Taste of Germany

After living in Munich in Germany for a while last year, there were times when I was missing home a fair bit. Despite having my wife and friends, Ben & Beck there with me, you can't help but miss some of the comforts of home.

Now that I am back in good ol' Brisvegas, the comforts of home that I had been missing have become the usual and mundane again and I find myself thinking back to the adventures I had overseas. So, stopping short of jumping on an aeorplane and making my way back to Germany, what is the next best thing that I could do in Brisbane? I could go to the Bavarian Beer Cafe and pay $20 for a beer that costs less than water in Bavaria itself. Or, I could join the German Club.

I had been to the German Club once before and I wondered if it was anything like the real thing. There was a huge beer hall that everyone sat in together like the dining hall at Hogwart's and people chanted something in German as they waved their beers in the air. We ate HUGE meals of bratwurst, pork belly and lamb shanks while a guy named Andrew dressed in traditional lederhosen sang 'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga on the keyboard piano. For some reason, I didn't think it was much like the real Bavaria...



When we first got back, my friend Ben went in and signed himself and Beck up as members. A couple of weeks later their membership cards arrived in the mail. Beck, unaware of Ben's activities, opened the envelope and was baffled by her new membership to the German Club. Confused as to how they got her details, she assumed you got free membership if you lived in Germany for a while!!!



This time, we invited some friends to join us for dinner at the German Club during the week. Knowing that it was a week night and a casual event, most of us decided to wear shorts and thongs; typical Aussie summer attire. When we arrived, we discovered that the German Club is just like Germany in one way... they are absolute sticklers for the rules. When the sign says, 'no thongs' they mean it. After a few of us had to make a trip back home to get some more acceptable footware, we made our way inside. We all sat in the big hall and ate way too much meat while drinking beer with names that we couldn't pronounce.



When I think about it, I did have one night in Munich that was similar to the German Club... The night we did a brewery tour and ended up at the Hofbrauhaus eating half a pig and a drinking 3 litres of beer. I can see what they are trying to do, however, I don't recall ever seeing any entertainment quite like Andrew before. Ever.