Summing up Germany

So the last couple of post have been a bit more technical because I've been answering specific questions for my class. This will be the last of those, but hopefully a little less technical as it is the cultural side of things. The first cultural question is what I observed about people in Berlin and Munich. I feel like the people of Germany generally dress more fashionably then we do in the US. I never saw any sweatpants or yoga pants, few if any t-shirts and not even just a functional coat. It always was nice or fashionable. Another thing that was really interesting was the youth. We were riding the tram once when the schools got out and all of the kids were on the tram going home. It was fun to watch them laugh and talk with each other even though I couldn't understand them, and when they said goodbye, the girls kissed cheeks and boys kissed girls cheeks, but the boys just did a handshake thing. It was really more of hand grab. Overall the people were very friendly and willing to speak English, something I expect may be a problem here in Belgium.
The second question is to look at a map of Berlin and Munich and determine things about the histories from them. Both city centers seem to be right on the river. This makes sense as before the invention of cars and paved roads, waterways were the fastest and most reliable way to transport goods. Rivers were the highways of trade and also provided water for drinking and other everyday needs of a gathering of people, including crops, washing, and yes, brewing. The streets radiate out from the center, as more people settled there, they still tried to stay close to the center where everything they needed was conveniently located. Both cities also seem to have a ring maybe 2 km (or 1 mile) from the center which is probably where the wall used to be. In fact there is still one gate in Berlin, and several in Munich, though in Munich the city was a bit smaller as the remaining gates are only about 1 km from the center. There are also several parks that were once outside the city. The big one in Berlin used to be the royal hunting grounds and the best known one in Munich is the traditional site of Octoberfest. Both used to be outside the cities, but as they grew they were enveloped by it. They definitely help break up the monotony of tall grey buildings though and bring some nice green into the city.
I kind of covered the third question a bit in my previous answer, but it is about how waterways affect a cities trade. As I said, water was the lifeblood of trade. Everything was shipped by boats until paved roads, and really in Europe, large trucks just don't fit on the narrow roads designed for pedestrians and perhaps a horse-drawn carriage. For that reason barges are still important for trade. Also water is the main ingredient and beer and few other drinks help people get along better. It's hard to pack a lot of people into a small space without creating tension, but beer definitely helps relieve that tension between strangers, as we saw in the traditional beer halls in Munich where you just sit wherever there is an open seat, even at a table of complete strangers. Honestly I thought it was rather fun and I will miss that atmosphere a lot.
Already here in Belgium we've had a completely different drinking experience. We went to a hole-in-the-wall pub which was literally down a narrow winding alley that led to a tiny door into a small rectangular room. Inside the people were well dressed and were drinking the beer more like it was wine. It was a much more sophisticated atmosphere than the boisterous beer halls of Munich, but it was also nice for me to be able to understand what people were saying. I must say remembering my French is more difficult than I thought it would be. If I think about it too much it just slips away, but when Kali'e asked me for a specific word, it popped out before I could really think about it and it was right. Hopefully that means that when I'm drunk, I'll be speaking fluent French again :)