Early learnings of an American in Bavaria

A brief list of my learnings so far in Bavaria…

On food and dining:

• The pretzel is a food from the gods.


• Potato salad is delicious.


• Many breads are delicious, while other breads taste like (what I assume would be) dog food. The smell is unmistakable for either type of bread.


• Prosecco is a perfect drink... that I sadly can’t drink…


• Italian food in Bavaria is pretty darn good.


• In rural Bavaria, don’t expect to use your credit card anywhere.


• If you ask for decaf coffee, you will be looked at like you have two heads. As I’ve been informed, what’s the point of drinking coffee if you don’t want the caffeine in it?


• If you don’t clean your plate when eating out, the waiter will ask you what was wrong with your meal. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem, but the portions in Bavaria are HUGE and impossible to finish.


• Don’t ask for tap water in a restaurant. It’s socially acceptable (and in some ways preferred!) to drink tap water in everyday life, in the office, etc., but it’s an insult to the restaurant if you ask for tap water. As one guidebook suggested, it’s like announcing to the restaurant that you’re going to be a cheap customer who won’t even spend money on water. Another guide said that drinking tap water in public is equivalent to saying that you are comfortable drinking the water you bathe in.


• Don’t assume that the waiter speaking Italian in the Italian restaurant is Italian (or speaks Italian other than that on the menu). In broken English, the waiter I was trying to communicate in Italian to (or broken Spanish, really – I could understand it so much more than the German) actually corrected me by telling me he’s not Italian at all – he’s Greek!

On daily life:

• NEVER walk on the bike path. If you hear a sweet little chime of a bike bell behind you, it’s not a little girl with pigtails riding her basket-yielding bicycle – it’s a mad cyclist and you need to get the heck out of the way!


• There are very few stop signs. Instead, yield signs are used as most intersections. This could be a very good thing or a very bad thing for those who are fans of the “rolling stop” in the US.


• There are no “duh!” signs anywhere (like “Watch your step” or “Sidewalk ends”), which would normally be fine except for a naïve American like me who could probably use those extra little reminders (even if they were in German). We are talking about the same person who broke her leg walking on a sidewalk, remember?


• The workday for construction starts at 5:30 or 6:30AM, depending on when I’m most tired…


• There are sometimes up to 4 trash cans for throwing garbage and recycling away, and they all look the same. I haven’t quite figured out the system yet, but I am trying. The trash system has made me keenly aware of my environmental impact to the point of neurosis. And let’s not even get started about turning lights or water on or off!


• Germans like to hide their refrigerators. One of your kitchen cabinet doors could be the fridge. Or it could just be another door to a cabinet.


• High heels are super stylish, assuming you can walk everywhere (anywhere?!) in them. You must walk at least a mile to get anywhere.


• There are two buttons on the wall above the toilet for flushing. Anyone remember the “shells” in Demolition Man? I keep having flashbacks to that movie every time I go to the bathroom. When using the bathroom, the bigger button is for flushing bigger jobs, and the smaller button is for flushing smaller jobs.


• When dubbing over American reality TV shows, German TV does NOT bleep out English curse words. I have heard more F-bombs and other expletives this week than I would expect to hear in a George Carlin special. Hell’s Kitchen is particularly entertaining, as Gordon Ramsey has one of the foulest mouths I’ve heard. Thank goodness for the FCC. ;)
  

Plans for the weekend:
This weekend is supposed to be incredible, weather-wise, with clear skies, sunshine, and mid-70s temperatures. I plan to travel to towns close to Penzberg on Saturday, and then Sunday I will travel with Sheri Jordan (from Roche) up to Munich for a photo tour and then a practical tour of Penzberg. I will take lots of pictures and will have some to share next week, I promise.

For tonight, I will eat some amazing cheese and fresh-made chocolate nougat crescent roll for dinner and watch some American Dad, Simpsons (called, “Die Simpsons,” which I think is hilarious if you read “die” like it is English), and Futurama. And I’m hoping another episode of Hell’s Kitchen or Jackass will air soon, as I can still hear the English being spoken in those shows, regardless how crass it is.

Happy weekend, everyone! Ciao!