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It's already been a week, and I feel like I will never be able to write a blog entry that fully describes the incredible time that I had in Munich for Oktoberfest 2009. Yea yea yea, you'll probably think this'll just be an entry about wild drinking stories and shambles, but we actually ended up doing a ton a sightseeing around Munich and Oktoberfest ended up being an extremely culturally fascinating event as well.
But Casey, aren't you supposed to be like...going to school while in Europe?
That's what I thought too. Turns out that they had the international student move in a week and a half earlier so that we could have our orientation and then take part in some of the "fresher's week" activities that were going on the week before classes actually started. I'm sure the welcome week activities were fun and dandy, but the second that I heard that I had a week off in Europe before my classes started, I hopped on the web to start looking at flight prices. Then of course, I needed a travel buddy and turns out that wasn't hard in the least! Jenn was more than willing to hop over to Munich for a few days to check out the festival.
Our next dilemna came with finding a place to stay. I knew I was definitely going to see Fabi while in Munich but it was unclear if I could stay with him. Turns out he was subletting his apartment during Oktoberfest to earn some extra cash so that option was out. I figured the hostels would be cheap, but they ended up being about 1000% more expensive than every part of the year except Oktoberfest (no exageration.) Finally, HRS to the rescue! She made a good network of friends while living in Munich, and knew a friend who was a couchsurfing host, who was more than willing to let us crash on the floor for the 2 nights. Jon is forever my hero and karma will definitely treat him well in the future :)
So basically the entire trip was flawless from the moment we arrived. Jenn and i left Elms Village at 4:15am to catch our 7am flight from Belfast to Munich. Upon arriving at the airport, we were greeted by a man who was trying to get a group of people together so that we could get a group rate on the S Bahn into town. The man's name was Andreas, and he was one of the nicest strangers I have even encountered. While riding into the city, he drew us out a map of Marienplatz, with all of the key spots that we had to hit. Also in our "group" was an Austrian girl named Melanie and an Australian babe named Antony. Jenn and I were the only ones in the group who were actually traveling together, but Melanie and Antony decided to find a nice German lunch with us once we reached city center. Coming up the escalator from the S-Bahn we made it just in time to see and hear the Glockenspiel doing its little thang. Without even trying, we got to check one of the things off our things to do list. It didn't take us long to find an excellent outdoor restaurant where all of us ordered the schweine platter, a plate of pork potato dumpings and saurkraut (google just told me that pig's ears were also part of this dish. who knew), and of COURSE a pint of Lowenbrau (the restaurant's offered beer.
After lunch and saying our goodbyes, Jenn and I set off to find the English Gardens and Chinese Tower beer garden. We ran into a South African family (who now lived in Munich), as they were touring the garden and they took us in as one of their own. While walking through the garden, Pat (a younger blonde lady in the fam), and Reiner (her father) explained to us some of the best things to do and see and drink! in Munich. Augustiner brau was the beer of choice of Germans, and also at the top of my to do list (and boy oh boy did i do it...). On our walk through the gardens we came upon the Eisbach, a part of the river running through the park in which surfers ride a tidal pool that forms underneatha a small water fall. Onward from there we found the Hofbrauhaus beer garden by the Chinese tower (a large wooden tower donated by China in the english garden...yea how many nationalities can you put in one setting..). This was also in my top 5 favorite parts of Munich. We enjoyed a liter of the HB helles with the family (Jenn had a Radler, half lemonade/ half beer), and then we headed out to meet up with Jon before the Oktoberfest.
The actual Oktoberfest was absolutely wild. I had no clue that it was so huge, and with so many things to. Everywhere I looked there were men in leiderhosen and women in drindls. I didn't think that people ACTUALLY dressed that way, so I ended up just feeling like a left out tourist for wearing jeans and a t. I also did not expect the beer tents to be actually buildings (and i can't believe that they put them up and take then down every year!). Our first tent was the Augustiner, the best beer of Munich. We met lots of characters there, including some Australians, English, and of course lots of Germans. The rest of the night turned to shambles as I severely underestimated how much beer was in a liter, and just how strong the beer would be. I lost my phone. And that's all there really is to say about that.
The next day was one of the best that I can remember. Jenn and I woke up with the goal of finding a delicious outdoor German breakfast. And that is what we found. We found this outdoor cafe and ordered one of the best meals of my life, even though it turned out being way more food than either of us had planned for. Mixed Cheese Platter. Sausages. Pretzels. Apple Streudel. Beer.
Meeting up with Fabi was definitely one of the greatest things about Munich. He was dressed to the nines with a white german shirt that had his family crest embroidered on it along with his brown leather leiderhosen pants. Before heading to the Oktoberfest for Round 2, he took Jenn and I to the Hofbrauhaus so that we could check another Munich Must Do off of our list. Fabi is just sincerely one of the nicest people I have ever known. I haven't spoken much to him since he left American but it still felt like we had been talking the entire time. At Oktoberfest, we headed to his favorite beer tent, the Schottenhamel tent. The bad in here was absolutely insane, and Fabi taught us all the songs and dances that we needed to know. The pictures can show the craziness much better than I can describe it. I'll also put up a video asap. I also got the chance to meet some of Fabi's friends from home, and it was just amazing to see him in his element. The group of us rode some crazy rides after we had had enough of the beer tent. After we split off from him, Jenn and I continued to explore the festival, going on the ferris wheel and finding some gifts for people back home. We hit up the Augustiner tent one last time, and shared a few brews with some wild German men with few morals. One even took off his wedding ring when we told him that we were not attracted to married men! After this, we headed home and passed out for a great sleep on Jon's floor haha.
There are millions of stories that I either forget or am too tired to type, but this was Munich in a nutshell. Lots of great people, beer, food, memories
:)
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