Eierpunsch, Nachos, and Swing

Marty and I being the only two people we knew in Germany without Christmas plans, we decided to band together in Munich. We both had off from work starting on the 24th so he came into town the night of the 23rd and we spent the evening gallivanting in Tollwood. Tollwood is a twice yearly festival in Munich, once in the summer and once in the winter. I still haven't been to the Summer rendition, but the Winter one contains most of what you'd expect from a winter festival in Germany, a big Christmasmarket selling a lot of stuff you probably don't need, in addition to tasty tasty Eierpunsch.

We wandered every square inch of the festival looking at all of the food options and calculating the best thing to eat. It wasn't long after we made our choice (which I forget what it was actually called... or what it really was... except that it was wrapped and pretty good) we 'accidentally' stumbled across an entire tent dedicated to food... we felt dumb. But it was a fun night.

I think this is my favorite conversation from the night:

Marty: What are Reibekuchen?
Shane: Kind of like latkes.
Marty: Huh?
Shane: Latkes... oh right, you're not Jewish.

We also got accosted by two girls with boats made of paper. I wouldn't want to call them origami because... well that's offensive to origami, but the two girls asked us which one we thought was more beautiful (with some awesome Bayrisch undertones to their accent). Marty made a choice (to which the losing girl replied "do you find that" pointing to the boat "or that" pointing to the girl holding the boat "prettier?") and all I said was the one on the left seemed faster... but they didn't really like that answer.

The next day, the 24th, is the day most Germans actually celebrate Christmas and so with the exception of a few grocery stores in the morning, the entire city basically shuts down, leaving Marty and I to our own devices. We got through the day watching lots of Entourage and making an awesome Nachos Christmas Eve Dinner. It was a very festive Christmas Eve Dinner, let me tell you. Witness! Yes those are red and green peppers thrown into the mix.

Christmas day we got together with a few of the other Americans I know in Munich who were also (clearly) not with their or anyone else's family for Christmas. We had a really nice dinner, watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, and then played with dolls. No really. Mom and Dad would be so proud! Those of us from the Christmas dinner that still had the will to move went to a neat little club in Munich (which was previously unknown to me) which was having swing night. I've never really been a swing night before... but do people that frequent swing nights meet and practice these dances? Everyone was dancing in sync for every song that was played over several hours. I was impressed and intimidated. More the latter.

The following day we hopped a train to Berlin and had a low key night out with our Berlin Fulbright friends before catching a train the next morning to Krakow, the topic of the next post!

The Plan

Last time I wrote was just before a two week break from work. I spent those two weeks almost entirely away from Munich traveling with friends, seeing the sights, drinking the local brews, and snapping an ass ton of pictures. To force myself to write about that I'm at the moment combining it with another new initiative of mine: forcing myself to check out new cafes, bars, restaurants, etc. in Munich with the help of Qype. What's Qype? Basically the European version of Yelp. It suffices to know it's a really good way to find the good parts of a city. Lately I've been focusing on cafes with free internet. So I decided while checking out these internet equipped cafes I may as well be productive, hence trying to write in this thing some more.

So at the moment I'm sitting in Kopfeck, a really good vegetarian cafe/bar/restaurant in the Isarvorstadt district of Munich, about to outline my writing plan. Mainly because I figure if I 'publish' a plan I'll be more likely to follow it. So expect (or give me shit for not producing) four separate stories about the following:

• My Christmas Adventures with Marty
• My Krakow Adventures with Marty, Ashlan, and Halley
• My New Years Adventures with Marty, Ashlan, Halley, Chris, Marco, and others
• My Hamburg Adventures with Marty, Ashlan, Chris, and Marco

See a common pattern there?

Now, let's just see if I can keep myself disciplined.

-Shane