The country of Germany being the metaphorical breach. For, once again: Deustchland waxes.
We've returned to the land of the euro. Also the land of a language I can stumble my way through, omnipresent light beer, and outrageous prices. I've somewhat circumvented the latter two by buying Baltic porter from Czech at unbelievably low prices ( equivalent to $1 per half liter ) and exporting it to Germany via Tilly's trunk. Our noble steed is now further laden with 24 bottles of Master Special Dark straight from the source at Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery in Plzeň ( Pilsen ) Czech Republic - the birthplace of the pilsner. Although the brew I elected to mass-purchase is their porter, I obviously didn't miss the opportunity to also drink pilsner while visiting the genesis of pilsners.
I've never really been a fan of pilsners in the States. They're certainly not infused with muskrat anus like an IPA, but I've never found one to which my response was more than 'meh'. Or, as they say in Czech ... 'meh.' However, straight from the source has warranted a much more positive response. Here there's light pilsners, dark pilsners, everywhere a pilsner pilsner. It's all suspiciously smooth and imminently drinkable. This extends beyond just the pilsners to essentially every Czech beer I've sampled. I'll be drinking my porter in Frankfurt while watching Germany play in the World Cup final ( Which should equate to an enjoyable experience ). When I get home, I'll attempt to find some Czech beer that gets imported through non-Tilly means. The Special Dark, though, is only available in the Czech Republic proper and Slovakia, so I will soon part ways with it for the foreseeable future.
Who knows; maybe if I ever had an IPA straight from the muskrat's anus, as it were, I would have a different response as well. But seeing as how the only way to have an authentic IPA would be to go to India and have the beer shipped from London via a 6 week unrefridgerated voyage on a rickety galleon with British troops vomiting all over the barrels, I think I'll pass. In their haste to find a good strong IPA, people forget that it was never meant to be good. It was brewed to be so unpalatable that it could survive the aforementioned voyage with less rot taking place than a regular pale ale. Upon arrival, the drowned and partially dissolved rat remains would be strained out, and the remaining sludge would be hastily downed by dehydration-crazed colonists busily dispensing enlightenment from the barrels of a gatling gun.
None of this has anything to do with the progress of our European adventure. I just enjoy a good rant every now and then.
All of that aside ( but I could go on ), I'll be returning to the Czech Republic someday. Particularly the city of Plzeň. They have a liberation day festival where they have a parade of WW2-era US military vehicles and fly 90-year old American veterans out to party with them for the day. Apparently, the 3rd armored division liberated Plzeň from Nazi occupation in 1945 and the city is still pretty happy about it. I wandered over to see the giant 'thank you America' monument ( that is actually what it is called and also what is inscribed on it ). Despite what a lot of Americans seem to think, most of the world doesn't really care about us one way or the other. They have lives and jobs and mortgages and better things to think about. Here I saw youth sporting hoodies printed with US army regiment emblems. So it was interesting to find a place where my home country seems to be on the 'positive' end of the spectrum, and somewhat actively at that.
I'll be returning to aforementioned home country very soon. We are spending tonight in Nuremberg in a renovated 16th century castle ( amazing ). And then two nights in Frankfurt. Then the journey home. I knew this would happen eventually, but I think its imminence has cast a slight pall over the day.
The solution to which is, naturally, to go have a beer at a biergarten inside the courtyard of a 16th century castle! I will not be having an IPA, but I will toast to the victims of ageusia everywhere.
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