PROST!

Munich, Germany - Wednesday, May 26

"Listen, this is the beer capitol of the world. We don't "screw" around."

Welcome to Germany! And yes, we're in the beer capital of the world. Before going into details about the trip, I should probably start with my expectations heading into Germany, which have been met and far exceeded.

What did I know about Germany? Not much: It's France's neighbor, borders the sea to the north, and famous (at least to my generation) for the wrong reasons (World Wars and the Holocaust). The people yell at you when they speak. Even if they're not trying to be rude, that's just the nature of their language. Brad, our resident German language expert, informed us on the night train that all you have to do is yell and sound angry and you'll fit right in. In all actuality, Brad is from Alabama. He pulls for Alabama. And the only thing he is really an expert on is Star Wars, overalls and white shrimp boots. But I digress. I had heard Germany was really clean and had a very low crime rate, which only enhanced my vision that Germans were probably rude, angry and very strict. I still figured I would have a good time just because I was getting to see something new and going to a new country. But in all honesty, I didn't know what to expect out of Munich, so I hadn't set a very high bar for it to pass. I heard good things about the city. Heard it was nice. Heard it was fun. But I wasn't expecting much. I was glad I was going to get to get to see a new country.

My expectations have been far exceeded. Germany is GREAT! The people are, by far, the friendliest of the five countries I've been to in Europe so far (England, France, Netherlands, Belgium, and now Germany). Most of them speak a little English, at least enough to get you by. Their language is near impossible to understand. Every now and then, I catch something that seems remotely familiar. But, for the most part, their language seems like an endless string of syllables. (Though, we probably sound the same way to them.) But seriously, the people here are fantastic! They are very friendly. Very willing to help. And very proud of their city (Munich), region (Bavaria), and country. They're more than happy to point you in the right direction, and/or give you advice on places to go and things to see and experience.

Friends and websites were correct. Germany is very VERY clean. All the sidewalks and buildings look like they've been pressure washed. You don't see gum stuck to the streets or sidewalks. You don't see trash randomly accumulating anywhere. It's pretty nice. Germany is also supposedly the safest country in Europe, and Munich is the safest city in Germany. The crime here seems to be non-existent. Matter of fact, our bartender told us our first night that the police here literally have nothing to do. He said we had a greater chance of getting a jay-walking ticket than we did of witnessing and/or being affected by a crime. We didn't get a chance to really explore the city like some people might, but we hit the main parts and there wasn't a single time where I felt like we were in a sketchy part of town. It's almost as if troublemakers (if there were any) knew better. You get the sense that the German people are proud and wouldn't tolerate stupid crap like that from people.

Ok, so like I said in my last post, we arrive in Munich around 10:00am on Wednesday, 3:00am US central time). We were excited just getting off the train because the train station was much nicer, cleaner, and more convenient than either of the Paris train stations we had been to. We made our way to the ticket depot, which was an accomplishment in itself, because EVERYTHING was in German (imagine that). Thank God numbers are universal. They help get us on the right trains at the right time. But back on track now. There was a English only line in the ticket depot for dumb Americans like us. The ticket guy spoke perfect English and perfect smart-ass. He was our first introduction to anyone German, and I'm glad he was.

He explained how our passes work and how if we don't do certain things properly, we run the risk of having our passes torn up (which would mean $1100 down the drain). So, again, very glad we met this guy. After the debacle that was the Amsterdam to Paris train expedition, we decided to book our tickets for our next destination as soon as we got to our current stop. So, we were going to Prague next. Our German ticket guy informed us that we didn't need tickets for that train, because our passes would suffice (normally you have to at least get a seat reservation which costs at least 4 euro). "This is not France. This is Germany. We do things much better than the French." (which seems to be the universal sentiment of all Europeans towards France.) But, we did book our overnight train from Vienna to Rome on Monday night.

I'm not going to make a habit of talking the bathrooms I encounter on this trip, but the one in the Munich station was one of the nicest I had ever been in. You had to pay .80 euro to enter the bathroom, but once you did, you had showers available to you, shaving stations and sinks, and actual private bathrooms. It was cleaner/nicer (I know I keep using that word) than your average hotel bathroom, and worth the mention.

Ok. From there, we became your typical American tourists; lugging baggage around, randomly stopping in the middle of walking lanes to try to figure things out, endlessly staring at maps (which were in German and hard to figure out without help) and just walking around generally confused and lost. Kierstyn had directions to our hostel on her phone, but it was still hard to get our bearings and finally get there. Once we got our bearings though, it was not hard at all to find our place.

After about a 20-25 minute walk, we got tour hostel: Easy Palace Hostel and Hotel, Munich. Kierstyn reserved a room for us the night before from her phone. So we knew we had a place to stay. (The girls don't believe in "winging it".) But when we got there, Easy Palace's computers had screwed something up and instead of reservations Wednesday and Thursday, we had reservations for Friday and Saturday. But, it ended up working to our advantage. Instead of staying in a 4 person & then an 8 person room and having to deal with luggage on successive days, we got a 4-person room for both days. Their screw up turned out to be a good thing.

Having never stayed in a hostel before, I had no idea what to expect. I had heard both good and bad things. But, I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The room was pretty nice. We stayed in 310 (and when I put stuff like that in a post, it's mainly a way for me to remember little details later on). But, though we were 310, we were actually on the 4th floor. The room had 4 decent beds. I've stayed on worse. 2 of the beds were side by side. And by that, I mean they were literally touching, and the other pair of beds was a set of bunk beds. The girls got the side by side beds. The room had no A/C, but the window opened up & night temps dropped down into the 50s, so it was never an issue. We also had a closet, which was convenient. And, we also had a private bathroom. Brad and I were completely unphased by this, but the girls said this was a huge deal for a hostel. Apparently they're very rare. Anyway, beyond that, the room was pretty basic. But that's all we really needed. The room was 24 Euro a night per person. Not bad at all.

After we settled in, I guess it was about noon, it was time to eat and see the city. We walked for about 30-45 minutes in no particular direction until we found a little café. We sat outside and experienced for the first time that German waitstaff is never ever EVER in a hurry. We sat for probably 10 minutes before a waiter even acknowledged we were there. Every 10-25 minutes, the waiter would come back or at least close enough for us to grab him. They are in absolutely no hurry. The entire stop at the café lasted about 2 hours and all we got were sandwiches, water, and 1 beer for Brad. We waited about 30 minutes for the check before we finally had a chance to grab him and ask for it. (After 3 restaurants, we finally figured out that you have to ask for your check or they won't give it to you.) I hope I don't seem like I'm complaining here. I'm just trying to give you an idea of the atmosphere. We were fine with the waiting. It was relaxing. It was nice. And the food was delicious.

After that, we spent the next couple of hours exploring and taking things in. I believe they call this site-seeing. We found the old town square Marienplatz, snapped pictures, and continued wandering. We didn't & pretty much still don't know the history of any of the stuff we saw, but the scenery really was beautiful. The architecture is very unique (at least to me, for now. It may be the same in Austria), and if there is one thing I can say, the Germans LOVE their clock-towers. They're everywhere. After site seeing, we went back to the hostel for everyone to rest, shower and do whatever else they felt like doing.

About 3 hours or so later, we headed downstairs for a complimentary beer tasting. Our bartender, Alex from Canada, walked us through the history of beer throughout the world and then its history in Munich. Alex is responsible for the quote at the top of this post. (Side note: most of the people that gave tours and/or interacted with us on a substantial bases were not native Germans. We met workers from Canada, Ireland and Australia to name a few. They came here and never saw reason to leave. And I can definitely understand that. It's a nice life out here.) As Alex made his way through the making of beer and finally the making of beer in Bavaria (Munich's province within Germany), he gave us samplings of the various beers he talked about (Lite, Wheat, Pilsner, and Dark). With each drink, we would toast or PROST!, which means "cheers" in German (and I'm not even sure if I can use it as a verb. Probably not).

But, Munich is the beer capital of the world. They are very proud of this fact and they take their beer seriously. Everyone here drinks. Workers take a break… they have a beer. Get off of work… time for a beer. They LOVE their beer here so much that the Bavarian government started taxing beer and at one point got 25% of its tax revenue from beer taxes. That's a lot of beer! Alex said they looked at drinking beer as a part of their civic duty, and they did it willingly.

This tax lead to the Bavarian Purity Laws, which for us, all that means is that you can't get a hangover if all you drink is Bavarian Beer. It doesn't matter the amount. There are no preservatives (by law) in their beer. So if all you have to drink is Bavarian beer, you may wake up with dry mouth (which I did), but you won't have a hangover (which is true). We started PROST(ing) about 8:30 and went strong for about 6 hours.

From the Easy Palace bar, we went to Hofbräuhaus to eat and drink. Hofbräuhaus was a pretty cool place. They had a German band playing. The waiters and waitresses were in old time German garb. You seat yourself and sit at tables where there are generally other people. (This was true for other beer taverns as well.)

I was quite apprehensive of what I was about to eat. We ordered traditional German sausages with sauerkraut, bread, pretzels, and beer. And while it didn't look particularly appetizing, it was delicious. We drank and played cards until they kicked us out, went back to the hostel and drank a couple more beers. Finally the alcohol and the time change caught up with us and we went to bed.

Thursday, and this will mostly be another post, we went to a German concentration camp. It was a truly sobering experience. We met at the main plaza in the city and then made our way to the train. The camp was about 30 minutes outside of Munich and we pretty much spent the day there, getting back about 7:00 that night. On our way back to the hostel, we stumbled into a place very similar to Hofbrauhouse called Augustinerbräu and ate another traditional German meal (sausages and beer). I didn't realize it at the time, but looking over my stuff from home, this was one of the places Ms. Britany Cormier recommended I go. (Thank you mam!) When we finally got back to the room at about 10:30, we did a combination of sleeping, doing things on the internet, journaling, blogging, and whatever else.

We also made the decision Thursday night to skip Prague. We heard mixed things about the safety of the city, figured we could party anywhere, and weren't ready to call it quits in Munich. And I'm glad we stayed too.

Friday, we split up. The girls wanted to see a garden in Munich (much like Central Park), and the guys wanted to see a castle. So, Brad and I caught a train to the south of Germany, pretty much in the Alps and almost to the Austrian border. The castle and trip there were beautiful. I'll do a separate post for the castle as well. But it was a great day. I'm very glad we stayed! Friday night we grabbed a meal and in the gathering area of the hostel drinking and just hanging out (well, they drank anyway).

Other Pictures:

And that was Munich. Saturday morning we packed up and headed by train to Vienna. The city is beautiful! It's going to be a great time!!!

And on a side note…. HOW BOUT THEM TIGERS!!!!!!