In the Beginning There was Beer

So after a couple weeks of travelling myself, Clay was finally coming to join me in Europe for a 2-and-a-half week adventure. We decided the most logical place to begin would be the centrally located city of Munich, Germany.

Besides its close proximity to the other places we were planinng to visit, one of the reasons I chose Munich to be our meeting point was because I really didn’t know much about it, and although we weren’t planning on spending much time there, I felt like it would be worth it to check out the city. In fact, despite our quick stay, Clay and I did the best we could to soak up the German culture in a city rich with history; a history full of political regimes, sausage varieties, racism and, of course, beer. While we did stroll around the city in order to see the English Garden-the largest public park in all of Europe-as well as the historical squares where The Fuhrer delivered passionate political and wartime speeches to the people of Germany. We even went to the Dachau Concentration Camp for a day, in order to gain a better perspective and appreciation for the atrocities that were permitted throughout the second world war.

However, I don’t want to give off the impression that my brother and I devoted our 3 days in Munich solely to gain a better understanding of Germany’s long and interesting history. We also wanted culture-and the funny thing about German culture is that it is heavily engaged in beer drinking and sausage eating. So, accompanied with our Canadian and American friends that we made in our hostel, Clay and I embarked on a beer garden adventure one night.

We started at the Augustiner Beer Garden-the oldest beer garden in Germany. It was basically everything one could expect from their stereotypical idea of what a German Beer Garden would be like: rows upon rows next to rows of tables full of people drinking and socializing with a backdrop of traditional music performed live by old bearded men in lederhosen and blonde dress-wearing waitresses bringing beer to their customers, carrying up to 5 1-liter glasses in each hand. After sharing a snitzel we decided to head to the Hoffbrauhaus, the largest garden in Germany. While this particular garden gets most of the attention from the tourists, it was basically the same thing only a little more expensive. In both establishments, our favorite beer, hands down, was the Ruß’n. It is the beer the angels in heaven drink.