where in the world is rahima?: fun in munich

being in munich and visiting dachau was quite intense; but there was also some fun to be had. here are some of the highlights.

the food

the bavarians LOVE their meat. i mean love it to death (literally)! i have never eaten so much meat in one sitting in my life. and it was so delicious! sausages, crackling pork (the meat on the bone had a hard, crackly shell. it was weird, but also delicious), and all kinds of roasts. i had a jolly old time devouring the food here. one of my favorite experiences was going to a traditional bavarian breakfast. we had weißwurst on our last day in munich, which translates to white sausage. it is eaten along with a pretzel and then dipped in this sweet mustard sauce. the kicker for me was when annette's cousin said, "you have to order a beer, is that ok?". if you have met me, you know that any situation where it is socially appropriate to drink in the morning is right up my alley. we HAD to order beer with breakfast at 10 in the morning. incredible. i love bavaria and i am now convinced that somewhere back in my egyptian ancestry, some family member had an affair with a bavarian, hence my strong love of beer and fatty meats.

here i am devouring a piece of crackling pork. i devoured this whole slab of crackling pork, in addition to some sausage and roast, in one sitting. i was unstoppable.

here is the crackling pork before my big paws and mouth got a hold of it

this is the roast with a side of potato dumplings (kartoffel-knödels). the texture of the dumplings is a bit rubbery and chewy, which i actually liked a lot.

sausages, sausages, sausages!

in addition, to all the meat that the bavarians eat, they also know their sweets. we went to visit neuschwanstein, the castle that the disneyland castle is based on, and as we were waiting to start the tour, we had these delicious pastry balls. they are made from a cottage cheese based dough and it literally melted in my mouth. my mouth is watering right now, even as i write. annette is going to learn to make them, so hopefully i can have them soon...

annette showcasing that we are drinking beer in the morning (10:16 am)

me getting ready to drink my beer and eat my pretzel at breakfast

bavarian breakfast of a pretzel, weißwurst, and beer...yum!

hofbrahaus

munich is filled with beer halls and beer gardens (biergartens) that are always populated with tourists and locals alike. due to the cold, we obviously did not sit in any biergartens, but we did visit the hofbrahaus, one of the biggest and most famous beer halls in munich. when you get inside, there are rows and rows of long tables and you just sit anywhere, joining different groups of people that are already sitting there. therefore, you actually get to interact with different types of people. also, there are people who have been coming here so long that they get their own special stein and seat. so whenever they come in and someone is sitting in their seat, they have to relinquish that seat to the old-timers. the demographics here were pretty interesting. there were people as young as 10 (and drinking mini beers) and as old as 80. there was also a band playing all night, dressed in traditional bavarian clothes. they sang old songs that all the regulars knew and would sing along to. there was one song (sung many times throughout the night), to which everyone sang along and then you had to cheers your neighbors and then drink.

annette and me with our massive steins of beer...

sledding

although i do not like being in the cold all that much, i decided to go along for a hike and sledding in the snowy mountains. i figure that even if i don't like something, i do have to do things outside my comfort zone. walking up the mountain in the snow and pulling the sled turned out to be quite difficult, but slowly we meandered our way up. i was unbelievably impressed with annette's 72 year old aunt who led the way at such a brisk pace. there was no way that i could keep up with her, but she was kind enough to stop every once in a while to wait for us to catch up.

the hike ended up being totally worth it, because after stopping at the top of the mountain for lunch and a spectacular view, we got to sled down all the way we hiked up. i have never been on a sled before and coming down this mountain was such an adrenaline rush! i can actually see myself going sledding again (and i have never said any such thing about anything done in the cold or snow). the mountain was steep in parts, so i tried to go down as slowly as i could, but there were times when gravity propelled me down. i still have to work on the turns and stopping, but i quickly learned that if i can't stop, i can throw myself face first into the snow (which i did quite a bit).