Archive for July, 2009
Munich
We’ve been here for just over 2 weeks now and things are going well. We have had no Internet up until today but besides that it hasn’t been too bad. The language barrier can be awkward at times but a lot of people speak English and I am starting to pick up odd bits of German.
Getting an Internet connection has been a nightmare though. We went into the store to sign up 2 weeks ago yesterday and were told that it would take about a week. Not a problem we thought, anyway the paper work starts to arrive (all in German) and it seemed that we wouldn’t be activated until the 28th, 2 weeks after we first went in. We discovered that Burger King has free wi-fi for customers so we went there a few times and then found out there was an Internet cafe across the street so have also been there. So then the router arrives, we set it up hoping maybe we were activated early but no joy. So the 28th came and went, still no connection. Seems there is a fault that won’t be fixed until next Tuesday so in the meantime we have bought a mobile data stick from Vodafone. €30 for the stick and €10 for 7 days connection. €40 for a week of Internet might seem like a lot but we may decide the scrap Telekom and keep it because it is twice the speed of the DSL line we should have by now.
The weather here only really has 3 states. We have seen 2 of them so far, will be a few months for the third. There is endless blue skies, 30C+. And torrential rain. There isn’t really any middle ground on them for long, we have gone from 1 to the other and back again in about an hour. The third is 3 feet of snow but that is 5-6 months away yet. Fortunately a lot more places have air conditioning here so inside it isn’t too bad. Even when it is raining it is still warm.
Mid way through my second week of work at Eurocopter, I’m finding the work to be good, I would like to move onto some different areas throughout the year so I hope that will be possible. Flexi time is a great invention, we can go in and leave whenever we want as long as we get the hours in at some point. I am trying to build up some now so I can get a few extra days off. Or have a lie in once in a while. German laws prevent us from doing more than 10 hours a day though and we have to do 8, but if we keep it up we get an extra day off every 4 days so it only takes a month to get a week off. This does mean getting up early though every day. We are usually trying to get in on the first bus which means leaving the flat at 5:40am to get to work for 6:25am the buses don’t run as often at that time of day so we have a 15 minute wait at the station. We can get the second bus and leave here at 6:10 to get there for 6:40 like we did this morning. This also means if you don’t feel like working you can go home at 3.
We haven’t really had much time to go and explore Munich, although now we have travel passes they wouldn’t give us circle 1 so we still have to pay to go to the centre which is annoying. I hope that we will also get some time this year to get out of Munich and go to the surrounding areas. Maybe go to the Alps one day or something. If we do, I’ll be sure to get some photos. Before that though, here’s the view from my window.
Packed and ready to go
All packed
Gallery
Now that I have my camera I am going to be starting to add photos to the site. I have started by adding these of the garden that I have taken. Mainly for the purpose of playing with the camera.
Car scrapped
Ahead of going to Germany next week I have scrapped my car. I thought about selling it but I really don’t think that it would be worth it, it is 15 years old, nearly 119,000 miles on it and it would have failed it’s MOT in September very badly. I got more than I thought I would, £88. I can also get a refund on the tax for it which has 4 months left.
It’s only just over a week now until I go to Germany then I will have to buy a new car when I get back. I think I should get one with a little more power than a 1.1l and maybe even some leg room.