Cola-Weizen

I’ve been spending my last two days in the city of Stuttgart. This city is very beautiful with many sights to see, a beautiful downtown square, two castles, and it is the home of Daimler-Chrysler, so we’ll be checking out the museum there today.

The beer in this entire state (in my opinion) doesn’t quite compare to the beer in Bavaria, and Hefeweizen seems to be the beer of choice around some parts. Well, yesterday I was introduced to the Cola-Weizen. I can’t even explain the sensation. Who would have thought that mixing cola with Hefeweizen would yield such an amazingly good flavor? I’m definitely sold on this new concoction, and am no longer angry at the inferior beer over here. In fact, my first mission when I get home, is to try to make my very own Cola-Weizen. It’ll be interesting to see if Widmer’s Hefeweizen can hold up to the challenge.

Oktoberfest

In order to get a seat at one of the beer tents at Oktoberfest, one needs to get up pretty early in the morning. So after the night train from Prague, we made a quick pit stop at my dad’s house, to take showers and change clothes, etc. By 9 a.m., we were standing in front of the biggest beer festival in the world. I met some good friends at the designated meeting spot in front of one of the beer tents, and by 9:30, we had found one of the last remaining empty tables. It didn’t take long for that place to fill up. Some of the folks we were with, are from Baden-Württemberg, so we had to teach them how to properly hold the 1-liter beer mug. I guess Bavarians do things a little different. We all had a great time. Five hours, three liters of beer, and a half a chicken later, we decided to catch some fresh air, and go see some other parts of Munich. I took my friends to the Augustiner Keller Biergarten, where we had coffee and cake. It was a good day.

Something interesting to note about the Oktoberfest: Sitting in a beer tent with literally 10,000 other people, who are all drinking the same brand of beer and squished together on uncomfortable wooden benches, one really feels a connection to his fellow man. It is an amazing phenomenon to see so many different kinds of people all sitting together, drinking together, singing together, and just getting along. These same people could be enemies the rest of the year, but all differences get put aside, and everyone just has a good time together. On rare occasion, I’ve seen a “bar fight” almost break out, but usually a simple raising of the glass and a loud “Prost!” resolves all differences. That is a beautiful thing.

Praha

… Praga, Prague, Prag…  Whatever you want to call it, the locals call it Praha, and it is indeed a beautiful city.  I took a train from Munich to Prague, which took six hours, but the country side is pretty all the way there.  I met my brother at the train station, and we walked down to his apartment.  The next day, I spent relaxing, and fixing his computer, but in the evening he took me out to dinner.  The food in Prague is amazingly good and amazingly inexpensive.  I visited my brother at work, in a very nice business complex, called simply “The Park”.  A very nice place.  There is a mall there, too.

The last night I was there, my brother took me to a nice restaurant known as “Hell”, or whatever the Czech equivalent word is.  It was actually a very nice place, set in kind of an underground cave.  The food was excellent, and the atmosphere was definitely unique.  The following day, my brother and I went to a flea market, and looked around at all the various stolen goods that the locals were trying to sell, but nothing really caught our eye.  After that, we took our luggage for a long walk.  We left his apartment, headed for the train station, so that we could get on a train back to Munich, and we missed the train by about two minutes, so we went back to his apartment.  All the while carrying way too much weight on our shoulders.  But it’s good to take your luggage for a walk every now and then.  We finally got on the night train to Munich around 9:30pm, and shared one of those soviet era tiny train cabins with sleeping cots with four other people.  Not a bad ride, except for the border patrol waking us up at 2 in the morning to check our passports and rummage through our luggage.  At the train station in Munich, we were searched again by Munich police.  I think there is some kind of smuggling problem between the Czech Republic and Germany, but for the most part, the American passports kind of made them lose interest in us.  Well, that was the beautiful city of Prague.  Now it’s off to Oktoberfest!

Hofbräuhaus

Today, I decided to take a walk in my beloved city of Munich.  I started out my day, by taking the train downtown, stopping only to pick up a Döner on the way…  After arriving downtown, I went straight to the Marienplatz, which is the pretty city square where the courthouse is located, among other pretty buildings.  I went up the “Old Peter”, which is the tower of the oldest church in Munich.  From the top, you can pretty much see the entire city, and it is indeed a beautiful view.  On the way down, I counted the stairs… 396.  Well, needless to say, after going up 396 stairs, and back down again, I was thirsty.  I wandered over to the Hofbräuhaus.  I had lunch there, along with a few Mass Bier.  As usual, there were nothing but old Bavarians and Americans in there.  I talked with an older lady from Philadelphia for quite some time.  Or rather, she talked to me.  I was trying to enjoy my lunch.  After that, I had had enough Bavarianisms for a while, so I strolled across the little cobblestone street and walked into the Hard Rock Cafe München.  This was a different atmosphere altogether.  Very interesting place, indeed.  So I stayed there for a few hours, enjoying old music videos on the TV, and admiring Roger Waters’ guitar hanging on the wall above me.  Of course, as American as that place tries to be, I wasn’t about to order the Budweiser on the menu.  I didn’t travel all the way from America to Germany to drink that stuff.  I, of course, had a Bavarian beer.  That, in itself, was quite an interesting culture clash.  Nevertheless, a very enjoyable afternoon.

Autobahn

You know the rush you get when zooming down I-5 at 85 miles an hour? And then you get pulled over for speeding… Man, what a rush. However, it can’t compare to hauling down the Autobahn at 120 miles per hour and doing so completely legally. And then you have to quickly pull into the right lane, because that Lotus is coming up behind you rather fast. Yeah. I did that today. It was pretty fun. It can be a little unnerving to have a Lotus pass you like you are standing still at that speed, but nevertheless an interesting experience.

I’m actually writing this from Austria. A little town by the name of Kufstein. There is a beautiful castle here that I might go visit this afternoon. I have a borrowed camera now, so I might even be able to get some pictures in here.

Munich

Well, I finally made it to Munich.  This makes me happy, because it is where I grew up and the city I love most in the world.  I am also sad, because I will miss Fred’s parents immensely.  My dad was waiting for me at the train station when I got here, which was nice after the 3-hour train ride across Germany.  My little sister (cutest little girl in the world) was waiting for me, also, and she came up and gave me a big hug and wouldn’t let me go until I carried her to the car.  We then went to the Augustiner Biergarten, where I ate Currywurst mit Pommes Frites, and had a liter of beer.  Best beer in the world, by the way.  Tomorrow I might take a quick jaunt down to Austria for the day.  We’ll see what happens from here.

Karlsruhe

So far, I’ve been staying with Fred’s parents in the beautiful city of Karlsruhe.  Last night, we were all invited to dinner at an Italian family’s house, and I must say, if you have never been wined and dined by Italians, whether at a restaurant or otherwise, then you don’t know what you are missing.  They made some of the best pizza I have ever tasted, served some excellent beer and wine, and were just very friendly to talk to.  I think it is actually quite sad that we don’t have much of an Italian community in Corvallis.

This morning I got up bright and early (fighting through the ever-present jet-lag), and met with my German counterpart, Christian.  I had never met Christian before, but he happens to be one of Fred’s best friends in Germany, and the man looks suspiciously almost exactly like me.  He is probably just one of my clones.  He was very nice, and showed me the city of Karlsruhe, from the University, to the castle, to the shopping malls.  We got along great (probably because of the clone thing), and we walked around the city seeing the sights, and had lunch at a brewpub known simply as Der Vogel, which means “The Bird”.  There I had a Doppelbock Weizen, which is a very good tasting Hefeweizen, but rather strong, followed by a Pils, which they brewed themselves on location, and was just excellent in every way.  To eat, I had a Panierter Schnitzel mit Soße und Pommes, which was so good that I’ll be thinking about it all year.  I had a great time, and somehow the entire day just slipped by, before I knew it, it was 5 p.m. and I was back at Fred’s parents place for dinner.  Weisswurst and pretzels.  The food is so good in this country, I don’t even know how I get by in America.  It’s amazing.

Well, that’s all for now.  I’m not sure what’s going on tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be great and I better get some sleep.

yes… Yes… YES!

A small part of me that has been dead for a long time came back to life today.  As soon as I got off the airplane, and was one of the first to get my luggage, and walked through customs without even being stopped, I was thinking everything was going so well and something is bound to get skrewed up in a minute.  But it never happened.  I walked upstairs, and before getting on the bus that would take me to the other side of the airport where the train station is, I stopped at the cafe/bar in the terminal.  I walked up to the counter and asked if they would accept US Dollars, since I hadn’t exchanged my money yet.  They said that was not a problem.  So I ordered a cola.  The bartender grabs the bottle of cola and a glass and then he stops and looks at me. “Did you want this with whiskey? Or without?” He was dead serious, too.  I looked at the clock.  It was just past 7:20 in the morning. “No thanks, it’s a little early for whiskey.”  Then it happened.  Check this out: “Do you want ice with this?” he asked with a concerned look on his face.  He obviously knew I was American because of the Dollars.  But my German was throwing him off, so he wasn’t quite sure about the ice.  “No ice. Thank you.” I replied.  Then he said, “Good, because I would have to charge extra for the ice!”  And right then and there I know that there was indeed something right in the world.  I almost cried out of joy.  God bless Germany.  (God bless America, too! I’m not trying to be unamerican here, just giving praise, where praise is due.)

No Snakes on the Plane

Yep, the flight was pretty good.  There weren’t even any snakes, which is weird, since I just assumed that snakes hung out on planes now.  Oh well.  There was what sounded to me like some kind of security concern at the airport in Frankfurt when I got there, since they evacuated me and all the other Germans out of the train station.  But I guess that could happen anywhere.  Overall, the flight was good.  Other than getting a drink spilled on me, the food being gross (the mashed potatoes were Beaver Orange), and them charging 5 US Dollars for alcoholic beverages (never flying Delta again for that!), I did indeed make it alive and safe.  They didn’t even lose my luggage, as Lufthansa prides themselves in doing every time I fly with them.

European Vacation, Day 1

I made it to the airport!  The airport in Portland, that is.  I stopped by the Portland State University campus last night, to deliver a car to one of the new Germans.  After the obligatory beer, I caught a cab down to a hotel and slept for 5 hours, before the annoying wake up call.  Amazingly, I didn’ have any problems getting through security.  Now I’m mad, because I got checked in, through security and found my gate within 15 minutes, and now I have to wait an hour and a half before the flight.  That is precious time, that could have been used sleeping!   Oh well.  Maybe I’ll see how many people I can call at 5:30 in the morning…  The wireless connection here is pretty terrible.  I get full signal strength, but for some reason, the access points in this airport want to disconnect and reconnect me ever 45 seconds.  That’s helpful.  Maybe they don’t want people to download large files with their bandwidth. Whatever.  I’ll just blog instead.

Well, that’s about as much interesting stuff as I can come up with right now.  I’ll be updating my blog as my vacation progresses, so everyone reading can become more and more jealous as time goes on.  First stop is Frankfurt!! (Well, after the 12 hours of flying time and a stop in Atlanta…)