Springtime on the Wies’n

Look familiar?

Ah, springtime in Munich. On the heels of the Starkbierfest comes the Frühlingsfest, or spring festival, which takes place on the Theresienwiese, Munich’s famous Oktoberfest fairgrounds. With just two one-story beer tents, Frühlingsfest is much smaller than Oktoberfest, but the general idea is the same: carnival rides, carnival food, and drunken crowds in beer tents dancing on benches and singing along to Ein Stern and Country Roads.

A local friend of ours poo-pooed the idea of going to the Frühlingsfest, claiming it was a festival for the redneck set. Between the fight I saw in the ladies’ restroom and the fact that the band played Achy Breaky Heart, I can’t really disagree with him. But I still had fun. Plus it was easy to find a seat!

Classy how there are topless women decorating the rides, no?

I promise my next post about Munich will not involve beer. Surely there’s something else going on in this city…

Tags: Bavaria, beer, Germany, Munich

Scavengers in the Biergarten

In case you were wondering what summer in Munich is like, it’s simple: all biergarten all the time.

These photos are from the biergarten at Seehaus, in the middle of the English Garden. This beer garden distinguishes itself from the millions of others in that 1) it’s on a lake and 2) it has a wider selection of food than most other beer gardens. Not that this matters to those who bring their own food along, something you are allowed to do in all of Munich’s beer gardens as long as you purchase beverages there. Just make sure to sit in the self-serve beer garden area, rather in the fancier restaurant area that most beer gardens have (usually denoted by tablecloths, silverware, or other fancy stuff on the tables).

Biergartens are great for people-watching, from the drunken bachelor parties collecting tags from panties to the older Germans with their pimped-out picnic tables (complete with fancy table cloths, cutting boards, and centerpieces). The bums walking around scavenging for leftover food and beer make you think Munich might not be such a bad place to be homeless (but just in the summer). As the crowds thin out at night, the ducks come to compete with the bums for the leftover pretzels.

Beer gardens tend open around 11 am and close much earlier than their attached restaurants, usually between 9 and 11 pm.

Tags: beer, Germany, Munich, summer

Isn’t every day Beer Day in Munich?

I have fallen down on the job, dear readers. There was an important event here in Munich yesterday, and I failed to attend it. From what I hear it was magical. OK, it was free beer. Helles, dunkles, and weißbier, free-flowing and plentiful from the beer fountain, at least for a couple hours in the late morning. Apparently this Tag des Bieres (Beer Day) happens every April 23rd, in celebration of the Reinheitsgebote from 1516 (German beer purity laws, apparently the most important laws ever passed in the history of this country). I have marked my calendar for next year.

I did, however, get a chance to celebrate Beer Day by ordering from Park Cafe’s special Beer Day Menu of beer cocktails. I had a weißbier mojito. It wasn’t as bad of an idea as Em‘s Goaß (kirschwasser, beer, and cola) or the terrifyingly-blue Isarwasser (blue curacao, apple juice, and weißbier) that was being consumed at the next table. But you probably won’t see me splashing weißbier into my mojito again any time soon, on Beer Day or any other day.

Tags: bars, beer, German culture, holidays, Munich

Getting there…

After months of turmoil, my new computer has arrived. It’s a shiny new MacBook. I’ve gone back to my roots – no more Windows for me!

In the process of migration, I have managed once again to lose track of which emails belong in my “reply to” folder. If you have written to me recently (or not-so-recently) and are waiting for a reply from me, please shoot me another email to remind me. I know I had over 50 messages in the queue, but I’ve only been able to identify 20 or so.

I should be back to regular blogging very, very soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this photo of asparagus tempura sushi. It is Spargelzeit, after all…

ETA: Pictured sushi is from Nomiya (Wörthstr. 7; Tel. 089 4484095), a lovely little restaurant in Munich with Japanese food and Bavarian decor and beer.

Tags: Munich, restaurants, Spargel, temporary insanity

I dig a pony

English words are adapted for use in German all the time. It’s not uncommon to hear a sentence in which half the words are English, especially if the speaker is young and hip. To a much lesser extent, the Italians do this, too. Often the meaning of the word stays the same, or at least mostly the same, but sometimes the definition gets completely scrapped for a new, unrelated one. Smoking. Mobbing. Pony.*

Back when I worked in Milan, the receptionist called me at my desk one day with an important message: “C’è un pony per Lei.” There’s a pony for you. I imagined a barnyard animal standing at her desk waiting for me to come get it. I tried to explain to my Italian colleagues why their use of the word pony was so amusing, but they just thought I was a little nuts.

As you probably guessed from that little story, in Italian pony means “package”. (No, not that kind of package. Pervert.) As in, something that could be delivered by the Pony Express. If the Pony Express existed now, and in Italy. Which it does not. And even if it did, I doubt it would deliver ponies (although Pony Express certainly would be the obvious name choice for a service specializing in pony delivery). But perhaps I digress.

The Germans aren’t so silly. They know better than to call a package a pony. They know that a pony isn’t related to delivery services, but rather to hair. Thinking pony tail? Not so fast… In German, a pony is what we in English refer to as bangs (fringe, to the Brits). Any guesses on the origin of that one?

* In German, Smoking means tuxedo, and Mobbing means harassment (usually by a group in a work or school environment).

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In unrelated news, my new computer arrives tomorrow. Yay! Can’t wait to get back to my regular diet of internet access (and blogging).

Tags: German culture, language

Scenes from an early spring weekend in Bavaria

While Germany was busy swooning over our new president, we were out enjoying Germany.

We squeezed in one last sledding trip with the Rendenii (which is where we spotted this guy);

rang in the beginning of asparagus season in a beer garden on the lake;

and then got the balcony garden started.

Tags: Bavaria, day-trips from Munich, expat life, Germany

It can snowboard!

Somehow I doubt an ad like this would fly in the US, especially as a billboard in a location frequented by children.

Tags: funny signs, German culture

Hey G-20, fix everything now!

In London over the weekend, we came across a large demonstration snaking through the city.

Unlike the protests expected this week during the G-20 meetings, the one we saw was quite peaceful and orderly, and was even followed up by a crew of street sweepers to erase any mess that might have been made by the parade.

The thing that struck me about this demonstration was the variety of causes being supported. Go vegetarian! Save the rainforest! Stop bailing out the banks! End war now! Guaranteed jobs for all students! Anarchy forever! Free hat! Donna Martin graduates!

Now I’m no protest expert, but I’m thinking that you are much more likely to get your message across if you limit it to, say, no more than a few key talking points. What do you think?

Tags: England, London, news