Deustchland Waning

Having now experienced Munich, I would dare say it was worth the drive. I'm still wrapping my head around a city that doesn't have a founding date; just an earliest documented mention... the year 1158. Which still makes it a MILLENIUM younger than Vienna, which we'll roll out to tomorrow, but still a lot older than I'm used to associating with human habitation. Despite the age, though, it still manages to have the best public transportation I've ever experienced.

Our hostel was a drastic change of pace from the one in Luxembourg. The previous one was more akin to a resort: serene, lakefront, nestled in a tiny village, and a skilled chef on staff who presented a four course meal. The Munich hostel is five floors of youthful German intoxication.

On first arrival, I was loudly greeted from an open window on the fourth floor by an amiable young man who rotated through 3 languages before he found one I understood enough to answer his trilingual query of where I was from. America seemed to he an exciting answer, judging from his exuberant welcome to Germany and insistence that I join him in the hostel.

The seven of us are sharing an 8-bed dorm with a very unfortunate man named Diego, who probably didn't realize what he was getting into by bunking with 7 Dorans. He's an Italian who speaks English with an Irish accent, as he currently lives in Dublin. His interests include growing body hair and wandering around in boxer-briefs. Don't know why he's in Munich, but he seems to be enjoying himself, judging by his apparent state of mind during his 6am return to the dorm in the mornings. Nice guy; asked if we were Canadian. This marks the first time anybody has talked to us and not immediately assumed we were American (of the USA variety). Undoubtedly this was due to the melodeous overtures of the Canadian national anthem emenating from the bathroom, where dad was inexplicably singing it while introductions with Diego were taking place.

Introductions also took place between myself and German beer. I'm thoroughly impressed. I drank beer from a brewery that's been brewing beer since 1328. (Augustiner Braü). Beer is a big deal here. Its outside the scope of a blog post, but all interested parties should look up German beer history. There's beer purity laws in Bavaria from the 14th century that brewers still follow. Three generations of Dorans sampled the fruits of said brewers today and deemed them laudable.

I've also been sampling the food. As I previously experienced with Fish and chips in the UK, it turns out that i've also never had saurkraut before. To clarify, I have always really liked saurkraut. However, seeing as how the randomly selected biergarten in Munich has saurkraut of the caliber I experienced, then I have ... again ... been missing out for very long time. I've preemptively come to the conclusion that this will be an ongoing revelation for the remainder of the adventure.