A weekend in rural Bavaria

I spent the weekend in rural Bavaria (a State/region in Germany) with my friend Julia and her family. When I was in high school, I hosted Julia when a group of students from her school came to America for a few weeks. The summer after I graduated, a group of students from my German class and I traveled to Germany for a few weeks and I got to stay with Julia and her family while I was here. Over the years, Julia and I kept in touch via email and facebook. Now that I'm back in Germany, I had to go and visit her and her family!

I took the train from Munich into Landshut. (pronounced land-soot) It was my first train ride outside the city, and it was awesome! It's such an easy way to travel; I really don't understand why we don't use trains more in America. This needs to change. Anyway, Julia picked me up from the train station and we had lunch in Landshut. We also climbed up to the castle which overlooks Landshut. That evening, I went to a concert where Julia's younger sister Lisa was performing.

While I was at the concert, I noticed people could purchase a beer to drink while watching the performance. That wouldn't seem too odd except this was a school concert. Young kids were performing in it. And their parents could buy beer at the concert... this struck me as incredibly strange. Americans, myself included, have a very conservative attitude when it comes to alcohol consumption. In Europe, and especially Germany, alcohol is a part of life, it's normal to have a drink at a school concert.

After the concert, Julia and I went to a local bar to hang out with her friends. The Germans seemed very uneasy trying to speak English to me, even though their English was fine, so I had to use more of my German. We played a few games, including Foosball, and had a really good time. Julia asked me about the bars in America, and I told her about some that I've been too. She thought it was strange that the bars close at 2am. Apparently, bars in German don't close. People can stay and drink until 6am if they like.

The next day, Julia and her parents took me to a Bavarian Brewery for a tour. The Kuchlbaur Brewery was really interesting, but also a bit weird. Some of the architecture was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser (yes, that's a first and last name). His style of architecture is really... well, weird would be the best word to describe it. It felt a bit like I was in Charlie and the Chocolate factory, or that Spy Kids movie. There's a tower built to be a symbol of the brewing process. I climbed all the way to the top, despite how terrified I am of heights!

That style of architecture was prominent on the inside of the brewery. And they also had a weird focus on dwarfs who help make the beer...

I did try a sample of the beer they brew. It was okay, certainly better than American beer, but I don't really like beer anyway. We also drove to the oldest Brewery in the world at a monastery on the Danube. The Brewery has been in operation since 1040A.D. It's almost 1000 years old.

 Me, outside the oldest brewery in the world.

That's one thing I've noticed being in Germany, the age of things. I told Julia that the house I live in in St. Cloud is over 90-years-old. She thought it was hilarious that I thought that was old. Things in Europe are much, much older than most Americans can imagine. We trace our history back about three hundred years, the Europeans can trace theirs back for thousands. Case in point, we drove past ruins from the Roman Empire that were almost 2000 years old.

Now starts another week at school. I will probably be teaching one of my lessons on the October Revolution in Russia for a history class later this week.

Lastly, I've been craving Taco Bell for the past few days! Sadly, there are no Taco Bell locations in Europe, and apparently the Germans don't make good Mexican food. I guess I'll just have to wait until I get home!