Water should not have as many bubble as Pepsi

For some totally unknown reason, if you just order "water" in Germany you are presented with a bottle of bubbly soda water. I have confirmed this at 3 locations. Tonight I finally figured out how to get around it... you have to order "Still water". Huh? I mean.... I want scream at these people "If you pull water out of a well, is it carbonated? 'No'. Then why should I have to specify that I want normal water????" Ahhh, the fun of traveling abroad. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if the other stuff wasn't so vile.

Anyway, I took the train from Berlin to Munich today, which was very cool. It isn't like the US where taking the train just helps you see all the ghettos along the way. Here the countryside is lush and gorgeous, which small towns and villages along the way. The tallest building in all these old towns is always the church, generally with a 3 or 4 story high tower. It would have been nice to be able to get some pictures, but the train was always moving too fast.

My original plan was to take a direct train, but one of the guys I met on the train pointd out that if I changed trains once, I could get in at 6:30 instead of 8. So, by 7 I was checked into my hotel and by 7:30 I had a ticket in my hand for a ballet show that started at 8. What an efficient big city!! It turned out not to be a ballet... it was something cooler. It was called the Enchanted Gardens, and was a sort of middle-eastern dance revue hosted by a husband/wife couple. She was totally hot and did some awesome belly dancing, but I think he was a little bit better dancer---according to the bio he was a soloist with the SF Ballet for 8 years before starting this show up. You can see the Oriental Fantasy website for more information.

Afterwards, I asked the taxi driver to take me to a "nice" restaurant. The one he picked was closed already, so I went to the one next door. I had garlic bread, french onion soup (which is bested only by a hunting lodge on the New Hampshire border), and pork loin wrapped in bacon, washed down with Merlot and STILL water. All of it was very good.

Tomorrow I'm going to head down to the Hofbrau House which is the famous Munich Beer Garden where they have Oompah bands and liter steins. I'm not super confident that I'll find any good concerts to watch on Sunday night, but we'll see what happens.