Pete's Log: Perk in Munich
Entry #1465, (Life in General)(posted when I was 28 years old.)
So Friday afternoon, Perk came to Munich. We had ourselves a fun little time.
I figured the best way to introduce Perk to the Zen of Munich was to immediately take him to a beer garden upon his arrival. The Augustinerkeller has a nice one, and it's only a few blocks from the Hauptbahnhof. We drank a Maß each and split a giant pretzel.
After a tour through Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt, we grab dinner at a place near Sendlinger Tor. Sara joins us there after a bit. Perk had to give me a present from Anne, which he did in a U-Bahn station. It wasn't a terribly nice present. We then visited Bree.
Things get a bit fuzzy, but we went by the 24-hour store at the Hauptbahnhof and bought two bottles of champagne, a bottle of Smirnoff Ice or similar for Sara, and a bottle of beer. We pop open one of the champagne bottles in the station, enjoying the fact that open containers of alcohol are not only legal, but quite standard in Germany. We ride the subway home, passing the champagne around.
Doing things that feel illegal but aren't is fun. We had also bought Überraschungseier and decided we had to give away the toys we got. Perk gave his to some guy at the train station who had quick ties in his goatee. Sara gave hers to the bus driver when we got to the stop by my place. I had been a slacker and still had mine. At the bus stop, some older guy was stumbling along, looking a bit drunk. I asked him if he wanted the toy, and he asked me for my ID (which I did not show him) and told me he was with the police and that he was going to arrest me. Perk and Sara didn't understand what was going on, since this was all in German, but said it was incredibly funny to watch, because this old guy was being quite belligerent while I kept calmly telling him I just wanted to give him this toy.
In the end, I just took the toy home. We enjoyed the second bottle of champagne on my balcony, and Sara wound up sleeping there too. Perk and Gandhi got along quite well.
Saturday, Perk and I accomplished our primary goal for the weekend. A body-of-water-experience. We went to the English Garden and jumped into the Eisbach from a pedestrian bridge. Twice. Both times yelling "Lake!" on our way in.
We were encouraged to see somebody else jump in before us, until Perk realized the man was completely naked. I didn't have my glasses on, so I couldn't tell. Ah, Germany.
We then enjoyed a Maß at the Chinese Tower beer garden. To my delight, the oompa-band was playing. Perk likes the beer garden culture.
We then got ourselves convinced to get tattoos. We made our way to a place, only to discover it was already closed. It was a bit of a culture shock to learn tattoo shops close early in Germany. So we were quite disappointed at that, seeing how we had gotten ourselves mentally prepared for tattoos.
Sara then joined us, and we went off in search of absurdity. We asked the violin guy in front of the Burger King near Karlsplatz/Stachus if he would do his playing-over-his-head trick for us. He was glad to oblige, and seemed to love the attention.
Sara then refused to slap me for a video Perk wanted to film.
We then bummed around Schwabing, and I introduced Perk to the wonders of Spaghetti Eis.
The night ended at my place with a few episodes of News Radio, for old times' sake.
Sunday, Perk and I ate a crappy breakfast at an Italian cafe near the Hauptbahnhof. We got our revenge, though. And then, Perk was off. A fun trip, and hopefully Perk and I will get some more absurdity going before too long.
Monday I went on a business trip to a customer I'd been to once before. The last time I was there, my contact told me about a shortcut back to the train station that went through the woods. I managed to find this shortcut again, and since I was twenty minutes early, I explored the forest some. I found a cute little bridge over a little stream, and really enjoyed just wandering around in the woods in my suit and tie. Life is good.