Germany, Day 1

5/20/2011
Farchant, Germany
I.S.'s apartment

This morning, I woke up and trundled downstairs. I.S. went to the bakery while I showered, and brushed my teeth -- which is only remarkable because it was then I tasted the tap water, and discovered that it is delicious. I.S. says it's because it's less fluoridated (or chlorinated?) than in the US. I.S. brought us back coffee and various bread things (rolls, croissant, pretzel), and then we set out to explore the city.

We took the train into the city (K's apartment is actually just outside Munich). A young man (he looked to be in his 20s or early 30s) sat across from me, next to I.S., reading a paper. The headline was about Obama -- I don't remember the German, but it said that Obama would support Arabic democracies. I was able to read all of it except the verb all by myself! This is not because I remember my 3.5 years of German, but because the words for Arabic and democracies are cognates with the English, and the word for Obama is "Obama." It's helpful that English is a Germanic language. When I asked I.S. what the verb meant, I guess the young man noticed that I was spying on his paper, and leaned forward and showed me a picture, saying "Mississippi." It was of a house whose owner had taken matters into his own hands and built levees around his property to prevent it from flooding. It worked, for what it's worth. Y'all stay dry, hear?

Once we got off the train, we found a little cafe and got some more coffee. I don't normally pay much attention to crowd sounds -- snatches of conversation as people go by -- but I noticed it today because it was, of course, all in German. It's nice to be able to hear the music of a crowd and not get distracted by actually understanding what people are saying.

After we finished our coffee, we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. It was a glorious day for it -- maybe 80 degrees, sunny & beautiful. The gardens were as beautiful as you'd expect them to be. I posted some pictures on Facebook. I'd include them here, except that I also didn't bring a cable to connect my iPhone to the computer. The camera cables are waiting for me at Gatwick, but I'll have to find an Apple store to get a cable for the phone. Ah well. I had fun trying to read the signs in German, as well as enjoying the weather and the gardens. I think the sign-reading was less fun for I.S.

We had more coffee at the botanical gardens. Ice Coffee, which in Germany is coffee with ice cream. This is a fabulous idea, and I would like for American coffee houses to adopt it immediately. I.S. concurs (she was apparently disappointed when she ordered iced coffee in America. I would have been too).

After the gardens, we went back into central Munich and walked around until we found a restaurant, and had schnitzel. Also more beer. In order to lighten it up, we ordered it with sprite, which made it sweeter and bubbly and less alcoholic, which was good for I.S. because she had to drive, and good for me because I'm a lightweight.

We went back to K's apartment, packed up, and headed for I.S.'s apartment in Farchant, which is very near Garmisch. There's a mountain in I.S's back yard. Also sheep.