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Brunnen hier sind wir Völker, unser erstes europäisches Blog Abenteuer, München, Deutschland. Hoffnung sind Sie bereit, eifersuechtig zu erhalten......
I guess if we were going to sum up Munich in 2 words it would have to be, MEAT and BEER, or maybe BEER and MEAT it's a close call as to what is consumed the most in this city.
Before I sat down to write this blog, I hadn't realise how much we'd experienced and learnt in our 5 days in Munich.At the time it didn't feel like we were doing a lot, just cruising around, doing the odd tour and drinking the odd beer (ok maybe more than the odd beer) and eating the odd meal but thinking about everything we experienced I've realised I can't possibly fit it all in a blog.So I'll try and give you the condensed version.
I guess everyone knows the main reason for the trip, was to be part of the annual pilgrimage of Australians who fly, train, drive (or walk if the have to) to Munich for Oktoberfest.You'd be forgiven for thinking that the 5 days was all about beer, and whilst there is no doubt that beer was an important part of our holiday, you might also be surprised to hear that we actually did more than just drink beer.
We ate a lot of food too.
Seriously though, we took a walking tour of the city, which was a great way to orientate ourselves but also to get a bit of a history lesson.All I knew before I went to Munich was that it was famous for its beer, and whilst this is a big part of Munich's identity - there was also a much darker side of Munich that we learnt about.I don't want to give you all a history lesson so won't bother regurgitating all the interesting facts and figures and stories we heard, but I will say that it went a long way to explaining the strange feeling we got from a city that seems to be battling to find an identity it feels comfortable with.
Oh, sorry I do have one fact - it's mostly for Nathan's benefit, but as you may or may not know, Munich was originally a collection of Monastery's.What did the monks at these Monastery's do?Well they brewed beer of course.These little alcoholic monks drank so much of what they brewed that eventually a law was passed which restricted them to just 5 beers a day.Um, yea, that's 5 Steins.Um that's 15% Beer.
Before I get onto the main event, I think that our trip to Dachau rates a mention.I'd heard stories of how depressing it was but I don't think I was fully prepared for what I was going to see and feel.In the end I gave up on my audio tour before it was complete as I was just too overwhelmed by it all.I wouldn't say it was the highlight of the trip, but defiantly a worthwhile experience.
Ok, so enough of the dark depressing stuff. Let's talk about fun stuff.Let's talk about beer.And Meat.I know, I know, anyone who knows me knows that meat isn't exactly my best friend.I'm not going to claim to be a convert and I'm not going to lie, I was still freaked out by a lot of it but I think I ate more meat in the last 5 days than I'd eaten in the previous 5 months!Meat Loaf, Bratwurst, Goulash, more bratwurst, more meatloaf……….The one non meat meal I had was presented to me by the waiter and described as 'the fried egg and plate of vegetable stuff'.I don't think true vegetarians would survive in Germany if Munich is anything to go by.Oh, unless you're happy to live on pretzels and beer…………… I guess there could be worse things.
So, Oktoberfest.Well to begin with I'd have to say it was much better than I'd expected.Being an Australian, I had assumed that any festival which centered around beer was going to be questionable, I thought there would be thousands of too drunk people being loud and annoying - basically I just had images of Christmas Eve at Knoppies but with 100,000 people rather than a few hundred.
Well turns out I was wrong.Very wrong.See, it just so happens that whilst beer is a big part of Oktoberfest it's not the only part, there is beer, there is food, lots of food, there are amusement park rides and then there is beer. Did I mention there was beer??The rules are that if you don't have a seat, you don't get beer and it's not just a bunch of pissed adults but whole families enjoying the festival, drinking, eating and dancing to the Oompha bands.The atmosphere is too difficult to describe - again one of those things you probably have to experience for yourselves.
Day 1 of the festival saw us arrive too late to get a seat in one of the tents or beer gardens (remember; no seat = no beer) so we had to be content with sampling the local cuisine (meat and preztles) and going on rides. So we returned on Day 2 and found ourselves a seat in a beer garden got stuck into the Steins, meat and pretzels with the locals.
And that's pretty much the theme of our holiday.
Fact Number 2: Every year so many Australians come to Oktoberfest and get drunk and lose their passports, that for the duration of Oktoberfest the government sets up a temporary Australian embassy in Munich!I think we can all be proud of that.
We didn't spend the whole time at Oktoberfest though we got out and enjoyed beer in other places too.Beer halls, the famous Haufbrauhaus, the public beer garden, just to name a few.
So that's Munich in a nutshell - I'm not sure this blog does the city justice and it defiantly doesn't begin to describe the whole experience, but hopefully you can read it, and look at our photos and get a little idea of what Munich is about.
- comments
Satish . Your favorite reaosn seemed to be on the web the easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while people think about worries that they just don't know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without having side effect , people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks