99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall....(And, If You Act Now, You Can Meet The Family! Call within the Next 10 Minutes and Learn About Cultural Differences!)

29.7.10--Holzkirchen, Aying

Today at school was the usual, the only really interesting thing was that we watched a terrible movie (Don´t ever watch Nikolaikirche--seemingly-longest, most boring German film I´ve ever seen).  After the movie, we had about an hour until we had to meet up for our trip to the Brauerei Aying, where we learned how they make beer.  During the tour, we got to taste ground water (90% of beer), smell some Hops, eat various flavors of Malt kernels, taste unfiltered beer straight from the tap in the factory, eat some "beer bread," and, of course, try a bunch of different kinds of beer that the brewery makes, all of which was pretty tasty.  The tour began in the factory, where we learned about the type of water used to make the beer (betcha didn´t know it needs a special kind!  But when it is 90% of the product, it´s pretty important).  We then moved on to the other ingredients:  malt and hops.  Our guide explained the processes to take both from seeds to plants to "liquid bread."  Next we followed him through the rest of the factory, where we saw the distillation tanks, the "ground control" room where there are a few computers that alert you when a certain machine isn´t doing its job (it will apparently also text you, in case you aren´t in the room!), and the filtration tanks.  From there we walked across the street to the bottling plant, where we saw all the conveyer belts and machinery necessary to wash the returned recycled bottles, fill them up again, add the labels, put them in crates, and put said crates on pallettes, ready for delivery.  After the bottling plant, we returned to the factory building, where we saw a 3D movie about the history of the brewery and brewing families.  After the film, we went down to the bar, where we sampled some bread made from the leftover malt and hops that didn´t make it into a beer (the stuff that couldn´t be used otherwise), and as many different kinds of Ayinger Bier we wanted.  And, to top it all off, on our way out we each received an Aying beer bottle opener!

After the brewery, we went to an Aying-owned restaurant, Liebhard´s (one of the original beer-brewing families), where I had the biggest schnitzel I have ever seen in my entire life.  Basically, it didn´t fit on the plate, and if I laid both my hands flat on the table next to eachother, it would still be larger.  It came with lemon butter and cranberries to spread on top, and, as an added bonus, underneath the schnitzel was a bed of french fries (which, by the way, were delicious...I am now convinced that the best way to serve fries is underneath a schnitzel).  To drink, I got the Ayinger Celebrator, a really dark beer that was so dark it tasted like coffee.  Odd, but tasty.  One of the other kids on the trip got some lamb dish, which came with "Speckbohne"--`bacon beans.´  Essentially, they were green beans either cooked with bacon, or cooked in bacon fat, I´m not entirely sure, but the point is that they TASTED LIKE BACON.  It was pretty insane.

So, throughout the whole evening, I sampled: ground water, malt seeds, unfiltered beer, beer bread, and about 5 different types of beer.  Yummy day.


30.7.10--München

In Literature class today, we read a poem called "Der Werwolf" by Christian Morgenstern.  I´d definitely suggest it to anyone who understands German (if you don´t, sorry, I don´t think you´d understand the joke...its a very tongue-in-cheek hilarious poem, with grammar jokes).  After school, we again went to Da Tosto, the delicious break from the sub-par daily cafeteria food.  After lunch, I traveled to München to meet up with my family (yay!!!).  We walked around the Altstadt, saw a few churches (though one was having mass and we couldn´t go inside), and got rained on (boo =[  ).  For dinner, we went to the Hofbräuhaus, which was again crowded and touristy, but still delicious.  I finally had some Münchener Weißwurst for the first time (as Bayrisch as Brez´n, Lederhosen, and Bier).  It was definitely an experience.  They came in the water they were boiled in, so I had to take them out, put them on the plate, and then peel them, because they have very tough skin.  They were good, though a bit bland, but the Senf (sweet mustard) took care of that.  After the Hofbräuhaus, I walked them back to their hotel and returned home until the next day.


31.7.10--München



Today me and a few other students went to the Deutsches Museum--all science and math stuff, with a bit of history mixed in.  It´s a huge place, with everything from ships and planes to nanotechnology, optics, and glassblowing.  We started the day off with the must-see high-voltage demonstration, which was pretty sweet.  They put so much electricty into it that you could see the lightning strikes and hear the `bzzz´ that is normally only present in cartoons.  We then walked around looking at various exhibits, some interesting and some not so much (mostly interesting!!) until we went to the liquid nitrogen demo, which was also pretty kickass.  They have a hell of a lot of exhibits there (50 exhibition areas!), so we only saw maybe 1/5 in our 3 hours there.  All in all though, it was quite fun.  We then walked around and looked for some lunch, because we were starving.  I ended up at Que-bap (the other guy went to the Subway next door), which is a "Turkish Barbeque" (read: fancy Döner chain...for those of you who haven´t heard me talk about Döner yet, refresh your memories:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner_kebab Delicious, Turkish sandwich that is EVERYWHERE in Germany.  Dlner stands are more prevalent than McDonalds.)  Anyway, so Que-bap has special different kinds of Döners--Classic, Asia, BBQ, Spicy, and PESTO.  (Guess which one I got, lol).  It was frickin delicious, with its overflowing basil leaves and mozzarella...so good.  I also got fries, with some sweet and sour sauce to dip em in.  These fries were also different...they were kinda U-shaped, like the bottom end of a slurpy straw.  However, they smelled and tasted quite a lot like McDonalds fries, but a bit better.  All in all, very satisfying meal (except for the drink, which was very small).  We ate our respective lunches en route to the Englischer Garten, where we walked around for quite a while trying to find the famed river surfers.  After walking around the garden about twice (and its big too, the largest inner-city public garden in the world), we finally found them!  It was so exciting.  The reason they can surf on this otherwise slow-flowing river is because at the point where the Isar flows into the garden, it flows into a much smaller man-made creek through a drain under a bridge, creating a very fast moving, constant wave.  There are signs posted everywhere saying that only one, very experienced surfer can ride this wave at a time, for on either side of the river is a concrete wall, and I believe the floor of the river is also concrete, so it´s quite dangerous.  Nonetheless, the really good surfers go and show their stuff to the nearly 50 people watching.  (To give you an idea of the constant-wave idea, it´s a bit like the surfin´safari ride at the Kalahari resort in Wisconsin Dells.  Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisbach  )  We then walked down the street to the Hofgarten (court gardens), which is surrounded by various official government buildings, all much prettier than ours back home.  We walked around the city a bit, until we reached Marienplatz and the Peterskirche.  We payed the 1 Euro student entrance fee and ascended the tower (lots shorter than the Kölner Dom!! Also less claustrophobia and acrophobia!).  It´s said to be the best tower in München to climb, because it gives the best view, and I would probably agree (though I haven´t been up any others, it certainly was a great 360 panorama).  I was a bit disappointed, for I didn´t have any more 1 Euro or 5 cent coins, so I couldn´t get any of the pressed pennies from the ~5 machines we passed on the way up (which are not very prevalent in München, I´ve only seen 1 other machine, and that was at the Olympic Stadium).  After we descended, the other student went back to Holzkirchen, and I wasted a few hours in a bookstore reading German comic books waiting for my family to return from their trip to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  When they finally arrived around 10 o´clock, we had a late dinner together and went our separate ways home.


1.8.10--München

This morning I woke up bright and early to meet my family at the Residenz Museum (too bad they had car problems and got there an hour late).  However, with my extra time, I was able to take a few cool artsy pictures, so not all was lost.  We finally entered the Residenz, which was the city-home of the kings, emporers, and electors (depending on the era).  Basically, it was where they lived when they had official state business to attend to.  The original palace was rather small, but each resident decided to add an extra building or two, so now its rather large, with a huge variety of building styles.  We only saw a small part it (partly because not all of it is open to the public, and partly because we did not buy tickets to see the treasury, only the palace museum), but it still took us a good 2 1/2 hours to see what we did.  Some of the rooms were pretty cool, like the Grotto courtyard, and others were a bit repetitive.  Pretty cool place though.  Definitely wouldn´t want to live there; I´d get lost on the way to breakfast every morning.  After our jaunt through the palace, we were pretty hungry, so we got some lunch across the street before saying goodbye for the next week.




Along my travels, I´ve realized that Germany and America could probably make a pretty good profit off of eachother if they pool their resources:

Various things I´ve noticed that Germany has and America needs (or needs more of):
-German food (obviously)
-Döner stands
-Gelato-type ice cream (almost as common as Döner stands)
-Pretzels
-Good beer
-Lederhosen/Dirndls (lots of people wear them for everyday things, not just ceremonies and such)
-Vests and male capris (America doesn´t necessarily need them I guess, but they are rather prevalent here)
-Interest in the World Cup
-Bicycles/bicycle lanes (EVERYONE rides a bike here, EVERYWHERE)
-Natural gas for cars (see the Dresden/Crimmitschau posts)
-More efficient, prevalent, and reliable public transportation
-Dollar and 2 dollar coins
-Colored/different sized dollar bills
...and probably a few more that I can´t think of right now...

Things I miss in America that I believe Germany could use:
-Mexican food (first thing I want when I get back--Chipotle)
-More smoothies (2nd thing I want--Jamba Juice)
-Chinese food
-More Mountain Dew
-More food variety in general
...there´s less on this side....but that´s all I can think of at the moment...


In other news, new photo album up--Hilter´s summer home, the top of a mountain, a shnaps distillery, and a salt mine!  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050845&id=1135320260&l=08c83290f3

and another one!  WM public viewing and Trachtenverein (traditional bavarian dances)  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050941&id=1135320260&l=e0b4c33521