Hello Munich!

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Munich. Stepping off the train, I could already tell that this city was very different from Berlin. After we got to our hotel, Brian and Gudrun showed us a bit of the city. I noticed that Munich is much more ethnically diverse than Berlin. The buildings also seemed older and less traditional. We went to Schneider Weisse for dinner and I had spaetzle, a cheesy noodle dish. It was so delicious! I also had the Scheider Weisse Original, a wheat beer that was very banana-y. After dinner we walked to another restaurant and had a beer. I had a helles and it was good, but not quite as flavorful as I might have liked. We were so tired when we got back to the hotel...we fell asleep by 8:30! It was much needed, though.

Because of the early night, we were up pretty early today. We walked back into town with Brian and Gudrun and walked by a beautiful church. They then showed us the area where Oktoberfest happens. Gudrun told us that people line up at 7am to get in on weekends! It seems like it would be a crazy time, but lots of fun. Of course it was empty now but I could picture all of the big tents lined up. Jenna and I then split off to shop around Kaufinger Strasse. It seemed like every store had a sale, which was good for us! I'm making sure to be good with my money though :] We then stopped into a cafe to grab some coffee, and the barista thought that we were German! It was only until we spoke that he realized we weren't. That made us feel good! At noon, we went to the city hall; at the top of the building there are statues that move around while music plays. We couldn't find the rest of our group, but Keith and Lindsey miraculously spotted us as we went into another clothing store. The four of us had a delicious lunch at a restaurant in the market; I had a croissant sandwich with salami, ricotta, and arugula. I also had a weisse beer. Keith had house-made Gluwein that was delicious! I will have to make sure to get that sometime while we are here. A group of us then met up to go ice skating. There is a huge rink in the middle of town. I went ice skating a couple weeks ago, but the ice here felt way more bumpy...I fell twice! Oops. It started snowing while we were on the ice though, which was beautiful. How many people can say they have been ice skating in the snow in the middle of Munich? Probably not many from back home. When we were back in our hotel later, it was snowing very, very hard! I'm glad I didn't get caught in it but it was so pretty to see! I can already tell it will be a great week here. 

This evening, Lindsey gave her presentation on differences in Northern and Southern brewing styles in Germany. I learned that Northern beers are more hoppy while Southern beers tend to be more malty. We did a tasting and there was especially one Northern beer that tasted hoppy, though it was a different sort of hoppiness than I've ever tasted. It is kind of hard to describe. I was also able to detect some off aromas in some of the beers; one smelled like corn and another smelled skunky (because it was in a green bottle and Lindsey had it on her windowsill for a while in Berlin). Michael then gave his presentation on Reinheitsgebot, the purity law. I learned that the law was made to eliminate competition among brewers, though it greatly limited the creativity and differences in beer. Now it's still intact, though there are many amendments that allow for other ingredients in certain circumstances. Even though it has been changed and isn't completely enforced like it was, Germans still take pride in the law. Tonight we are going to dinner at Augustiner and then I think we are going to go to some pubs to see what beer culture is like on the weekends. Should be a good night!