrero, Siemens, Daimler, Bayer, E.ON, ThyssenKrupp, Adidas, BASF and lot more that I couldn't recollect. Note the vivid list which shows it is not concentrated like other parts of the world which just lives with minerals or oil etc. Interesting contrast with other western world is the intake of sugar, people are not over cautious with what the west believes about sugar. Having a chocolate or something sweet is an everyday thing for them and which is a pleasant sight as compared to the impairing one of avoidance. 

I am yet to explore most of the Europe but my Zurich trip is shared on another post. There are just couple of famous Indian grocers and that makes the full list among those. People are very friendly and welcoming to other strangers in office. No one misses to wish each other in a lift at workplace. I have also heard of laws protecting wastage of food even in restaurants. Indian food is considered exotic here and would cost you more than others. People spend a lot of their time on mobiles as in all developed countries and very less readers seen on public commutes. Most famous snack or bite seen around is a Pretzel and which has lot of history as the Wiesebeers. People love to keep themselves warm with all the winter clothes at this part of the weather cycle but sometimes it makes me wonder how vulnerable it makes them with so less tolerance. Even though people say Asians may not be able to take the cold, with proper clothing it is perfectly okay. As in most cases, the use of jackets seems to be like a secret unique code of fingerprint or dogs noseprint, it is almost impossible to find two people wearing same jackets. There are two types of train lines mainly the long distance overground ones which cover most of the Munich and the fast underground ones. It is called U-Bahn and S-Bahn. Most of the time I find people in over protective dresses even though it is not as cold outside as what they have dressed for. Consider it safety first attitude as no one really wants to fall sick. 

The work culture found in Munich fits a person who is time and duty bound. There is lot of importance personal life if you look at the way people stick to work hours and also the way the keep their weekends for themselves. People are very friendly at work and helps a lot to outsiders like me to settle in. Something that might be of your interest is the way big buildings are build here, a hotel getting constructed for BMW has only 8 labourers and 3 lift operators. I am not sure how large the building would be but it is really an amazing site. Even in restaurants you might find only 3-4 waiters who waits for 40 chairs maybe. Not sure is it lack of labourers, cost or any government rule like the one which sets a minimum wage. A normal person would have two things in his/her possession here, a sweet dog and a cycle/bike. The road is filled with cyclists having their own tracks and full freedom on it. If they hit a person walking on their track and they get injured, the trespasser has to pay the fine and medicals. This really is a good thing to see and an ideal city should encourage cycling. 

The way of going Dutch is often noticed in lunches and dinners when friends catch-up or colleagues meet-up. The emphasis is on the time spent together more than money spent and even couples prefer to split the bill. This may not be same in other parts of the world but I found it a good way to deal with things. Similar things were seen in UK as well but here it is more evident. So when someone tells you lets have dinner or lunch together, don't leave your wallet at home or else would end up in an embarrassing situations if not with friends. Munich is considered as a populous city compared to most German cities even though the population density is tiny compared to Asian world. There are some intriguing alphabets used in the German language which you would notice all around and would be handy if you could decide it beforehand ü,ä,ö,ß makes it to my list. As I don't intend to make this article a Munich guide due to my lack of knowledge on the subject would stop at that. I happen to hear good vibes on the education system, even though we believe that in India it is a factory ready education system which creates robots, in Germany it is done in similar but more strict manner. A child has to give after class four and then the school decides whether he/she is to study to become their  elite class or should do vocational schooling to fit to the countries needs of manufacturing or other areas. So it is not easy for the kids here unless they want to accept that is all their world requires from them. This has its own advantages and disadvantages but the kids are given another chance after few years to take another shot to get into the elite group. Remember some things I had written might be my vague ideas formed from the data I collect from the world around so read it with a pinch of fiction to make it all believable but at the same time pardonable.