Munich impressions (2)

As in my last post, here are a few things that have struck me about the differences between Germany and the US.

Pizza: what looks like a pepperoni pizza really has salami on it (the slices are larger than pepperoni usually is in the US). If you ask for a 'pepperoni pizza' you get a pizza with chopped up pepperoncinis. So you must beware!

Children travel on their own much more than in the US. For example, on the S-bahn and U-bahn trains, there are many young students going to school. Many look like they're 10 years old, or even less. Even though it's perfectly safe, it's not something that you would see any more in the US. Perhaps 30 years ago, but not any more.

When someone sneezes in public, there is no "God Bless You" or "Gesundheit" response. That just doesn't seem to be the custom here.

There is no prohibition on "open containers" in public. In fact, people drink on the S-bahn trains, especially the youth heading to Oktoberfest. Since the beer is expensive at "the Wiesn", they drink beforehand. And there are breweries everywhere. There's a small brewery and restaurant about a 5-minute walk from where I live (it's in the "platz" right next to the train station) so tonight my host Karl gave me a 2-L jug and told me to go to the brewery and get it filled. Which I did, for about 7,50 EUR. And I walked back. Now this jug just has a cork in it, so in the US it would be considered an open container, but no problem in Munich, where beer is king. Anyway, so we each had some beer with our dinner of homemade buffalo wings. Did I mention that Karl is a lover of spicy American food?

Addendum: The train drivers went on strike last night, but only for 9 hours. So, while the morning commute was disrupted (my S-bahn train into Munich was 20 minutes late) nothing serious happened. The worker-manager relationship seems to be different here, too, although I don't know enough about it to say in what way.