I’m not sure exactly how much mileage I’m going to get out of this whole “Germany” thing, but I’m just gonna keep rollin’. (Why is ‘gonna’ not a word? For the sake of informality and literary voice, you will have to pardon the non-words. [Not to mention the excess punctuation.])
So last post I talked about one of the major differences between German and American culture, probably the most well-known one: children’s playgrounds' design. (The conclusion we came to was that abstract thinking, aggressive behavior, and escapology/parkour training are the biggest priorities, displacing the boring American standbys “fun” and “safety”.)
Now that I’ve gotten that one out of the way, I’d like to talk about one of the more unexpected differences which, quite frankly, we were astonished to encounter. I’m speaking (Woahhhh, just a sentence ago I was expressing a desire to talk about something, now I’m “speaking” already? I need to slow down a little bit!) I’m speaking of the German culture’s general attitude towards alcohol. (You might want to sit down for this one.)
First off, the drinking age is 16 for beer and wine, and 18 for liquor. Now that I’ve covered the basics, I’m going to approach this discussion as I approach every cultural analysis, intellectual debate, Q & A session, press conference, life-changing decision, family member, and justice of the peace: anecdotally. (I’m going to leave a minute/a blank space here to give time for that sentence to soak in/for my brain to recollect its marbles)
Storytime #1:
Actually some of this is still exposition; I’m really bad at organizing stuff.
So you know how you always get water in American restaurants when you’re trying to be cheap? Well in Germany you either let yourself thirst (I’m using it as a verb like “starve”) or you get beer. It’s everywhere; very few restaurants do not sell any.
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| New game/idea for blog post: start a post and then periodically put in random google images and make it relevant somehow. (That's not what I'm doing here, I promise.) |
I didn’t realize exactly how “everywhere” (figuratively) the beer was until I ate at a restaurant named Tiffanys’ in Berlin. (There was no breakfast food, and not a trace of Audrey Hepburn or Deep Blue Something memorabilia.) Unbeknownst (Holy cow that’s an amazingly spelled word) to me, *gulaschsuppe* in German is a direct translation to *Campbells chunky beef soup*. So needless to say, the meal was not entirely satisfactory. What made it really interesting was my beverage choice. So I was perusing the beer menu, (What a great sentence fragment) and I saw 2 options titled “Berliner Weisse”. One was labeled “rot”, and one was labeled “grün”. This meant to me that there were two white/pale beers that were apparently made in Berlin, and that they came in two different colors. I wanted to try something regional and unusual (like green beer), so I got that one.
I immediately realized something was wrong when my beer came in a short stubby glass and had a straw in it. I remember it saying something like “Berliner Kindl Weisse” (Which google translator gracefully turns into “Berlin white children”.) There was also a picture of a beer mug and a child’s face peeking out over the top. (Which, now that I think about it, seems to be endorsing childhood intoxication; Why else would you climb into a big old beer mug? It's probably sticky.) I tried to maintain my composure and ignore the snickering wait-staff as I slurped (I may’ve blown bubbles in it too) my half beer, half green soda, 100% delicious beverage.
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| OMG THAT'S WHAT I HAD. |
My apologies; Story time #2 about alcohol in Germany will have to wait for next week. I've already spent an inordinate amount of time researching children's beers and even more trying to figure out what font this text is in. (Georgia.) And why it's smaller than in other posts. (Voodoo.)
Rest assured, The wait will be worth it. It, the story, will be worth the wait. (There will be actual story-relevant pictures from my trip!)
Rest assured, The wait will be worth it. It, the story, will be worth the wait. (There will be actual story-relevant pictures from my trip!)
First of all, gonna should be a word considering I use it at least fifty times a day. I really enjoy hearing your stories about Germany. My brother studied abroad in Germany for a semester and has told me some crazy stories as well. He first of all told me that beer was guaranteed at every meal like you said. However, I don’t think he ever mentioned accidently ordering a child’s beer. I probably would have ordered a children’s beer on accident as well, even though I’m sure it was fun to taste. I honestly wouldn’t know where to start when looking at a beer menu in Germany. I would probably order something different every time just to taste as much variety as I could. I hope to visit Germany sometime in my lifetime, preferably sometime in my undergraduate college years. I’m not sure if I would study abroad there or just visit, but I hope the trip happens.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if anecdotally is a word, but it should be. Also, nice pun in "let my brain recollect it's marbles" as in collect again, suggesting you just now lost your marbles, but also hinting at recollect as in remember, as if your marbles are only a memory now, for which you have a moment of silence to recollect, as if they are dead and gone. Well played.
ReplyDelete