The Third Anniversary of My 21st Birthday

I don't know if I've touched on the unfriendliness of Germans. Don't get me wrong. They are very nice people. They are just.. well.. I guess the best way of putting it is "busy". They don't like to bother with American things such as "small talk", and talking to strangers just to say hi.  They only ask you things if the answer is necessary. They offer information on a need to know basis. This is an absolute rule.. with one exception. Beer Halls.
 Naturally, as a non-drinker, I decided it would be a great idea to go to probably the most famous and definitely the first Beer Hall in the World to celebrate my 24th birthday. Hofbrauhaus was everything I hoped it would be and more. It is located in the center of town, down a few side streets but all together a a great location. When we entered, the first floor was completely full to the brim with ~300 people, so we ventured to the top floor which it turns out was definitely the best. The way it was set up was very wedding-esque-- we actually thought we were intruding on a private party. There was a big dance floor in the center surrounded by long dinning tables for ~100 people. There were a few long tables in the back.. maybe ten that could hold around ten people. In the front, there was a stage with an Umpapa band (which apparently is a real word. thanks mom).  Private party or not, Anna and I strode across the dance floor to a table in the back and were seated by a real wench of a woman in a dirndl who really did not want to serve us. We got out drinks and started to have a great time.

 Elise, me, and Brigitte

Anna and me
Turns out the table behind us was a table full of drunken soldiers stationed in Germany. They thought it was so great that I was having a birthday and proceeded to party with us. Our wench of a server kept coming up to us and telling us to be quite. C'mon please. We're in a beer hall lady. We talked and they sang to me too many times and it was great! However, they were at the first stop of their pub crawl. When they left, we talked to the other table next to us. This was full of Swiss Tourists. There were eight of them. They were very pretty.
 They also thought it was great that it was my birthday. In their words: "do you speak english?".. "For you, I will speak English". They taught me fun Swiss drinking games, having no idea I was in fact, not drinking. It's a good thing I didn't lose. After this, we decided to Bavarian Dance. Neither one of us knew how, so we just kind of made it up. My dance partners name was "Jan." That's right. A (kind of) German named Jan. My life is now complete. It was great fun!

After this, we went to some hostel where we just hung out and talked. It was great. I decided to go home around 230 so I wouldnt miss the last U-bahn... I had to take a connection. Halfway home.. I missed the last connecting U-bahn, and had to walk 3 miles in the snow. At 3 am. This was not so fun, but I have to say, it was very lovely and beautiful. I made it back to the bar where my friends were still drinking, and went home with Elise. All in all, it was the best birthday ever.


Oh yeah. This is Louis. Remember this face. I could dedicate an entire blog to him. He is awesome. He bought me alcoholfree chocolate. He likes to walk through dark parks.

Enjoying Bavarian Holidays: Fröhliches neues Jahr!!

Happy New Year to my friends and family around the world.
2012 is going to be a good one. I can just feel it.

On the eve of our new year, I went to my friend Elise's house for a traditional German dinner of raclette. I wish I had pictures of it. Basically, everyone gets a small tray, about half the size of a business envelope. You fill the tray up with different treats, like onion, mango, mushroom, etc. Then you cover it with cheese. You place the tray into this heating element, that melts the cheese until it sizzles. On the top of the heating element, you grill various types of meat. Then you take the tray out and place the mixture over cooked potatoes, and finish with freshly grilled meat. IT IS AMAZING. After stuffing our faces with raclette, we finished with a traditional New Zealand desert of pavlova, or like a meriangue covered with kiwi and creme. 

oh boy. were we finished. Elise and I almost decided not to go out, but thinking about what my dad said, "you are in germany. go. experience it" we decided to do the traditional Bavarian thing and go into the center of Munich and watch the fireworks. New Year is the one day a year when they are allowed to light fireworks and boy, do they light fireworks. It was like a war-zone!! They are lighting off fireworks everywhere you look. The whole streets are filled with people and you can hardly see in front of you because of all the smoke. They have no discretion: young, old, weak, strong, they let those things off in every direction.We were running and screaming as we dodged all of them going off. It was a blast. (literally)

The really cool part was how historic the buildings were. We were basically in the middle of one of the oldest parts of Germany, some things dating back to the 1500's, and they were being lit up like Fourth of July. It was pitch black outside but you could see everything in the sky. It was gorgeous. We had such a fun time. Oh, did I mention it was pouring rain??

Elise's host-brother lives in Missouri and is visiting for Christmas. We met up with him and his american friend and went to a proper German New Year's Party. That was interesting... a nice cultural experience. They just..well... drink. A lot. And eat sausage. Pretty much what you'd expect! We kind of spent most of the time entertaining ourselves and then about an hour trying to hail a cab, but I'm glad I went.

When we returned home, Elise, Bret and I sat together and finished off the rest of the pavlova. and by that, I mean I finished the rest of the pavlova. It was so delicious. All in all, New Year's was a smashing hit.