DAY 3: MUNICH/PRAGUE

So you guys get 2 Europe posts today. Since, as I've said before, I'm way behind and need to finish this up! Day 3 we left Munich and made our way over to Prague. It's not too long of a drive, a little under 4 hours. (If you discount getting lost and circling downtown Prague about 3 times before making it to your final destination). But onto the food.

Before we headed out for Prague, we had to meet the last member of our party, Sam, at the Munich airport (where we were also picingk up our rental car.) We were waiting for Sam to be the savior of our party. Having studied abroad in Germany for a year, he was the only one who could understand the language and more importantly, order food for us. It didn't matter that we were heading off to Prague, the general consensus was that Sam would figure it out.

And while waiting for Sam to arrive, what else was there to do but visit the biergarten at the Munich airpot. That's right, there is a biergarten at the Munich airport, the Airbrau. And it's not too bad either. Here's a shot of the outdoor seating area.We decided to have a few beers and lunch while waiting for Sam. And luckily they had menus in English. The men ordered their typical sausages and I ordered a salad. Yes, I was still wary of ordering food in Germany. And to be honest, there really weren't that many choices for me beyond the salad section. But it was a hot day and I welcomed eating my salad with grilled turkey, which turned out to be pretty good.I had discovered that Germans don't really go for plain salads. They really like to put lots of stuff on it to make it a meal.But onto Prague. So after finally packing up our minivan, we headed off to the Czech Republic. It was pretty easy getting to the center of the city, they main obstacle was actually getting to our hostel. We learned several important things on our visit to Prague. First, Czech is a damn hard language to learn. I mean, it's even near impossible to read, let alone pronounce. You eventually just give up and start try to match up the letter in the word to the map you've got in your hand. Which doesn't make it that easy to navigate. Second, when traveling to a foreign country, learn your street signs. Red signs with a white horizontal strip through the middle mean no entry. While blue signs with red crosses means no parking. Third, Prague is undergoing a lot of construction. And there are a lot of pedestrian areas closed off to traffic and one way streets. We made it within blocks of our hostel several times, but everytime we tried to get closer we ended up on a one way street headed out of the city center. We circled the city about 3 times and it took us nearly an hour to get to our place. We eventually gave up, parked and walked to the hostel.

Needless to say, by the time we reached our final destination (oh, and after getting caught in a massive 30 minute downpour that soaked us and our luggage), we were ready for a nice warm dinner. Using the trusty guidebook, we ended up at a pretty touristy restaurant, but it had lots of character. Ok, I don't remember the name of the place, but it was located in the basement of a very pretty concert hall in downtown Prague. And it was essentially a massive beer hall, but with nicely painted walls and decorations. And a live band.

Of course, we all started off ordering beers, which were Pilsner Urquels. Kinda different from Germany where each brewhouse had its own beers. I preferred the German beers.So the fun thing about being in a super touristy restaurant is the availability of helpful menus. Here are the boys checking out their menus.You'll notice that it has pics! And notice on the left of the menu the variety of languages that they offer.
I ended up ordering a dish with chicken (finally, I was able to find a restaurant that served chicken). The boys all ordered an assortment of meat, none of which I photographed.It took a while for the food to come out. And by the time it did, I had to run off and meet Jayna. So i ate my food as quickly as possible. Which was of course not remarkable considering the touristy atmosphere. It was just chicken breast with overcooked carrots. I think I was just happy to have something warm to eat.

So off I went to find Jayna! My first contact with a girl in 3 days. And I was relieved and happy to see my friend. It'd only been a couple of weeks since she'd left to Boston, but I still missed her. So we all settled into an outdoor bar in the heart of Prague. Right next to one of the most touristy sites, the clocktower. I had read in my guidebook that when you stick to the most touristy areas, there's a tendency for people to rip you off. And this, without a doubt, was true of the bar we visited that night. We only ordered drinks, but I was disappointed when I ordered a Radler and ended up with Radler in a can! (you can see the can next to Jayna in the pic below). And I ended up paying nearly $10 for that drink. (cover charge, whatever whatever).

Still, it was nice to sit outside with my friends while they smoked cigars. So let me finish with this pic of Jayna smoking a cigar that Rudy had gotten from the Dominican Republic.

MUNICH DAY 2: BIERGARTENS AND SOCCER

Day 2 in Munich started with the arrival of the 4th member of our party, Roy. (The third member of our party, Nick, had arrived late the night before.) Roy was pretty hungry after his flight from Philly (actually, Roy is usually hungry. He's a big guy and spurred us in looking for food much of the trip) so we set off to find the Hofbrahaus. Nick had spent about a day in Munich for a layover the week before, and he had scoped out the Hofbrahaus and knew he wanted to go there.

So it turns out that the Hofbrahaus is actually a famous biergarten in Munich. And it was huge. It had an enormous interior plus an outdoor garden and a second floor. Here's a pic of the interior. It was also packed with soccer fan and there a ton of Australian fans present, the aptly named Socceroos (since Australia was playing Brazil that day in Munich). In the interior pic, you'll notice the blown up kangroo in the background. There were lots of those all over place.Ok, I'm gonna try a new thing here by adding video to my blog. So this is some footage of those Socceroos singing and dancing to a live German band inside the Hofbrahaus.



We decided to sit outside, since it was a lovely day and really, it was just way too hot and loud on the interior. So here's a pic of the outdoor seating area.

Of course, everyone else also wanted to sit outside, so we really had to fight for our seats. And after about 15 minutes, Nick was able to secure us a table. So here are Rudy and Roy posing with the menu.We started off by ordering beers. And I had a great Radler, my drink of choice in Germany. (well, in addition to orange Fanta. I allowed myself to drink one a day. The formulation is different in Europe and it just tastes better there. More like Orangina. The one in the U.S. tastes more like Sunkist). The beers came in enormous liter sizes. Here are Roy and Rudy with theirs.I was pretty wary of German menus after my bacon experience the previous night. So while the boys ordered sausages and such, I stuck with seafood. Even though I really didn't know what I had ordered (other than the fact that it was some type of fish, I felt much safe about my choice). So luckily, I also got a salad with my lunch:And here's my fish.It appeared to be some type of white fish, that had been pan fried and served with potatoes. This wasn't the greatest fish in the world. But of course, what did I expect, I was at a biergarten in Munich, ordering food without pork. I was just happy to have something I would eat. And i did like the herb butter on top. Meanwhile, they guys enjoyed their pork and sausages in all various forms. Here they are below:After lunch, we set off to attend the game at the Allianz Arena right outside of Munich. We had a fantastic time. And became fans of the Australian team. Despite losing the game, they really played a great match against the Brazilians and we loved that. We waited a couple of hours around the arena afterwards, waiting for the Metro to clear before we headed back into the city, so we were pretty hungry by the time we got back to Munich.

So of course we had to visit another biergarten post-game. This time we went to the Weisses Brauhaus.I'd found this biergarten in one of my guidebooks and chose it because it was supposed to have lots of food. So I hoped for a greater variety of food options. Again, this was an enormous restaurant. All the seats outisde were occupied, so we made our way into the very back room that had a large number of Brazilian fans. They started off by serving giving us a basket of pretzels, and I 'm happy to say that these were much better than the pretzel I'd had the previous day.Unfortunately, the restaurant was out of English menus. But they had menus in other languages. So Rudy got the French menu and I got the Spanish menu and I was actually able to understand what I was ordering. I was at a loss to find anything with chicken, though. And since I'd already had fish for lunch, I opted for another safe option, the vegetarian plate. Here it is.It's a huge, generous portion of food (this being Germany, the veggies were still covered with cheese) but all the veggies were really over cooked, except the potatoes. They're good at potatoes in Germany. I did like the spatzle that came with it, though. and after picking my way through about a third of it, I'd had enough.

Meanwhile, the boys decided to be the ultimate carnivores and order a huge platter of meat. This was clearly a thing for tourists. And even though it really was a lot of food (too much for the three of them to finish) the quality of the meat wasn't great. So next time, just order off the regular menu.It'd be a long day. Lots of beer drinking and soccer watching. So we headed home (as Roy had two ice cream cones on the way back) to crash for the night and head off to Prague the following day.

MUNICH DAY 1: PRETZELS AND A BACON OMLETTE

I must admit that prior to arriving in Germany, I was a bit apprehensive about the cuisine. I didn't know much about German food, aside from the beer, pretzels, schnitzel and lots of sausages. So I pretty much thought that I'd be screwed(not consuming pork and beef), and living off of beer, pretzels and gummi bears for my entire week in Germany.

And in retrospect, I realize that I was completely right. I really did live mostly off of beer (and might I add, the best beer that I've ever had), pretzels and salads for most of the trip. I quickly realized one of my problems was my lack of knowledge of the German language. I mean, I speak a good number of languages, but German was completely beyond me. There are words that are like 16 letters long. Sometimes without vowels! And when you're staring at a menu like that, you really have no safe place to go.

So let's get started on my first day in Germany. I've decided to organize these posts by day rather than by meal since it'll make things a ton easier. I arrived at the Munich airport (at this point, my favorite airport in the world, it's just immaculate and really cool) where I met my best friend Rudes. We quickly ran off to the metro, dropped our stuff at the hostel and went looking for food. (With all the flight delays and layovers, it'd taken me 22 hours to get from Boston to Munich). Unfortunately, it was Saturday, and we quickly learned that not much is open after 4pm on a Saturday afternoon. We tried to find some of the restaurants listed in my guidebook, but ended up at a marketplace where we found lots of Australian and Brazilian soccer fans enjoying beer, sausages and pretzels. Wait, first let me show you this massive stack of pretzels at a pretzel stand.Ok, so i sent Rudy in to buy some food and he found out that the place had absoloutely no food that did not have pork in it. Except for a pretzel. I was off to a great start. So of course, I got a pretzel, while Rudy had his first (and certainly not last) sausage of the trip. My pretzel was a little disappointing, but really, what did I expect, it wasn't exactly the specialty of the beer stand. And I was just happy to have something to eat.But Rudy's beer was great. Though he didn't know how to pour it. (hence all the head. I had to teach him how to pour it correctly.)And he really liked his sausage.
I'm gonna throw in some pics of the marketplace that we were in. here's a pic of a meat stand.And of course, the ubiquitous white asaparagus. These things are hard to find in the U.S. and they're really expensive, but they're everywhere in Germany. And they have huge ones too. This is just a pic of the asaparagus tips.Ok, back to the food. Rudes and i went back to the hostel for a power nap. And by the time we'd gotten up, it was dinner time. (like 9:30, we just slid right into the European schedule, which wasn't hard cause it was still light out). We decided to hit a biergarten, cause that's what Munich is famous for (this is where they hold Oktoberfest afterall). And we found a big one, the Augustiner, which is actually a big chain, with the Italy v. USA soccer game on.

So I was faced with a German menu. Actually, it was translated into English. But something was lost in translation. I decided to order a mushroom omlette served on bread. I thought that was pretty safe. And I discovered the Radler (which I'd read about in my guidebook). It's basically beer mixed with lemon soda. I had to give it a try. And it was excellent. I ended up drinking these throughout our trip. (when Sam, the German expert, arrived a few days later, he explained the whole story behind radlers, which I'll tell you if you're actually curious, but it's actually a lighter beer drink for earlier in the day.) Here we are with our beers.So when my omlette arrived. It looked pretty good. Lots of mushrooms. And we were sitting outdoors, so it was pretty dark. About two bites into it, I realized that it was filled with bacon. Actually, with the flash from the camera, you can see the bacon. I hadn't eaten bacon since i was 15. But i didn't freak out. I just picked out the bigger chunks and finished the omlette. Whatever, we were in Germany after all. And let me say, after 11 years, bacon doesn't taste too bad. But i'm not gonna start eating it now.We were entertained by a really crazy Australian band that seemed to be traveling from biergarten to biergarten. (we'd actually seen them earlier in the day). But they were really so drunk that they sounded terrible, but were still a lot of fun. And we finished dinner with this apple dessert thingy. Which wasn't very good, but again, I don't think that was their specialty.All in all it wasn't a great food day for me. But i had an excellent time trying out the beer and enjoying the atmosphere. I just hoped for the arrival of Sam, the only person in our group who would be able to understand those German menus.