Bulletin Board of Bad Behavior

with 28 days left before kick off, here i am, with some beginner's info

germany has of course the world's second best beer, to say the least. if you like it it will always be good for you. draft is best. microbreweries are, if you ask me, overrated, but the bottled stuff is good value for money. i like it in cans too because i think it looks cooler, whereas drinking it out of the bottle, as german proles and kids do, is too phallic for me. no i am not homophobic. forget the guiness, it does not taste good in germany; the irish pubs are a joke.

the favorite drink in my home town frankfurt is apple cider, called apfelwein (or in the local dialect äppelwei or ebbelwoi or äppler). it's sour and refreshing and doesn't make you fat. you probably won't like the taste but the wimpy can dilute it with water; superwimps add lemonade, echh. you drink it it nice taverns where everybody gets drunk and pleasant as the evening progresses. nobody gets nasty from drinking apfelwein. from the inside the cider taverns look somthing like this

but even better are the cider gardens in which i have spent many a summer afternoon, sorry no photo at the moment.

i won't talk about bar drinks but i can tell you where they make a good gimlet. what you should know however is that the rhine, neckar, and moselle rivers are in driving distance and that there, you can get some of the worlds best wines. forget the supermarket plonk you may associate with german wine; there is a new generation of wine producers in germany and they kick ass. for red i still prefer french but for white -- i know nothing nicer than a rheingau spätlese trocken, if it from a good brand. remind me and i'll get a few bottles to try when you visit.

so what do i drink most of the time? i work too much, so i can't afford a hangover, and i try to stay sober when i am with my kid or when i am driving. but my summer choice for the third year running is rosé. i have this delicious domaine de molines merlot which flows like water when we barbecue on my balcony or in my girlfriend's garden -- people just chug it down and a nice evening is guaranteed. you'll see

13.5% alcohol for that, wow no wonder everybody is drunk

Yeah, 13.5 is just that extra 0.5 for wine isn't it? Unless you're buying stupid fortified cheap shit. I used to stick with 12.5 but I have 13 sometimes now. I just don't see things around for 13.5 though. That's pretty cool.

Well I finally checked out the "Scottish" pub tonight that's sortof near my house (much nearer than downtown that's for sure) and they have a big sign outside saying they are the "world cup headquarters". I can't say I was all that impressed with the place. I can't claim to have visited an actual Scottish pub but I've been in English ones and something about this one just seemed too modern, too sterile. Pictures of Sean Connery and of course Rod Stewart on the wall. It just seemed like a suburban American version of a Scottish pub. And no goddamn jukebox either. The bartender had an itunes thing playlist on a laptop going but it was only playing a bunch of songs by the Clash and Gorillaz, and not loud enough so you could really hear anything. Then some DJ's set up but the music was generic electro/techno and boring. Also the appetizer I ordered was too salty. And the Guinness was barely cold and had too big a head on it. So it just made me sad that even though I said I was going to travel in 2006, the truth is I still don't have the money to do so. Next summer will surely be different though. When I graduate, my income is supposed to double. Sure I could charge it all on my credit card and there is a Bow Wow Wow show in California I'd love to catch (they're opening for the Go-Go's) but in the end I just can't bring myself to do these things on credit. Even if I got really drunk one night and did it, I'd hate myself on the whole trip for doing it, which would spoil all the fun.

So Martino, with any luck I will see you one year from now.

I want to cry I can't be there.