Germany

Disclaimer: Listen people, Germany is known for several things, one of the most prominent being sausage. This is not a mystery. I realize that as a man writing about being excited about, eating large portions of, and being visibly excited to shop around for sausage, some awkward moments can arise. I am asking for a little maturity from our dedicated followers (which I know is a lot to ask from some of you) in this matter, as the focus of this post revolves around two grown men pounding sausage for hours on end, and all innuendo regarding this and related issues is purely circumstantial. Thank you in advance, and have a wonderful day.

So the problem (some of you may have noticed) with the latest blogs is that we write about a particular city 2 or 3 days after we've left, and somehow those 2 or 3 days feel like months once we sit down and begin to write. Because Germany holds such a special place in my heart (and by heart, I mean stomach), I've decided to keep this thing up one day at a time. This way we don't get bogged down having to write about multiple cities in one sitting, giving us more time to eat.

Day 1:

After a late night Skype session, I went up to the room after Joe and the rest of our roommates were already asleep and searched for my top bunk (never go with rock). The only one that was open was the top bunk over the bed next to the one Joe was sleeping on. Why is this important, you ask? Joe, assuming that I was directly on top of him (please read disclaimer above) decided to wake me up with violent kicks to the bottom of my bed, which turned out to be our innocent roommate's bed.

Our first priority once we were awake was breakfast. Typical Bavarian breakfast usually includes a white veal sausage with some sort of pretzel roll. This turned out to be the best breakfast we've had all trip. The sausage was served with a sweet grain mustard sauce that was, in the immortal words of Guy Fieri, "out of bounds." After breakfast, we toured around the main square in Munich, which was castle and cathedral heavy much like Prague. The only noticeable difference was the marionettes standing in the gothic windows of the cathedrals, rather than gargoyles springing from the castle wings and/or saintly sculptures adorning the arches. Somehow we veered off the beaten path and ran smack dab into a full blown sausage market. Vendor after vendor sold some of the most ridiculous looking sausage these eyes have ever seen (pause, disclaimer), along with some of the other cured meats that we ran into in Spain. After the long line of sausage vendors, the cheese and wine markets followed (in case you're wondering, I personally picture the entrance into heaven much like this series of events/street vendors ((second aside: I think you can picture heaven any way you like. Just because my heaven may be a little untraditional doesn't mean it's any more or less likely than anyone else's idea of heaven. Please reference "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" with any questions)).

Out next mission: beer. Munich is apparently one of the beer capitols of the world, and after Belgium and Prague it had some large shoes to fill to crack the top two. After some light research, we found out that German beer is broken down into roughly four categories: Dulles (50-50 mix of beer and lemonade), Pilsner (light but still full flavor), Bock (dark) and Dopplebock (extremely dark). The amount of alcohol in each beer was relative to the darkness of it (as our book described, dopplebock's are only meant for those searching for "severe inebriation"). After some subway and S-Bahn rides, we arrived at our first Biergarten, fully quipped with waitresses in full Bavarian garb and quart glasses of beer. We ordered the house Pilsner to start off lunch, and then followed with Bratwurst with sauerkraut and beer gravy (my lunch) while Joe went for the Vienna Sausages and potato salad. Both meals were absolutely ridiculous. After lunch we were stuffed to the brim…..so we decided to go ahead with a quart of dopplebock to end off the afternoon, which was delicious.

After a little siesta (the Spanish lifestyle is something we have brought with us to each country we've visited), we headed out on the town looking for some dinner and beer. Usually we would go light and sample some of the local nightlife, however Thursdays in Munich are apparently like Mondays in the states, so we made the executive decision to have a quiet night in. We polled the reception desk at our hostel for a local, traditional German restaurant, and they led us to a microbrewery down the street from our hostel. Joe's order: Pork Knuckle with potato and bread dumplings served with beer gravy (pork knuckle was ridiculous….dumplings were a little weird). My order: Weinerschnitzle with rousted potatoes (for those who don't know, weinerschnitzle is a breaded veal cutlet….it was tasty). The house pilsner was, in my opinion, the best beer we have had the honor of tasting all trip. It was perfectly balanced, and somehow tasted hoppy and floral at the same time (beer talk for "really, really good").

Day 2:

Day two started off strong with a trip to the market for some breakfast sausage before our walking tour of the city. Joe, taking the reigns on the meal, decided to buy 100 grams of Cabrales Blue Cheese (cheese of choice for celeb chef Bobby Flay) and add it to a sausage sandwich from one of the vendors in the market. I can officially say that Joe has been inducted to the fat kid hall of fame (along with myself, Brett Frierson, Troy Frierson, and Nick Castellano Sr.), because the sandwich was nothing short of phenomenal (which is probably why we (and by we, I mean me) ordered a second sandwich shortly after finishing the initial sandwich). After this superfluously large meal, we met with the rest of our tour group in the main square of Munich. The tour covered a couple churches (one of which was the church the current Pope served at before taking his charge), the most famous Biergarten in Munich, and several historical landmarks from World War II (as we were informed, Munich was the site for Hitler's creation of the Nazi Party, enough to give goosebumps to anyone). One of the last stops was a giant bellower that tourists were able to climb to the top of to get a completely unimpaired view of Munich. What was the catch? No elevator and the steepest, narrowest staircase ever created by man. A fifteen minute stair climb later, we were at what could be the most picturesque spots of the trip. You were able to see all of old Munich, with the German Alps deep in the background.

After the tour, our dogs were barking something fierce, so we decided to take a quick respite back at the hostel before heading out to dinner. Our dinner destination was picked long before the break, however, as we passed a Hard Rock Cafe during the walking tour, and needed one last slice of Americana before plunging into the Italian culinary abyss. After days and days of foreign foods, sometimes it's just comforting to sit at an American restaurant, filled with a decently large amount of American people, and split a jumbo combo appetizer (onion rings, southwestern egg rolls, buffalo wings, chicken tenders, and potato skins) alongside a pulled pork nacho plate.

Prior to our night out, we decided to play it smart and pick up alcohol at the supermarket before going to the club, in order to avoid exorbitant drink prices. We asked a man who could possibly be included in the "hobo" category of Munich citizens where we could find the cheapest alcohol, and he directed us to a small market where we found a bottle of whiskey for 6 Euros and 2 Liter bottles of diet soda for 0.69 Euros. While we tried our damnedest to force down the diet coke/whiskey mixture, we asked the reception desk where the best place to go out was on Friday nights. He informed us that there was an area just outside the center of town where something like 25 dance clubs and bars were jammed in the same square, which was obviously right up our alley. The guy wasn't exaggerating either: as soon as we got off the train, we see a lit of area and walk in to what was like a club/bar smorgasbord. After polling the bouncers as to which club played the least amount of house music (aside: at this point, if I hear anymore house music I might literally throw someone out a window), we chose a club that played 80's, 90's, and current hits. The bar was completely full of locals, which was very interesting to see. Joe and I quickly realized that we are lucky in Tampa to live in such an urban atmosphere that blends latin, italian, and african american culture. I can honestly say that I have never seen such a large gathering of goofy dancing white kids in my life. Nevertheless, the club was fun, and the beer was plentiful.

At the end of the day, Munich really is one of the top cities we have visited. The food, culture, beer, sights; everything was incredible to see and experience. As long as you're not a vegetarian and/or you're ok with drinking beer in large quantities, anyone who visits Munich is guaranteed to be blown away. As this stop on the trip comes to a close (as the trip itself is simultaneously coming to a close as well), I can say whole heartedly that we are staring to appreciate the magnitude of the trip, and Munich is a perfect example of a place that I feel honored to have been able to see, and will never forget.