Beer and Pretzels

It’s surprising how fast people fall in love with Germany. The first time I came two summers ago, I was immediately smitten. Two seconds after stepping into our first beer hall, Heather and Kahea were head-over-heels. There’s just something about this place. It’s clean, it’s calm, the people are nice, the weather is nice, it’s just…nice. We walked around what turned out to be the red-light district the first night after the beer hall and my failed attempt at drinking a pint myself. The next day we walked to Marienplatz and the shopping streets nearby. We did a lot of shopping, but only a little spending. At dinner time we walked to the Hofbrauhaus. Heather and I had two of those huge steins with Radler, a mix of beer and lemonade. They are so good! And it’s the only way I can consume that much beer. Four German guys around our age sat at our table (a Normal custom in beer halls). We could tell that they were making fun of us quite often, but didn’t think that they spoke English. They seemed harmless enough, and we finally broke the barrier when I said something in German after one of them took a sneaky picture of me. We ended up having a lot of fun drinking and talking the rest of the night. Oh, and it turns out three of them did speak English, very well. After we left, Heather saw a Hofbrauhaus stein on a phonebooth! I have no idea how someone snuck it out, because there are so many guards. But we quickly dumped it out and stuffed it in my purse. I wish I had one too! The next day we did some more walking around downtown and then caught an overnight train to Paris!

Munich, Germany