Potato Soup for the soul

It's cold here, way colder than I'd like it to be. I like walking around the city and I don't have anything really warm with me. I mean my clothes are okay for cold weather but I have no gloves and, more importantly, nothing to keep my ears warm, but I'm not letting that stop me.

The last two nights in a row I've gotten lost in the city. Not really lost since I didn't really bother to attempt finding something specific until I couldn't stand the cold anymore. Both times I was lost and wandering aimlessly through the streets of Munich enjoying the city in all its urban beauty people have asked me for directions. I was able to give them directions, despite being almost completely lost myself, though admittedly the second time I had to use the map in my purse, only because this super cute guy stopped and asked me, in German which I don't understand, if something was one way or the other and I thought it was neither so I had to get the map out and show him. I kind of love giving directions to someone while lost myself, not just for the irony, but because it makes me feel quintessentially me. I don't think that people stop me on the street and ask for directions because I look like I know where I am or where I'm going, but because I look like someone who will help and I am. It's the dichotomy of me though that I will, can, and do help other people without finding my own way.

Tonight though I was looking for something specific and it was way to cold to give in to the urge to stay lost. I was looking for a cafe that I'd been told was a wireless hotspot. I can't get used to the numbering system here. In the US each block has a number grouping so all the numbers in that block are, for example, 1XX and the next block is 2XX. Here the numbers start with 1 and just keep going. So, the number I was looking for was 47 and I got to the end of the block and on one side saw 46 and the other 51, but 51 was the corner building so I'm thinking there can't be a 47, but it's actually 3 doors into the next block. I walked up and down the block and almost gave up before I remembered about the numbering system here.

I finally found it, came in, and ordered potato soup and tea in my very bad German. I said "Entschuldigung, meine Deutsch ist nicht serh gut" (excuse me, my German is not so good) and the woman behind the counter said, "Mine either, which is better?" and I said, somewhat confused, "English". It was then I realized that most of the people in here are speaking a language I don't quite recognize at first, Hebrew it turns out, which I understand none of and the only way I'm sure it's Hebrew is that I look around and notice the kosher products for sale and the menorah and Israeli flag.

This cafe, it turns out is a wireless hotspot but not the kind I thought so I had to pay. It was well worth it though. The potato soup here is so good that it totally makes up for the ridiculous rate I'm paying for the T-Moile hotspot even though I already signed up for a whole month with AOL.de hotspots. There are more T-Mobile hotspots (supposedly over 1000 in Munich), but T-Mobile doesn't offer a monthly membership. You have to pay for increments of 15 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours or 24 hours. The AOL membership costs less than 1/4 for a month what it costs for 24 hours with T-Mobile.