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That's what it was in my previous post...

Y2K is long gone, but...

Just wanted to blab about Facebook again. It seems that it is not immune to the Y2K problem.


On our home page, we see our friends' upcoming birthdays (2 or 3 days in advance, I think). Usually it is listed by date. But do you notice the difference this time? There are three birthdays on Thursday, then one today, then three more on Thursday. What happened? Did they just change their mind and list the people alphabetically?

Well, actually, no. The first three Thursdays are actually referring to the 1st of January 2009 (which was a Thursday), and the last three to the 31st of December 2009 (not that I needed to say that, I think...) So there you go, Facebook's Y2K problem. It'll probably be solved by 2010...

Munich by day

What creativity in the post title, you'd say. But whatever.

I got myself slightly "lost" that morning, since I was just going out to explore the town, and I had a map with me so I wasn't likely to be unable to find my way back. I set off from Hauptbahnhof in another direction than the one I had taken the night before, and ended up on completely unknown territory...which also meant that I had no idea what those buildings around me were. Here are some pics:

the palace of justice, from Karlsplatz (you can see the skating polar bears)

St Michael's church, with the Frauenkirche towers in the background

This doesn't look too bad in the daytime either ^_^

An interestingly-decorated Christmas tree in a shop window. Guess what the shop sells?

Some stalls, open this time!

a stall with a miniature Frauenkirche on it

the real one, right behind it

Towards Frauenkirche. Maybe I should have gone that way, since Frauenkirche's so famous...but I wasn't interested in going into a church.

chocolate-coated fruits

apples

some more tasty-looking stuff (though less so)

more scenes by daylight

I don't know what this building is

French wines sold at Viktualienmarkt (a pretty famous market)
(Beaujolais is from somewhere around Lyon)

giant lobster outside a fishmonger's stall

"fishy" dustbin

the town hall from another angle

Now back on Marienplatz, I was to head north towards Odeonsplatz, a direction that I hadn't gone to the night before. But that'll be for another post, 'cos this one is getting long!

At least there won't be any more "duplicate" pics of night and day :P

What's this?

Don't answer if you've seen it somewhere else...anyway, I'll post the answer soon ;)

Edit: the answer's here.

Munich by night

It wasn't so cold the second night (when I got back from Neuschwanstein), and at least it wasn't snowing, so I decided to go out for a walk around town (just the main roads and squares, where it was well lighted and I wouldn't risk getting lost). I didn't even bring my bag or any map, just checked the road names before leaving. The only things I stuffed into my pockets were my phone (switched off anyway, but good for emergencies), some money and my camera. And of course, I brought my passport along as well...

I was staying really close to Hauptbahnhof (the main train station), so that meant I could just take Bayerstrasse to Karlsplatz and Neuhauserstrasse to Marienplatz (and back)
(strasse means street and platz means square. Or something like that, I can't be bothered checking :P )

So even though the Christmas market stalls were closed by that time (it was 9pm by the time I set out, and I was out strolling about for about an hour), I set off to take in some night scenery...

near Karlsplatz (towards the train station)

There was a skating rink on Karlsplatz.

polar bears welcoming the skaters

stalls selling food (skating's hungry work, I guess...or is it the waiting? :P )

entrance to Neuhauser strasse from Karlsplatz

Some store that's all lighted up...made me think of the fête des lumières

As you can see, I kept on walking...not wanting to stay in one spot and wait for the colour change :P

St Michael's church...under reconstruction, with a screen in the middle

the street, with white snow on the ground
(a small vehicle/machine went by, sprinkling tiny pebbles onto the ground...I think it was so the people walking around won't slip...the snow was pretty frozen!)

the other way

just a nicely lighted-up store, with the Frauenkirche towers in the background

the entrance to the Christmas market!

the, er...exit??

gingerbread house :P
selling hot wine (or at least when it's open...)

the town hall (I believe this was with automatic flash; I probably forgot to change the setting)

this was with the "night view" mode...looks more like night, doesn't it? lol

Glockenspiel (the part of the town hall with the figures) with a statue thingy in the square

the old town hall

St Peter's church as seen from Marienplatz (I didn't go that way)

a "carriage" stall

in a shop window (I believe it was in the Karlsplatz underground maze metro station)

I saw the same cat at the Munich airport...this time there was a brand name there.

Snow Cat (by NICI) at the airport

And I also saw some Christmassy and not-so-Christmassy Lego decorations.



These were actually the first photos I took when I went out that night...but I wasn't going to start my "Munich by night" post with them! lol