I NEED SOME HELP IN UNDERSTANDING GERMANS.

Well, stout, both Murphy's and Guinness generally runs about 4-4.5% alcohol....it only tastes strong, maybe it's all the iron in it

cav, It's really all the Irish jokes in the beer that tastes strong. c.i.

Ahh, true enough c.i. When the wife and I were in West Cork, we loved hanging out with the ould ones, just listening to their stories and having great conversations. We avoided the big towns, and spent our time in the country. They even discussed politics, except when Brit tourists entered the pub. Murphy's is the stout of choice in Cork, and Guinness is for the tourists. It was quite amusing to us that they took such care (10 minutes at least) to draw a pint of Murphy's, and about 10 seconds to draw a Guinness.

cav, There's a Murphy's pub on every block in Ireland. Didn't know they named their pubs after the beer. LOL BTW, even saw a Bill Clinton pub. Shud'a took a picture of that one! c.i.

Holy cow, I would have loved to see that pic In Toronto, there is a Guinness pub on every corner!

cav, I learned one thing on my visit to Ireland: Murphy means "sea warrior." Don't ask what else happend, but "Guinness" seems to be prominent. c.i.

Ya know, CI, it's funny you say that. When I was in Ireland, one of those along (a daughter of a friend of the gf's family) would say, in all seriousness, in every town we came across, "Let's go to Murphy's" or "Let's go to Guinness." The longest short trip of my life...

VIVE LE REVOLUTION ! so what's a little inconvenience; life will go on tomorrow! i admire the french for their spunk - in canada we could use some of their rabble-rousing spirit. but here we must be polite and NOT inconvenience anyone; i say "the heck with it, and let's go on the barricades"!. ....... i'm getting a little late into this thread and wonder how we got from "understanding germans" to murphy and the french? i'll throw in a few little scraps and hope the thread will get back on track. i've got mapleleaf's comments in front of me and i'll put in my comments and perhaps add a few little tidbits. "INDUSTRIOUS" - germans are getting some of the longest vacations - and the last volkswagen i drove(a 1972 passat made in germany) gave up it's ghost after seven years and less than 120,000 miles. the old beetles would run and run with little maintenance.... "A WAR LIKE PEOPLE" - we spent three weeks in hamburg/germany in march/april 2003 and i think we saw more anti-war demonstrations in that short time than we've had in canada in the last ten years - certainly the young people would not qualify as war-like people. "BLOND HAIR AND BLUE EYES" -well, there are a few of those left - but i think most have black/brown hair.... more later(i'm not very industrious right now).hbg

Hamburger, you're German, and we, here at A2K, don't want expert opinion, we'd rather make it up as we go along. By all means, though, be sure to post more of your comments. We likely, however, won't stay on topic. I will, especially, be prone to straying if i see the prospect of a cheap joke . . .

setanta: i'm sure you know how much i love getting off the subject - but surely that doesn't give everyone else the same right, RIGHT ? "BLOND HAIR AND BLUE EYES" (once more) : germany has been a mixture of of many different peoples/races for centuries and one would perhaps find enclaves of (somewhat) true germans more likely in the united states and canada than in germany. some years ago we travelled for a few weeks through texas and came across a german settlement dating back to about 1850(the settlers had come over after the german revolution of 1848). i believe the town/village was called BRAUNFELS(can't find it on a map); they are well known for their annual WURSTFEST. the people spoke better german than we did(well, that may really mean that our german is pretty lousy). they seemed to have maintained a real german identity; the mexican waitress at the local restauraunt also spoke pretty good german; which, she told us, was being taught at school. we were really quite astonished to be addressed in perfect german by the ladies running the local museum. i'm certainly a mixture of many different races, i'm sure. no blond hair, no blue eyes! father's family came from eastern part of germany(pomerania); mother's family came from the rhineland and to top it of there apparently is a shot of gypsy blood in my veins(my grand-dad was known as "ZIGEUNER"(gypsy) by his friends. my brother who liked to wear a mustache(a la menjou) was sometimes mistaken for an italian. we certainly are a good mixture(just like ebeth's dogs - no disrespect to bailey and cleo!). "BLACK FOREST" : it's a nice area of germany, but give me the forests of northern ontario or the adirondacks; those are FORESTS! (same goes for SCHWARZWAELDER KIRSCHTORTE - BLACKFOREST CAKE - i'd take a pecan pie or new york cheese cake!)............. but there are some german foods(they may be found in hamburg and surrounding area) that are sure to delight any lover of good food; i'll list just a few here(details supplied on request) : sweet-and-sour eel soup(that's right : EEL), BOHNEN, BIRNEN UND SPECK(green beans, fresh sweet pears and smoked bacon), SNUTEN UN POOTEN(pigs' snouts and trotters with sauerkraut and puree of yellow peas), and finally LABSKAUS( a stew of day-old potatoes and saltbeef served with red beets and salted herring . enough for now. hbg

Hamburger (whew, i almost used yer real moniker), if the Braunfels to which you refer is near to San Antonio, as in New Braunfels, it's still there, but it's been absorbed by the dramatic growth of the city in the era of the Vietnam War.

hbg, There are also many Germans in South America. Puerto Montt in Chile has a well known German community. When I went on my cruise last November to South America, our ship had many Germans on it. One day at lunch, I sat with a couple from Germany, and asked if it was okay to ask them a question. I asked if the people from Germany or they had family in Puerto Montt, but he answered in the negative. He told me that the reason so many Germans were on the Celebrity Cruise was that they advertised extensively in Germany. He also offered that he was a captain on a ship, and traveled all over the world, but never went around Cape Horn. He said this trip was his life's dream. c.i.

i need some help in understanding germans.
setanta: THANKS ! of course it was NEW braunfels. i understand you posted a thread re. st. petersburg anniversary, but i can't find it. here is a link you may find of interest re. the just(today) opened new AMBERROOM : www.tzar.ru . another neat site is www.grandhotel.com .well, if you blow my cover i hope i'll survive it. hbg

c.i. : i was told that family from my mother's side shipped out to south america - chile , i believe - but i don't know any details. an interesting book about south america with many references to german settlers is john gunther's "INSIDE LATIN AMERICA". while it is somewhat outdated(having been published in 1940) i still enjoy browsing through it(and having the german settlers referred to as "FIFTH COLUMN"). hamburg was and is an important german and european shipping port connecting europe to south-america. hamburg has always had strong trade connections to south-america; a shipping line named HAMBURG-SUED maintains today a busy schedule to south-america - they had some of the most beautiful german passenger-ships before the war; they all had names starting with CAP ...(cap arcona was the most famous one; i still remember it being berthed right on the hamburg waterfront - what a sight it was!). hbg

c.i. : have been trying to copy a picture of the ship to the thread - without success! the "crtl" and "c" don.t seem to do the trick - so i'm giving you the address, in case you are interested looking at it (a.t. one of the sites it was called "the most beautiful ship of its times)" : www.deutsche-passagierschiffe.de/arcona.htm hbg

hbg, It is a beautiful ship! When I first looked at it, it resembled the Queen Mary - that ventage. I think they're going to retire the Queen Mary II this year. BTW, on my visit to Russia a few years ago, I was able to see the Amber Room. It was so awesome, I thought it the most beautiful room in the world, and I've seen some beautiful buildings in my time. On our visit to Cahterine the Great's Palace, we were told the story about the Amber Room; the Russian deconstructed the Amber Room and shipped it to Siberia for safe keeping during the war. We were also informed that Germany helped with the cost of reconstruction. c.i.

Forgive me for not reading through the entire thread.....

Three of my dearest friends are from Germany.

One, I'm afraid, doesn't keep in touch with me anymore and this saddens me endlessly.

But.....

He was punctual beyond belief. Relaxed enough though that he didn't get out of sorts when things didn't go according to plan. (If you're reading this Mathias, I still love you to pieces and miss you terribly.)

Stefan and Ursula ~ now, they are two people who defy all statistics. Ursula is German, Stefan is Swedish ~ together or seperately, they are great people. I'm proud to call them friends.

By the way, Hamburger, in addition to the German Village neighborhood in Columbus with its famous sausage maker, Schmidt's, there is a large ethnic German community in southern Illinois, and in southeast Missouri, and there is a town in Illinois (the name escapes me at the moment) in which they have a bratwurst festival every year. Good thing i don't live too close to that anymore--i eat too many sausages as it is.

Also, i don't know if you were told, but Mr. Bailey has evinced a distinct dislike for German poetry. Lovey and i were sitting in Schiller park, near the statue of Schiller, in German Village, having just read all of the quotes they have inscribed in the walks. Mr. Bailey jumped up to join us, but just as he settled in, he happened to look up at the statue of Schiller, and began to bark in a very indignant manner. I can't think what his objection would be, especially as he is part Pomeranian himself, but, then, i'm not terribly familiar with German poetry.

c.i. : a/t the magazine DEUTSCHLAND (german government puplication) the original amber room was removed by the german army during the war and transported to a mine-shaft used as storage by the university of goettingen - the mine-shaft was also used to store ammo and blew up towards the end of the war - no more amber room! the new one (which opened today - chancellor schroeder and president putin in attendance) is a REPLICA. i have to supply the details tomorrow; it's a lengthy article. hbg

Here ya go, Boss: