I've probably say this too much but it's been AWHILE since I've blogged
I didn't even blog at all for the whole of 2016 and my seoul posts just stopped abruptly due to my laziness
Okay, this is not really a coming back post but more information-sharing kinda post?
Backstory, I'd just came back from a month-long work cum travel trip in Germany and London.
It's mostly for work in Germany, specifically Munich and I'm not going to talk about London today since there're already plenty info online.
What I'm going to share in this post is about what to expect in Munich, Germany when you're there as a foreigner. Before going over to Munich, it was a pain in the ass trying to look for proper information online about the city. Most of the info online are either in German or really outdated.
I was really "lucky" to have landed in Munich on the exact day the whole of Germany starts to implement this new sim card law which has made my life a living hell.
1. How to get a working Sim Card in Munich?
Since it was a totally new law when I just got there, I literally couldn't find anything useful online.
It's actually really easy to look for a sim card (telco stores, supermarket, convenient stores etc) the tricky part is to get it activated.
I'd actually got a sim card from a computer store but after several attempts, I still couldn't activate it.
How to activate your sim card?
- go to the respective telco website, follow their instructions and choose one of the options to verify your identity
I've tried 1. video call ( nobody pick up after many attempts , so failed)
2. postident ( bring the letter that you've printed it from the telco website to your nearby deutche post, I went to the one just outside the munich Haupbanhof and the person told me that the format of my name in my passport does not tally with the system, thus I'm not eligible for postident) ( please tell me what is that bullshit?)
In the end, how did I get a working sim card?
I stumbled upon a convenient store inside Karlsplatz station, and the store keeper activated my sim card without even asking for my passport. ( 25 Euro for 10Gb internet data *Ortel D) which is a lot! because the bigger telcos like O2, vodafone etc has a limit of 2Gb internet data only for prepaid cards and usually it's only 1Gb internet data for 10 Euro !
I'd assume that things would be easier now since it's been over a month of the new implementation.
Suggestions: If you want it the proper way, go to a big Telco store and ask them to activate the card for you there and then or go to a shady convenient store for more data at a cheaper price.
2. Does your sim card work in other EU countries?
Yes and No.
My sim card is from Ortel D and based on their website and other telco websites, the new law states that we can now roam like home, which means that we could use our German sim cards in other EU countries without paying extra.
I've even emailed Ortel D to clarify this and they said yes but sadly it did not work when I was in the UK.
However, it did work when I was in Salzburg, Austria. So I do not know if it's working properly now or if it's the UK.
3. Getting around
It's fairly easy to get around in Munich. Public transport here is quite convenient besides that one incident when I was about to fly home from Munich. I will get to that later.
I would say that the system here goes by trust, there's no barrier at metro stations and for my whole month here in Munich, I've never encountered any ticket inspections on any public transportations
which ticket to buy?
There're many types of fares to be considered : daily, weekly, monthly, single-trip
buy your tickets according to your traveling plans
tickets here goes by Zone and the partitions of Zones differs for single-trip, daily and weekly, monthly tickets
Zone partitions for single-trip fare and daily fare:
example: if you're traveling to Marienplatz from the airport with a single-trip ticket, you should choose the ticket that covers the entire network
if you're traveling within the white zone you can just choose to buy inner district
Suggestions: go for daily ticket instead of single fare if you will be traveling around the city because it's significantly cheaper because a single trip ticket for inner district cost 2.8 euro whereas a daily ticket for inner district is 6+ euro which could be use on S-bahn, U-bahn, buses etc
For weekly and monthly ticket,
the partition of zones differs, you could see the numbers on the pictures which shows which stations falls under which zone.
Example: Oberwiesenfeld is in Zone 3 and Marienplatz is in Zone 1. If I were to travel around within these areas everyday for a week/month, I should choose Zone 1,2,3 when buying my ticket.
So what was my incident?
I was abruptly asked to get down of the S-bahn when I was on my way to the airport due to some rail maintenance which I was unaware of.
The captain just announced that we should get down now and there will be free taxis to send us to the airport which was so chaotic as no one was there to direct and control the situation.
There were a lot of people than taxis available and I'm sure many of them couldn't make it to their flight on time.
Fortunately, I'd managed to get on one of the taxis on time.
Advice:
You might have heard that the German transportation systems are really punctual and efficient but after a month of living here, I don't think that it's really that great now?
I would suggest you to plan ahead and give yourself more time allowance if you're traveling to somewhere far. Do not be too dependable on the timetable because things might go south.
Better be early than be late right?
I didn't even blog at all for the whole of 2016 and my seoul posts just stopped abruptly due to my laziness
Okay, this is not really a coming back post but more information-sharing kinda post?
Backstory, I'd just came back from a month-long work cum travel trip in Germany and London.
It's mostly for work in Germany, specifically Munich and I'm not going to talk about London today since there're already plenty info online.
What I'm going to share in this post is about what to expect in Munich, Germany when you're there as a foreigner. Before going over to Munich, it was a pain in the ass trying to look for proper information online about the city. Most of the info online are either in German or really outdated.
I was really "lucky" to have landed in Munich on the exact day the whole of Germany starts to implement this new sim card law which has made my life a living hell.
1. How to get a working Sim Card in Munich?
Since it was a totally new law when I just got there, I literally couldn't find anything useful online.
It's actually really easy to look for a sim card (telco stores, supermarket, convenient stores etc) the tricky part is to get it activated.
I'd actually got a sim card from a computer store but after several attempts, I still couldn't activate it.
How to activate your sim card?
- go to the respective telco website, follow their instructions and choose one of the options to verify your identity
I've tried 1. video call ( nobody pick up after many attempts , so failed)
2. postident ( bring the letter that you've printed it from the telco website to your nearby deutche post, I went to the one just outside the munich Haupbanhof and the person told me that the format of my name in my passport does not tally with the system, thus I'm not eligible for postident) ( please tell me what is that bullshit?)
In the end, how did I get a working sim card?
I stumbled upon a convenient store inside Karlsplatz station, and the store keeper activated my sim card without even asking for my passport. ( 25 Euro for 10Gb internet data *Ortel D) which is a lot! because the bigger telcos like O2, vodafone etc has a limit of 2Gb internet data only for prepaid cards and usually it's only 1Gb internet data for 10 Euro !
I'd assume that things would be easier now since it's been over a month of the new implementation.
Suggestions: If you want it the proper way, go to a big Telco store and ask them to activate the card for you there and then or go to a shady convenient store for more data at a cheaper price.
2. Does your sim card work in other EU countries?
Yes and No.
My sim card is from Ortel D and based on their website and other telco websites, the new law states that we can now roam like home, which means that we could use our German sim cards in other EU countries without paying extra.
I've even emailed Ortel D to clarify this and they said yes but sadly it did not work when I was in the UK.
However, it did work when I was in Salzburg, Austria. So I do not know if it's working properly now or if it's the UK.
3. Getting around
It's fairly easy to get around in Munich. Public transport here is quite convenient besides that one incident when I was about to fly home from Munich. I will get to that later.
I would say that the system here goes by trust, there's no barrier at metro stations and for my whole month here in Munich, I've never encountered any ticket inspections on any public transportations
which ticket to buy?
There're many types of fares to be considered : daily, weekly, monthly, single-trip
buy your tickets according to your traveling plans
tickets here goes by Zone and the partitions of Zones differs for single-trip, daily and weekly, monthly tickets
Zone partitions for single-trip fare and daily fare:
example: if you're traveling to Marienplatz from the airport with a single-trip ticket, you should choose the ticket that covers the entire network
if you're traveling within the white zone you can just choose to buy inner district
Suggestions: go for daily ticket instead of single fare if you will be traveling around the city because it's significantly cheaper because a single trip ticket for inner district cost 2.8 euro whereas a daily ticket for inner district is 6+ euro which could be use on S-bahn, U-bahn, buses etc
For weekly and monthly ticket,
the partition of zones differs, you could see the numbers on the pictures which shows which stations falls under which zone.
Example: Oberwiesenfeld is in Zone 3 and Marienplatz is in Zone 1. If I were to travel around within these areas everyday for a week/month, I should choose Zone 1,2,3 when buying my ticket.
So what was my incident?
I was abruptly asked to get down of the S-bahn when I was on my way to the airport due to some rail maintenance which I was unaware of.
The captain just announced that we should get down now and there will be free taxis to send us to the airport which was so chaotic as no one was there to direct and control the situation.
There were a lot of people than taxis available and I'm sure many of them couldn't make it to their flight on time.
Fortunately, I'd managed to get on one of the taxis on time.
Advice:
You might have heard that the German transportation systems are really punctual and efficient but after a month of living here, I don't think that it's really that great now?
I would suggest you to plan ahead and give yourself more time allowance if you're traveling to somewhere far. Do not be too dependable on the timetable because things might go south.
Better be early than be late right?
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