Just Give Me a Litre of Beer and A Giant Pretzel and I'll Be Happy

Last week I was lucky enough to take a somewhat impromptu trip to Munich. Germany wasn't really on my list of must-go countries, but I feel like this can actually make a trip better because you don't have any real expectations of awesomeness ahead of time. Because I went without much of an idea of what I wanted to see or what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised.

I found Munich to be really interesting because of the history and the ways in which it seems different from other European cities. A lot of this is because the buildings are mostly newer due to the bombing in WWII, but this makes the older buildings and those that were rebuilt in their original style stand out more. Apart from the cool architecture around the Marienplatz and at the various palaces and churches, my favourite parts of Germany were the beer gardens (I have been seriously missing the boat with German beer), the heavy and rich, but delicious, food, the surfers in the park, and going up into the Alps.

I am now an official convert to German beer. I tried at least three of Munich's six locally brewed beers and they are seriously delicious. Combine them with giant pretzels, massive hunks of meat, and lots of sauerkraut and I'm sold. One culinary highlight was a trip to Bavaria's largest beer garden called Hirschgarten where I succeeded in polishing off a one litre mug of beer, an enormous plate of sauerkraut with currywurst, and a pretzel that was larger than the plate--no exaggeration. However, this meal was rivalled by a trip to the gourmet delicatessen Dallmayr, aka, the place that I will probably go when I die. I cannot even put into words how amazing this place is. Any type of food you can imagine, they probably have. Fresh fruits and veggies, gourmet chocolates, pastries, fresh bread, fresh and prepared seafood, meats and cheeses, tea, coffee, wine, prepared salads and cooked veggies, need I continue? I had an unbelievable lunch with lots of seafood, including fresh raw oysters from France, and an absurdly good banana chocolate cake. As if this wasn't enough, dinner on my last night probably ties with this one as my favourite of the trip. It was a bit of a twist on traditional German cuisine and consisted of baked camembert with cranberry sauce, really fresh salad (have to eat veggies at some point), pork schnitzel cordon bleu, and a four-cheese spaetzle (which is like a German version of mac and cheese with fried onions on top and which I would like served to me as part of my last meal on earth). Obligatory half litre of Franziskaner beer included of course.

Sorry about that excessively long paragraph on food and beer. I just have my priorities straight. Anyway, in the little time I spent not eating or drinking, I particularly enjoyed seeing the surfers in the river in the Englischer Garten. Because of some concrete structure under the water, a permanent wave is created and for about thirty minutes, I was enthralled by the guys who jump in with their short boards and ride in place for a couple of seconds each. Besides the fact that it's really bizarre and cool to see surfers in the middle of a city, some of them were really good and fun to watch. One guy in particular did some awesome tricks such as jumping into the wave backwards and doing a headstand on his board mid-ride.

The final major highlight of my trip was a visit to the German Alps. I went up one of the mountains in a gondola and was able to explore the top a bit where they have various hiking trails and a platform that overhangs the rocky drop-off so you basically have nothing between you and some rocks a couple hundred feet below. There was also the entertainment of watching paragliders take off from the peak. There's something new to add to my bucket list.

Sylvia Plath, David Bowie, and a caveman walk into a bar...

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson


I first read this quote right before I left for London and I can now attest that I agree with it entirely. I thought of it again over the past few weeks as I enjoyed a number of the many perks one enjoys living here. Over the past three weeks or so I've gone to a number of museum exhibitions and a show which I think provides excellent evidence of the diversity of awesomeness this city has to offer.

First off, I went to a show at the Southbank Centre which, coincidentally, has an amazing location right on the Thames with a view of Big Ben and a great little outdoor patio with a bar (what more could you ask for than a Pimm's cup in the sunshine). Anyway, the show was somewhat less optimistic than the views, but it was still great. It was a reading of the original version of Sylvia Plath's last collection of poems by a group of female actors, poets, writers, etc. Pretty intense, but really impressive.

Now this may not be everyone's cup of tea but, again, London has pretty much anything anyone could ever be interested in. A week or so after that show, I took a trip over to the British Museum for a temporary exhibit of Ice Age art. This may sound boring to some people, but it's kind of incredible to see pieces of art 20-40,000 years old.

And if this still doesn't sound like your cup of tea (or whisky as the case may be), you could always take a trip over to the Victoria and Albert Museum (my personal favourite museum in the city) and see the David Bowie exhibit. I spent two hours there this past Friday and could have been there longer. It's an incredibly cool collection of costumes, handwritten lyrics, videos, and show memorabilia that is mind-blowing if you're a Bowie fan. I think my favourite part was the room at the end with a huge three-story screen showing unreleased footage of one of his shows. The exhibit pretty much solidified my belief that Bowie is one of the coolest people ever.

Clearly, if you get tired of London, you've missed something. If you look around just a little, you're guaranteed to find whatever it is that floats your boat.