Shenanigans That Side: BEER

Ah Germany. I from here on out will remember you for one thing, beer. Oh and a little bit of history.

I had a fantastic time in Germany. In Scandanavia I had lost a few pounds and I was starting to swim in my jeans (due to the excessive walking and extremely expensive food) but Germany took care of that in no time. With all the beer, bratwurst, and pretzels it only took a few days to be back to normal.

Berlin was awesome, my favorite city so far. The first day I was there I took the Terry Brewer's walking tour which I would highly suggest to anyone visiting Berlin, worth every penny. Within 8 hours (yes, an 8 hour walking tour, exhausting) I had learned more about German history, particularly the Berlin Wall, than I had learned over the past 27 years. I think it required actually being there for things really to come together. I also went to a German Opera, La Boheme, which was OK. German is not exactly the most beautiful sounding language so it wasn't the best opera I've been to but it was still very well done.

From there I went to Stuttgart for the Volksfest which is the second largest beer festival in the world, second to Oktoberfest, it was crazy. It gave me a taste of what Oktoberfest is like. Definitely going to try to make it next year...who's with me? Didn't really enjoy Stuttgart that much so I left after a day and headed to Munich. Of course the week after Oktoberfest, Munich decided to say 'Screw You' and the weather changed rapidly from T-Shirt sunshine weather to frigid and snowing. This means that everyone in the hostels were sick, which means that I got sick. Of all the places to feel under the weather, this was the wrong place. I still managed to see and do a ton in a few days. Day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle (the castle that Disney's Sleeping Beauty is modeled after), day trip to Dachau, daytrip to Garmisch to visit my parent's old stomping grounds. Of course, being Munich, I had to waste many hours in the Beer Halls as well :)

It's interesting, I'm not really lonely but at times I'm definitely starting to feel like I'm missing something. I had a good long conversation with James from Portland about this. We decided that it's not really being lonely because even traveling alone, you're never really alone. There is ALWAYS someone to talk to. If you meet 10 people in a day, most you will only talk with for 20 minutes or an hour, some you will say good bye to the next day. The problem is that the conversations are usually short lived and always about the same thing. Where are you from, how long are you traveling, what have you seen, etc. James and I decided that it's relationships and more meaningful conversation that we really miss. I said goodbye to James the next day. On the other hand, there have been the people that have stuck. Especially over the last few weeks I've made quite a few great friends that I've had a blast with and I'll keep in touch with. In fact I think I'll keep in touch with more people I've met over the last three weeks than I will people I met in the last two years in LA.

Things I will remember most about Germany:
-Staying up until all hours of the night drinking crazy cheap beer and playing card games in Berlin.
-Toilets on the trains dumping straight onto the tracks.
-Watching two different groups of Australians experience snow for the first time.
-Sitting around a table at a restaurant with 14 people, representing 12 different nationalities.
-Falling in love with an Aussie, only to say goodbye 32 hours later.
-Dachau and how eye opening it was.
-Donor kebabs, I swear there are more Turkish people in Munich than Germans. I wish I could transplant one of their little kebab stands and plop it down in the US, amazing.
-Garmisch, the countryside surrounding this little town is like a scene straight out of Heidi.
-Meeting a girl from Oregon whose father went to High School with my father in a tiny town in Wyoming. Small world.
-Seeing the destruction and rebuilding of Berlin, and realizing what it would have looked like only 15 years ago.
-Getting 'Screeched in' and becoming an honorary New Finlander. It goes like this: "Are you a screecher?" "Indeed I is, and yea ol' cock, and long may, your big jib draw!" Take a shot of Screech (New Finland's version of moonshine) and kiss a penguin's ass.

Spent hours at this table playing card games