Munich II

Munich Part II

Unfortunately, a lot of time has passed since my last entry.......but I neglected to finish my thoughts on Munich, so this will be a (brief) summary of our last few hours in Bavaria.

When we were on the bus to Dachau (you take a train to the won of Dachau and then a bus to the camp), an American on the bus asked to borrow my Rick Steves book. When she brought it back, she told us about a celebration in the center of town. Starting at 3pm, there was free beer and a huge celebration in the main square due to Munich's soccer team's triumph in the German league. Apparently, they won the championship. This became more apparent when we got back into the city, the train filled to the brim with people wearing jerseys, hats, and scarves. I saw more grown men than I could count who had winter scarves tied to both arms on a hot, almost 80-degree day. So I had to show my Munichian pride as well......Sammy let me buy a scarf to don for the celebration. It's not every day you're at the May version of Oktoberfest in Munich (known as Munchen in German btw).

So down to the main square we went.....though it was too packed to get anywhere near the middle (from whence the free beer must have flowed). We saw plenty of the free beer cups stacked high in many a Munichians hands though.....and many a paid-for beer bottle as well. Remember how there's no open container law? It comes in particularly handy when your soccer team wins the national championship.

Anyway, we walked around as best we could (though the main square was jammed) and heard the music and listened to thousands of Germans join in a raucous chorus or two of Sweet Caroline. Who would have known that Neil Diamond was popular enough to be the anthem of a victory party here in Germany? Unfortunately, I never blogged when we were in South America......but let me take this opportunity to also marvel at the immense popularity of Bob Marley anywhere within a 5 hour drive of sand and salt water. We went to coastal towns in Ecuador where clearly no one spoke more than 5 words of English ("yes", "no", and "good price for you!"). But they all bopped their heads to Bob. Even in a town where there was one straw hut beach bar after another and people Salsa-ed and Bachata-ed until the wee hours of the morning....any place that didn't mix in a Bob Marley tune or two or five throughout the night was definitely the exception rather than the rule.

That's going to lead me on a quick tangent of the power of American culture. I don't know as though the average American realizes the influence of American culture and tastes worldwide. Yes, I know Neil Diamond is Canadian. So is Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra. Ever heard of them? Ya know why? They didn't have a big US hit. Anyway.......American music and fast food chains and corporations are just everywhere. It's really amazing sometimes when I realize how far our tastes reach. We were in the jungle hearing FloRida's "Low" and in shopping malls in Quito, Ecuador (where, again, very few people speak English) where the music was all American/British adult contemporary pop. That probably doesn't surprise you until you think about it. Imagine that you're a marginally well-to-do mall shopper in a major city in the US and you were in the mall......and all of the music was in Russian. Imagine you worked in the Gap and you didn't really understand a word of what was being said in the songs playing in your store all day long. Sure, I know that once in a great while we have a pop song that gets popular that's got some spanish in it. But "dame la gasoliiiiina" every once in a while isn't the same as an entire afternoon of listening to Phil Collins when you don't speak English. Yes, I know he's not American either. But hopefully you're getting my point. In Quito, we had Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Domino's, Tony Roma's, Applebee's, McDonald's, Burger King, Baskin Robins, KFC, Taco Bell, TGI Friday's, and Payless Shoes (which wasn't where you really went if you wanted to Pay Less.....paying less meant going to one of the MANY Chinese stores called "Hong Kong Almacen" or something like that were you could buy a pair of dress shoes or "Nike" sneakers for $7-$15 (fifteen would be really, really nice). In Costa Rica, so many American companies had large office buildings in industrial parks where companies like Western Union headquarter most of their accounting. In one park, I think we saw Western Union, Proctor & Gamble, Oracle, Microsoft, HP.....and several that I've forgotten. Though Starbucks doesn't sell coffee in Costa Rica, we saw their office in San Jose where they negotiate with their suppliers. In Colombia, we finally got a Subway Sub for the first time after about 7 months. And those are relatively poor countries (as compared to the US). In Ecuador, lunch was $1.50 at a local restaurant -- consisting of a large bowl of soup, a plate of rice with vegetables and meat, and a glass of juice. Yet people were willing to splurge on a $4 or $5 value meal at McDonald's. I have yet to see the village without Coca-Cola -- including at the top of the crater of a volcano at 12,000 feet where there weren't even enough houses to call it a village. They still had a convenience store that stocked Coke. It's amazing to realize that whether we are loved or hated in the world, the things that we produce are still in such high demand -- even in places where people have neither the need nor the means to consume them. While in some ways, I don't think this is all as bad as some people more liberal than I would tell you. But it worries me as to what will happen to smaller cultures around the world. One of the things I miss the most about Ecuador is flying around bends on mountain side roads with the bus driver blasting upbeat local music in Spanish at 2am. I worry that someday, that, too, will be gone. I hope it won't.

But anyway -- back to Munich. We weaved around the crowd and made our way to our key destination for nourishment -- Hofbrauhaus -- the most famous (and largest) Beer Hall in Germany and the World. During Oktoberfest, this is apparently the place to be. It's where Germans and tourists alike down copius amounts of German beer and they serve the finest of local cuisine. All of the beer except for White Beer (a local specialty made from Wheat) is only served in a 1L glass -- so more or less, you gotta drink a lot of beer. The place is said to pour 10,000 of the 1L glasses a day. Once of the more interesting things about Bavaria is that you get an interesting mix of people who look more or less the same as any average American......as well as the folks who still dress in the traditional suspenders/coveralls/Birkenstocks/etc. The Hofbrauhaus did not disappoint........

So Sam and I ordered some grub and as we were waiting, there was a band just finishing up their gig playing traditional Bavarian music. At some point, a large, happy, very traditionally dressed man (picture it down to the fedora-y type hat with a feather) leaned down onto our table with his elbow on the surface and he hand extended out to Sam in an invitation to arm wrestle. He had Steve Buscemi's eyes and a "V for Vendetta" grin. Sam figured that this was all part of the show, so why not arm wrestle the dude. So she took his hand and proceed to pound him into the tablecloth like it was no big deal. He turned those big brown Steve Buscemi's to me in amazement and apparently decided that he needed greater leverage, so he slid himself onto my bench and extended his arm for a rematch -- staring at the tablecloth with his hand open and extended towards Sam, not saying a word. Naturally, Sam thought he let her win the first time, so they'd go for round two and about the time she almost had him down he's sling her hand back down like the large drunken Bavarian he was. However, yet again, Sam won with relative ease.....though waiting a bit this time to see if he'd fight back I think. He again turned to me in utter disbelief and uttered something to be in German that clearly meant, "Where did you find Olga, the strongest woman on Earth? Aren't you afraid for your life with this one?". Apparently, he hadn't had enough yet, so he put his arm down for round 3, at which point, Sam politely let him know that she was done. However, ole crazy eyes wasn't having any of that. He put his elbow down insistently and began squeezing the air as though to taunt Sam into a 3rd attempt. Sam looked at me and asked me to save her.....but what was I going to do? Push a (weird, but clearly friendly) drunken, traditionally-dressed, obviously regular patron of the establishment off the edge of our bench while we are in the largest Beer Hall in the world, surrounded by a number of other similarly clad charged up Bavarians? Clearly not. So we proceeded with round 3. And 4. And some ridiculous number more rounds. I had more or less figured that once our food came, this game would have to end. In the meantime, I was snapping as many pictures of this guy's game face as possible. At some point, a similarly large, traditionally dressed, white-bearded man came to our table looking at our new friend and he said something to us in German. I told him that I didn't speak German and he asked us in English if this guy was bothering us. We told him that he wasn't, but I think he could tell that it had gone on long enough. He made some polite small talk asking us where we were from. His English was quite impressive -- I guess I was surprised seeing as how he had to have been in at the least his late 60's. After a few moments, he said something to the crazed arm wrestler and took him buy the hand and gave him a gentle tug that let the guy know it was time to get up. At this point, I realized that this was probably his father and that rather than just being drunk, this guy was likely somewhat mentally challenged. I felt a little bad at having had some laughs at his expense -- but then, he was having as much fun as we were I think. And that brings me to my final thought about Bavarians.......they are MUCH friendlier than Berliners. In general, people were very, very nice to us in Bavaria. They immediately spoke English with us when they realized we didn't speak German and they seemed happy to do so. I certainly don't expect everyone to speak English -- we are, after all, in Germany. However, the people in Bavaria didn't seem as annoyed to converse with us in English as those in Berlin and they seemed happy to show us the local culture. In fact, when we couldn't find the Hofbrauhaus, Sam had asked a woman on the street. She didn't know it, but she worked in a hotel. She was clearly on her way home from work, but she insisted on turning around and walking us back to her hotel (seemingly almost half a mile) so she could bring us in and introduce us to the desk clerk who spoke some English and could tell us where to go. This is the Germany that you should see if you ever visit.

Oh -- and remember, no Leiberkasse.