Munchen Continued...

Above is a church tower in Munich

As I mentioned in my previous post I went to Munich to meet my Berlin friend. I had an amazing time. Last time I was in Munich I did as the locals did and skipped all the touristy history stuff. Which was great, I spent 4 days with 2 Austrians, Panu my Finish friend, and Phillip Strong (the German who is very strong when he drinks). This time around I did more touristy stuff and started the adventure off with a history walking tour. It was great. The tour guide was this sassy (possibly gay) black man born and raised in Bavaria. He gave us all the nitty gritty on what it meant to be Bavarian and how they considered themselves as part of Germany. You see Bavarians consider themselves Bavarians first and then they are Germans. Therefore if a product is made in Bavaria (the state in which Munich exists) then the product is labeled a Bavarian, German product and never the other way around. Bavaria is the upper class, conservative Catholic side of Germany and has many internal battles with the young, liberal Protestant, northern region in which Berlin resides. In fact of all 16 states that make up Germany, Bavaria (Munich) is the only one that has not signed the German constitution because the do not agree with all that it says. The tour guide really knew his history, and it was great to learn about how so many laws in Bavaria and Munich revolved around it BEER. Just to fill some of you in, Munich is know for its beer gardens. In the past Bavaria’s entire economy thrived on the making of beer. Munich is the birthplace of Octoberfest, and is actually the only state that wears the laden hoyden as most of the state is farmland. (Laden hoyden are the classic outfits you think of when you think of German’s dressed up drinking beer) In fact, Bavaria prides itself so much on their quality of beer that there are laws to protect how it is made. Only wheat, barley, water and yeast are allowed into the beer that is brewed there.

English Beer Garden under the Chinese tower :)

There are two main types of beer, Halles is a sweeter lager (yum!)  and Weissbier is the wheat beer that tends to be a bit more sour (this was my favorite). On average it takes a German about 25 minutes to drink a beer. This is because after about 25 minutes the beer can no longer hold its fizz and will go stale. As you can imagine the Germans will not drink a stale beer, so 25 minutes is the rule of thumb to down a drink. So the Mass (or to us known as a stein) is a 1 liter cup that has to be drunk in 25 minutes otherwise you risk the beer going stale. So for the slower drinkers (me) you can get ½ liter cups and take 25 minutes to drink. They price them at ½ price, so you wont loose money on drinking beer slow – as long as you drink it before it’s stale is the motto here! Finally there is another law to protect their beer and it says that beer must always be priced as the second cheapest drink on the menu. Therefore most restaurants price water as the cheapest drink on the menu, and beer would be the second cheapest item to drink. Isn’t that great! After spending time with the locals, and then going back and spending time to learn their history (there was much more than the beer) I found that I truly love the Munich and the German culture. The people were wonderful and so helpful. One old man saw me pacing for 30 minutes cause I couldn’t find my train. He couldn’t speak a lick of English, but he finally came up to me to and played hand gestures to try to get me to my destination. He was so cute and sweet! I had a great time and cant wait to return to explore this amazing culture more one day.

My new German friend Jakob

Above is Philip Strong & I at a bar

(remember when he drinks he gets really strong and thats why I always call him that)

xx