3 - 9 October 2013
Day 1: Flying over
I booked the flights last minute so I ended up taking two separate flights in a bit of a 1 back, then 2 steps forward type thing. My first flight was to Istanbul where I had lots of leg room in the plane, score, and had a chat with a lady from Washington DC about working on Sundays (we didn't agree).
Going through the Istanbul "in transit" area was a pain because I had to give up my water bottle. I thought it was weird because I'd gone through security in Sarajevo with it empty, then filled it up with non-explosive (secure) water so if I'm in transit in Istanbul and they don't have explosive water in there, then why bother having another security checkpoint? Arrrg!
The next leg of the flight pretty much took me back over Sarajevo *facepalm* and onto Munich. On this flight I spoke to a Canadian dude who sat next to me but can't remember what aboooot.
The plan was to arrive at Munich before my friend, who was flying in from England, so I could meet her there. I did arrive first, as planned but I didn't think Munich airport would be so big and because we flew with different airlines, I had to move as fast as you can with a 15kg backpack between terminals to meet her. Crisis averted though, I made it in time.
To the hostel!
Today was one of those "travel days" where I spent pretty much to whole day travelling. Once we found the hostel and dumped our bags, we went out to find some dinner and ended up at a rather fancy Italian restaurant. There weren't a lot of places open and it was cold outside so we're lucky we ended up in a good place.
Day 2: Walking tour... or not
Sandemans walking tours are run in Munich and we planned to make the early morning one but a combination of rain and getting lost meant we didn't. We killed some time by looking for a supermarket (but failed) and got coffee before making it back in time for the afternoon tour.
The tour was really good. We saw the clock in the main square (that's where we started) and moved on to the Hofbräuhaus where we were told a story about how, in the olden days, nobody wanted to get up from the table so they made urinals/piss troughs under the tables but then people complained about getting splashed on so they made sticks that you could piss onto and direct it nicely into the trough, ingenious! We also learnt that 30% of Munich's annual beer production is drunk during Oktoberfest.
After the tour ended, my friend and another girl we met on the tour climbed the Talburgtor tower. It was an interesting climb because the stairs are unevenly spaced and not really wide enough for two lanes of people, which is unfortunate because the tower was packed. It was worth it for the view from the top.
After the tower, we rushed back to the main square where we stood around with hundreds of other people to watch the puppet show in the clock tower. It goes for 10 minutes, which feels like forever and I don't remember it being all that awesome although it was better than the one in Prague.
Meet 'n' greet
As we booked for Oktoberfest very last minute, the only way to get accommodation was to join a tour. I spoke to a girl in Ohrid who told me about one called the Fanatics and it seemed good and had free spots so we jumped on it. As part of the tour, they run a meet and greet the night before our group's first day at the festival and that's what we went to tonight. We had our first stein and met a few people, which is always nice to have people who you can go "hey, it's *mumbles name because you forgot*!!". The meet and greet was at a pub with most of the tables set up outside and because it was freezing, the best way to keep warm was to drink beer and get a bit rowdy.
Day 3: off to Oktoberfest
Today is the first day my group goes to the Oktoberfest festival. The people who run it want to get us there well before it starts because it's a first come, best served set up. This means that we had to get up early to leave the hostel at 7am. We could walk to the venue but it only took about 30 minutes and the doors don't open until 9am so that meant we got to sit around in the cold and fog for about 90 minutes. It was about this time when I asked myself "why did I get up stupidly early to sit in the cold just so I can drink beer?".
When you could see people inside the doors getting ready to open them, everyone suddenly jumps up and starts pushing. The tents are massive but there are still more than enough people to fill them straight away so you need to be a bit pushy to make sure you get a seat. My friend and I ended up on a a table with other people from the Fanatics tours; some Aussies and a guy from Dubai. The first beers come out fast and it's a good idea to tip because then the beer ladies (shouldn't say wenches) will come back and serve you again.
This next bit went for about 7 hours but all I can say that we did was: took photos, cheered, sang German songs (badly), danced on the chairs, drew on each other with textas and drank beer. It doesn't sound like enough to fill the time but time flew! It was amazing.
At some point, my friend and I decided it was time to leave the tent and see what else was around. We found a rollercoaster and went for a spin on it. It felt much safer than the Mad Mouse (for those of you in Adelaide). We didn't really have much to eat in the tent (although they do serve food) so we bough some expensive sausages and nuts and headed home 9 hours after we first sat down for a beer. Still not sure where time went.
We stopped past a Thai place, that we'd eaten at previously, for dinner but it was shut so we ended up at a Subway. Did you know that carrot on Subway is an Australian, or at least not a German, thing? Well now you do. The lesson for today was "Drink more water" because I was really dehydrated. Totally worth it though.
Day 4: Back to Oktoberfest
The official plan was to get up as early as the day before and do the same thing but that wasn't happening. Now that my friend and I knew where to go and how to get into places, we were happy making our own way there. I made it to breakfast, win, and we finally made our way to the festival just after 1. We found the tent that the fanatics tour went to and sat at a table with a bunch of Swedish and were later joined by some Americans and Aussies.
I didn't pay for many beers during the course of the day because people kept ordering them and not finishing them so I kindly offered to help. We also found it a lot harder to order pretzels in this tent than the one yesterday and that was a real problem because that is pretty much all we were eating. We also had a texta floating around to keep a tally (not I condone drinking competitions though... *serious face*) and that degenerated to generally drawing stuff all over people.
Near the end of the night I tried to rally people to go on some rides but there was only one American who would have any of it so we went on the Chair-o-plane (see pictures) an the Ferris Wheel. Beer and show rides are a winner.
We made it to closing time today and the end of the night was a crazy scene. All the food places were closing while big queues of people were still trying to order and people were literally still ordering and being served as the shutters were being pulled down on the stalls. The only place I could get something from served a meatloaf in bread type thing that was unusual but hit the spot.
Day 5: Checkout
We had to checkout today and my friend helpfully woke me up but with hardly any time before we had to be checked out. I made it and we ended up running to get to the meet point for a tour we wanted to be on, which turned out not the be necessary because we made it with heaps of time.
Neuschwanstein
The tour took us to the south of Bavaria to see a castle, named Neuschwanstein, which I think translates to new swann stone. It was about a 2 hour trip to get there and it certainly was an impressive castle but the fact that it was pretty foggy made it hard to get photos or even fully appreciate because it was hard to see. The tour guide told us the history of the castle and the area on the walk up the hill and then we joined in with an organised tour through the castle. Apparently the castle, which is already pretty big, had plans to have lots of extensions to make it into something massive. It didn't happen because the king died or something and if you're curious, I'm sure Google has all the answers. I enjoyed the castle and that's the point I'm trying to make here.
After we left the castle, we went over to a bridge near that gives great views of the whole castle...when it's not foggy. So that was a fail. The next thing was to get back down the hill and there were two choices: the easy way (that we came up) or the interesting way. I chose the latter. It took us down a kind of dodgy looking bridge bolted to the rock face and past a dry creek bed that people had been stacking rocks in.
During the course of the day, my friend and I made friends with a Texan guy and a girl from Portugal. We made plans to go see Salzburg with the Portuguese girl the next day and then headed off with the Texan guy to have dinner at a Mexican place. We shared paella, chorizo, enchiladas and something that I wrote down as "seafood things" in my notes. It was all accompanied with the obvious choice, sangria!
We finished the night by going back to our hostel, grabbing our bags then heading over to another hostel that had spaces and checking into a 40 bed dorm.
Day 6: Salzburg
We met the Portuguese girl at the train station in the morning and had to run to catch the train (geez we were unorganised). The train ride was about 2 hours and we were taking a day trip to another country! This is such a weird concept to an Australian because going to another country is always a big thing, it's not just a day trip.
In Salzburg we walked through a park filled with odd statues, a garden of some fancy looking building, the streets in the old town and around the hilltop castle. We had a laugh when we could hear goats and eventually figured out that they'd climbed up the hill around the castle and were standing up near the top; higher than people can go without paying.
We went to the Augustine Brauhaus for a late lunch where we had a schnitzel and a stein before catching the train back to Germany.
Leaving...or not
My friend and I packed our bags and decided that we'd seen Munich and it was time to leave so we went to the train station with the intention to actually leave. We failed with a combination of reasons: not wanting to pay what they were asking for a ticket, being too late and not really being sure where we wanted to go.
We headed back to the hostel and booked in for another night.
Day 7: lazy day
My friend went on a day trip to see Dakau but I didn't go along because I'd already seen Auschwitz. Instead I spent the day blogging and shoe shopping.
We were definitely leaving this time so once again we went to the train station and booked a train to Amsterdam. We had some time to kill so we went back to our hostel and because I recognised the girl working at the neighbouring hostel as one of the people I met in Split, Croatia, she gave me some tickets for free beers. We enjoyed the free beer and then headed over to the train station. We booked a sleeper train because it was an overnight trip and we pretty much got on the train and went straight to sleep.
Day 1: Flying over
I booked the flights last minute so I ended up taking two separate flights in a bit of a 1 back, then 2 steps forward type thing. My first flight was to Istanbul where I had lots of leg room in the plane, score, and had a chat with a lady from Washington DC about working on Sundays (we didn't agree).
Going through the Istanbul "in transit" area was a pain because I had to give up my water bottle. I thought it was weird because I'd gone through security in Sarajevo with it empty, then filled it up with non-explosive (secure) water so if I'm in transit in Istanbul and they don't have explosive water in there, then why bother having another security checkpoint? Arrrg!
The next leg of the flight pretty much took me back over Sarajevo *facepalm* and onto Munich. On this flight I spoke to a Canadian dude who sat next to me but can't remember what aboooot.
The plan was to arrive at Munich before my friend, who was flying in from England, so I could meet her there. I did arrive first, as planned but I didn't think Munich airport would be so big and because we flew with different airlines, I had to move as fast as you can with a 15kg backpack between terminals to meet her. Crisis averted though, I made it in time.
To the hostel!
Today was one of those "travel days" where I spent pretty much to whole day travelling. Once we found the hostel and dumped our bags, we went out to find some dinner and ended up at a rather fancy Italian restaurant. There weren't a lot of places open and it was cold outside so we're lucky we ended up in a good place.
Day 2: Walking tour... or not
Sandemans walking tours are run in Munich and we planned to make the early morning one but a combination of rain and getting lost meant we didn't. We killed some time by looking for a supermarket (but failed) and got coffee before making it back in time for the afternoon tour.
The tour was really good. We saw the clock in the main square (that's where we started) and moved on to the Hofbräuhaus where we were told a story about how, in the olden days, nobody wanted to get up from the table so they made urinals/piss troughs under the tables but then people complained about getting splashed on so they made sticks that you could piss onto and direct it nicely into the trough, ingenious! We also learnt that 30% of Munich's annual beer production is drunk during Oktoberfest.
After the tour ended, my friend and another girl we met on the tour climbed the Talburgtor tower. It was an interesting climb because the stairs are unevenly spaced and not really wide enough for two lanes of people, which is unfortunate because the tower was packed. It was worth it for the view from the top.
After the tower, we rushed back to the main square where we stood around with hundreds of other people to watch the puppet show in the clock tower. It goes for 10 minutes, which feels like forever and I don't remember it being all that awesome although it was better than the one in Prague.
Meet 'n' greet
As we booked for Oktoberfest very last minute, the only way to get accommodation was to join a tour. I spoke to a girl in Ohrid who told me about one called the Fanatics and it seemed good and had free spots so we jumped on it. As part of the tour, they run a meet and greet the night before our group's first day at the festival and that's what we went to tonight. We had our first stein and met a few people, which is always nice to have people who you can go "hey, it's *mumbles name because you forgot*!!". The meet and greet was at a pub with most of the tables set up outside and because it was freezing, the best way to keep warm was to drink beer and get a bit rowdy.
Day 3: off to Oktoberfest
Today is the first day my group goes to the Oktoberfest festival. The people who run it want to get us there well before it starts because it's a first come, best served set up. This means that we had to get up early to leave the hostel at 7am. We could walk to the venue but it only took about 30 minutes and the doors don't open until 9am so that meant we got to sit around in the cold and fog for about 90 minutes. It was about this time when I asked myself "why did I get up stupidly early to sit in the cold just so I can drink beer?".
When you could see people inside the doors getting ready to open them, everyone suddenly jumps up and starts pushing. The tents are massive but there are still more than enough people to fill them straight away so you need to be a bit pushy to make sure you get a seat. My friend and I ended up on a a table with other people from the Fanatics tours; some Aussies and a guy from Dubai. The first beers come out fast and it's a good idea to tip because then the beer ladies (shouldn't say wenches) will come back and serve you again.
This next bit went for about 7 hours but all I can say that we did was: took photos, cheered, sang German songs (badly), danced on the chairs, drew on each other with textas and drank beer. It doesn't sound like enough to fill the time but time flew! It was amazing.
At some point, my friend and I decided it was time to leave the tent and see what else was around. We found a rollercoaster and went for a spin on it. It felt much safer than the Mad Mouse (for those of you in Adelaide). We didn't really have much to eat in the tent (although they do serve food) so we bough some expensive sausages and nuts and headed home 9 hours after we first sat down for a beer. Still not sure where time went.
We stopped past a Thai place, that we'd eaten at previously, for dinner but it was shut so we ended up at a Subway. Did you know that carrot on Subway is an Australian, or at least not a German, thing? Well now you do. The lesson for today was "Drink more water" because I was really dehydrated. Totally worth it though.
Day 4: Back to Oktoberfest
The official plan was to get up as early as the day before and do the same thing but that wasn't happening. Now that my friend and I knew where to go and how to get into places, we were happy making our own way there. I made it to breakfast, win, and we finally made our way to the festival just after 1. We found the tent that the fanatics tour went to and sat at a table with a bunch of Swedish and were later joined by some Americans and Aussies.
I didn't pay for many beers during the course of the day because people kept ordering them and not finishing them so I kindly offered to help. We also found it a lot harder to order pretzels in this tent than the one yesterday and that was a real problem because that is pretty much all we were eating. We also had a texta floating around to keep a tally (not I condone drinking competitions though... *serious face*) and that degenerated to generally drawing stuff all over people.
Near the end of the night I tried to rally people to go on some rides but there was only one American who would have any of it so we went on the Chair-o-plane (see pictures) an the Ferris Wheel. Beer and show rides are a winner.
We made it to closing time today and the end of the night was a crazy scene. All the food places were closing while big queues of people were still trying to order and people were literally still ordering and being served as the shutters were being pulled down on the stalls. The only place I could get something from served a meatloaf in bread type thing that was unusual but hit the spot.
Day 5: Checkout
We had to checkout today and my friend helpfully woke me up but with hardly any time before we had to be checked out. I made it and we ended up running to get to the meet point for a tour we wanted to be on, which turned out not the be necessary because we made it with heaps of time.
Neuschwanstein
The tour took us to the south of Bavaria to see a castle, named Neuschwanstein, which I think translates to new swann stone. It was about a 2 hour trip to get there and it certainly was an impressive castle but the fact that it was pretty foggy made it hard to get photos or even fully appreciate because it was hard to see. The tour guide told us the history of the castle and the area on the walk up the hill and then we joined in with an organised tour through the castle. Apparently the castle, which is already pretty big, had plans to have lots of extensions to make it into something massive. It didn't happen because the king died or something and if you're curious, I'm sure Google has all the answers. I enjoyed the castle and that's the point I'm trying to make here.
After we left the castle, we went over to a bridge near that gives great views of the whole castle...when it's not foggy. So that was a fail. The next thing was to get back down the hill and there were two choices: the easy way (that we came up) or the interesting way. I chose the latter. It took us down a kind of dodgy looking bridge bolted to the rock face and past a dry creek bed that people had been stacking rocks in.
During the course of the day, my friend and I made friends with a Texan guy and a girl from Portugal. We made plans to go see Salzburg with the Portuguese girl the next day and then headed off with the Texan guy to have dinner at a Mexican place. We shared paella, chorizo, enchiladas and something that I wrote down as "seafood things" in my notes. It was all accompanied with the obvious choice, sangria!
We finished the night by going back to our hostel, grabbing our bags then heading over to another hostel that had spaces and checking into a 40 bed dorm.
Day 6: Salzburg
We met the Portuguese girl at the train station in the morning and had to run to catch the train (geez we were unorganised). The train ride was about 2 hours and we were taking a day trip to another country! This is such a weird concept to an Australian because going to another country is always a big thing, it's not just a day trip.
In Salzburg we walked through a park filled with odd statues, a garden of some fancy looking building, the streets in the old town and around the hilltop castle. We had a laugh when we could hear goats and eventually figured out that they'd climbed up the hill around the castle and were standing up near the top; higher than people can go without paying.
We went to the Augustine Brauhaus for a late lunch where we had a schnitzel and a stein before catching the train back to Germany.
Leaving...or not
My friend and I packed our bags and decided that we'd seen Munich and it was time to leave so we went to the train station with the intention to actually leave. We failed with a combination of reasons: not wanting to pay what they were asking for a ticket, being too late and not really being sure where we wanted to go.
We headed back to the hostel and booked in for another night.
Day 7: lazy day
My friend went on a day trip to see Dakau but I didn't go along because I'd already seen Auschwitz. Instead I spent the day blogging and shoe shopping.
We were definitely leaving this time so once again we went to the train station and booked a train to Amsterdam. We had some time to kill so we went back to our hostel and because I recognised the girl working at the neighbouring hostel as one of the people I met in Split, Croatia, she gave me some tickets for free beers. We enjoyed the free beer and then headed over to the train station. We booked a sleeper train because it was an overnight trip and we pretty much got on the train and went straight to sleep.
Thoughts on Munich and Oktoberfest:
- It was obviously expensive but it was totally worth it. I'm not sure if I'd do it again but that's purely for the cost.
- Munich is a nice place with lots to see and a lot of history
- It rained quite a bit
- It's worth visiting
- I met some great people and that meant I had a great time
- Oktoberfest isn't just about getting drunk, there were lots of families there and as long as you stay out of the tents, you don't see any drinking
 |
| I was told it was good luck to grab the boob |
 |
| Don't do anything of these things! Especially not putting your hands in your pockets. |
 |
| The view from the tower |
 |
| Another view from the tower |
 |
| My friend and I at the top of the tower |
 |
| Proost! |
 |
| The beer lady who served us on the first day |
 |
| Outside the tents at Oktoberfest |
 |
| The chair-o-plane ride |
 |
| View from the Ferris Wheel |
 |
| There is a castle in all that fog |
 |
| The stacked rocks |
 |
| I helped stack some rocks |
 |
| Ride the unicorn |
 |
| This horse looks so happy |
 |
| A gnome statue in the park of weird statues |
 |
| I don't always see giant cucumbers but when I do, I hug them |
 |
| The big gold...ball...with a kid on top....thing (in Salzburg) |
 |
| View from the gates to the castle in Salzburg |
 |
| My friend and the Portuguese girl |
 |
| The goats |
No comments:
Post a Comment