re: #511 HappyWarrior

My favorite part of traveling has always been trying to find places where locals go. I mean I don’t mind playing tourist because I obviously want to see the famous sites but at the same time, I love the idea of just having a beer with the locals.

I brought up Vienna because that’s a place where I did a lot of solo wandering, only knowing a smattering of German. I got coffee and lunch in places where the wait staff didn’t know a lick of English. It was fun.

My northern European genes made it very easy to mistake me for a local too. I had a group of cute young German tourist women come up to me to ask me for directions (in German). I heard “Gr Gott” (a casual greeting common in Austria and Bavaria) and then didn’t understand a word of what they said afterward. I sheepishly asked “Sprechen sie Englisch?” which got a huge laugh. That was a fun moment too.