I dearly miss Baroque architecture (I also dearly miss the sunlight after 5 PM. Bye bye, sun, until March/April…). The picture above is of the Theatine Church, which is located in my favorite place in all of Munich, Odeonsplatz. When I visited Bavaria during my Fall Break, I didn’t realize how much I missed Baroque architecture until I visited my three favorite churches in Munich. The smell of a Catholic church in Bavaria brings back so many memories, which sounds a bit odd but sense of smell triggers the most vivid memories (I feel like I’ve mentioned this before and so if I have, I am truly sorry for echoing myself in another post). For a small tidbit on Baroque architecture in Bavaria, click here and scroll down to “Holy Roman Empire”.
(Picture on the left: Andechs Abbey located near Munich)
The architecture is not only different between Northern and Southern Germany but the overall culture, mentalities and people are different too. Sound familiar? Although I’ve learned about these differences thanks to the best German department in the world, these differences have a surprisingly emotional effect on me. As a crazy fan of Germany, I thought I would love every inch of Germany in an equal manner. Oh, how wrong I was! Ironically enough, I was extremely homesick for Bavaria my first month-and-a-half in Berlin until I visited. Now that my homesickness has been assuaged, my heart has opened up to the possibility of loving Berlin as much as Bavaria. Well…we’ll see how that goes.
I decided to recently share my love of Bavaria to a few friends by hosting a Bavarian brunch, which turned out to be a Bavarian lunch (I had a late start). We had pretzels with Obazda cheese, white sausages (Weißwurst) with a German sweet mustard, bread rolls and of course, Weißbier. It’s not difficult to find Obazda in a Berlin supermarket but the problem is the size of the containers and lack of variety. As in: there’s usually just one itty bitty container with my favorite cheese mixture. Alas…what’s an American girl in love with Bavaria to do? Why, make homemade Obazda herself, of course! So, I labored in the kitchen (it’s not actually that difficult) and experimented with a generic recipe I found on the internet. Despite the time it took to make it due to my minor confusions, my homemade version of Obazda was actually pretty delicious. I bought the supermarket variety in case my version turned out to be disastrous.
The tradition of eating Weißwurst for breakfast is so significant in Munich, that my former professors told us that it was important to eat Weißwurst before noon lest one wants to look like the fool of a tourist. However, I found out from my really good friend in Passau that she’s only eaten Weißwurst for either lunch or dinner. Hhhhmmmmm… So, I simply told my friends that we were having a Bavarian lunch Passau-styled. Sorry, Munich.
I’ve also been eating a lot of Leberwurst with good bread lately. What is Leberwurst? Liverwurst. I already hear many of you cringing, but I care not! I actually really like spam, although Leberwurst is definitely healthier and probably less mysterious.
And as any Bavarian would tell you, it is never too early for beer. Never.