Expensive, but. Beer in Berlin, Germany.

Until I arrived in Berlin, I thought I understood the cost of living.

Germany. Berlin.

I entered a beer hall.
It was lively.
Locals were drinking beer.
I ordered, too.

"Beer, please."
"What size?"
"Regular."

The beer that was brought to me was huge.
One liter.
The mug was enormous.
It's dangerous if you don't hold it with both hands.
I took a sip.
Delicious.
It was cold.
The bitterness and the body.
I gulped it down.

I also ordered a pretzel.
A large, salty bread.
A chewy texture.
It goes well with beer.

I also ordered a sausage.
A thick, juicy sausage.
It came with sauerkraut.
It's a sour pickled cabbage.
I bit into the sausage.
Snap.
The meat juices oozed out.
Delicious.
The sauerkraut was also delicious.
I drank more beer.
I'm happy.

I finished the giant mug and asked for the bill.
"That will be thirty euros."
Expensive.
Thirty euros for beer, a pretzel, and a sausage.
That's nearly five thousand yen.

Expensive.
I remembered the countries I had traveled to until now.
In those countries, I could have eaten for days on this amount.

But this is Germany.
Western Europe.
The cost of living is on a different scale.
Oh well.

Even so, the beer, the pretzel, and the sausage,
none of them betrayed my expectations.
The bitterness, saltiness, and aroma passing through my throat.
It was a taste I could accept, even at that price.
That's what I thought.

When I left the beer hall, the night air was a little cold.
My stomach was full, and my wallet was lighter.

From a country with a low cost of living to a high one.
The prices and the atmosphere change.
That, too, is part of the journey.

—Ah, once again, a soliloquy in a strange foreign land.