Italian word of the week: _ospitalità_ – hospitality
When Europeans think of spring break in America, the stereotypical picture that comes to mind looks a lot like my Facebook newsfeed right now. Millions of neon hats and spray-painted trucker hats, T-shirts and fanny packs littering what probably used to be a beautiful beach. There’s nothing wrong with a little PCB, though. I myself was there last spring break. However, spring break in Europe is quite a bit different than spring break in America. Instead of partying with a bunch of college kids under their fraternity flags on a beach, I was singing German drinking songs in Munich with a bunch of 40-somethings wearing traditional Bavarian garb.
What started out as a simple breakfast (well, OK, it was actually around 1 in the afternoon) turned into a sort of mid-March version of Oktoberfest. My friends Luca, Asha and I walked around looking for something semi-cheap to satiate our hunger. We walked by several restaurants and finally settled on one because Asha claimed that people had waved at her from inside the restaurant while we looked at the menu. Sometimes you can’t ignore the signs.
We sat at a table in the back, right beside a long bench with a group of about 15 middle-aged folks dressed in their full Bavarian getups. The men were wearing green lederhosen, with the little traditional hats with a feather and long socks pulled up to their knees, so just a small fraction of their legs were exposed between the socks and the shorts. The women were wearing long dresses with their busts in full splendor. It was as if we stepped straight into a filming of “Beerfest.”
During the meal, we watched as other parties in the back room requested to move because the lederhosen group was being so loud and rambunctious. We remained true to our friendly, waving neighbors and didn’t switch tables. Our meals consisted of some traditional Bavarian food, and of course beer. This was the first sin of breakfast. In the middle of our meal, the group caught wind of us speaking English and sent some Bavarian candies flying over at us. At the end of our meal, a round of Bavarian schnapps was brought out to us, courtesy of the men at the other table. We went over and sat down next to them, since we thought that was the polite thing to do to take our shots. From there, our breakfast was about to break all the rules.
After four hours of learning German drinking songs, trying Bavarian snuff, coughing it all up because it was disgusting, drinking several rounds of beer, figuring out that we were crashing a birthday party, trying two plates of Austrian desserts, drinking more Bavarian schnapps and scantily avoiding a creepy old dude trying to give me lots of hugs, we finally walked out of the restaurant just as the sun was starting to set. All in all, it was a good show of Bavarian hospitality, and I think the most important thing I learned was to just go with the flow. If we weren’t open to making new friends and trying new things, traveling wouldn’t nearly be so much crazy fun.
All they asked of us was to teach them some American drinking songs in return for them singing their German ones, but the only drinking song we could think of was “Shots” by LMFAO. Considering they were all in their 40s, I don’t think that was quite what they were looking for, so we just said that we didn’t know any. They were still very hospitable and said they wanted us to experience Bavaria and Munich in a real live way, even though we weren’t there during Oktoberfest. So if you’re ever looking for a unique place to spend your birthday, you might want to consider Deutschland. Just make sure you bring your lederhosen, and you might want to stay away from the snuff. Ciao for now!
