Beer and Bikes

Saturday afternoon I decided to look into getting Steffi's bike fixed up. However, seeing it in the daylight I admittedly became a little more skeptical of this idea. It's a functioning bike, don't get me wrong... at least, it has potential to be... but I certainly wouldn't be using it for much more than cruising around town, and maybe not even that. I started thinking about logistics, and either I'll have to put it in the back of the car any time I want to use it (no small feat, mind you), I'll need to keep it at my university's house (not sure if I'll be allowed to), or I could just leave it in the first district - locked up of course - I suppose. I can't imagine that the weather will put too much wear and tear on it considering the state it's already in. I don't know. But I resolved to at least see if I could get it tuned up or if some of the parts were just too old and rusted. I also figured it wouldn't hurt to look at some road bikes.

I started out at a nearby bike shop in Stetten that the farther had told me about called Pink. It was nice and had a good selection, but the folks there weren't all that helpful (perhaps just a factor of it being Saturday - it seemed like almost everyone was off) so after some chatting and a quote on a bike I decided to swing by Mountainbiker.at, a shop I had always slightly drooled over every time I went past it on the 40a (which was almost every day) when I was living here this summer. I noticed right away that there was... something... happening. There were balloons. There were tables. There were lots of people eating Weißwurst (the white Bratwurst) and pretzels and drinking beer. And they were all in Lederhosen and Dirndls. I hesitated a moment, but the shop looked open so I asked one of the women what the event was. Just a good ol' Oktoberfest celebration with free food and drinks for all. I thanked her but decided to skirt the crowd for the nonce and just head on inside. I made a reservation to get the bike tuned up, then browsed a bit. After a while, though, the food really was calling, so I went to join in the fun. I got a wurst, pretzel, and beer, and headed for an empty table because I needed to do some serious observing. The woman who gave me the Weißwurst gave it one long slice along its middle. When I looked for a knife, she explained to me that you peel off the skin and can just use a fork to eat the inside. Huh. I needed to see this. I nibbled on the pretzel, discreetly watching other people eating until I saw that you literally pick up the Weißwurst, separate the skin from the inside where the slice is, and peel it all back and discard it, much like a banana peel. You might also be wondering what, exactly, Weißwurst is. I was. It is, in fact, a traditional Bavarian sausage of minced veal and bacon and flavored with parsley, lemon, onions, ginger, and cardamom. They're typically boiled and eaten fresh (tradition has it that they're made in the morning and shouldn't be allowed to hear the church bells chime noon) and they look like this:

As I was attempting to blend in with my newly witnessed Weißwurst-eating skills I made conversation with a woman sitting near me who turned out to be from Brazil. We chatted for a bit, then her friends came back and we made up a pretty diverse international table - Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, US, and Vienna. We ended up talking for a couple of hours and were all invited to a Brazilian party that the first woman was throwing in a few weeks. I have yet to decide if I'll actually go, but aside from a fun afternoon two events of yet-to-be-determined-significance occurred:

1. I met the owner of the bike shop. It sounds like I might get a pretty good deal on a good bike as they're just getting their 2012s in (and I'll be more than satisfied with a 2011 model).
2. The Italian woman at the table introduced me to her nephew, Joe, who bikes and goes to university here. We didn't talk for long, but did exchange numbers and ended up getting dinner last night.

It was a good afternoon. I just wish I would have had a Dirndl to wear!