Wine Tasting
May 26, 2006
The big thing this week was the wine tasting on Wednesday. My professor reserved a room for our class in a small restaurant in the center of the city where they hold wine tastings. I invited Sabrina and Anne, but Sabrina couldn't come. We tried five wines, but I didn't take notes like some people and so can't tell you much about them. I do know that all of them were Franconian wines (the area around Würzburg is called Franconia for reasons they told us on the tour that I have now forgotten).
Served with the wine was fancy water, carbonated as always. Also there were tiny slices of bread for eating in between wines so that we could clear our palate. We got instruction on how to smell the wine, how to sip it, how to hold the glass, how to move the glass to make the aroma come out, and all of that kind of voodoo. I think the sophisticated ritual involved is what makes it okay for people to get sloshed at a nice restaurant.
After that, the German students with us invited everyone to a dance club. Anne has a car (and only sipped one glass), so we piled into that. Of course, it's one of those tiny European cars of a brand that you've never hear of. Because the next day was a big German holiday, the club was packed. We mostly just looked around a bit and then left. I think most of the people there were in high school. That's another difference with the US–because teenagers can drink, clubs for them are a profitable business here.
Today I went to walmart with Anne. I put pictures of it and her up on flickr. The main difference are the weird prices. Paper plates are absurdly expensive, wine is cheap (and they serve samples to everyone–our walmart doesn't do that!), and only the stupid American (me) asks for plastic bags. Everyone else brought a special carrying crate for their groceries. This special carrying crate is small so that it can fit in their tiny European trunks.
That's all to report for now. I will maybe go to a bakery tomorrow with Sabrina since she seems to know more about cheese and bread than everyone else.
