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It is going to be very hard to recount the last week of what we both remember as the best week of our life. Not because it was Oktoberfest and there was naturally a bit of beer involved but because so much happened! Think southbound but ten times better ( and I think that's a pretty big call). The first few days started innocently enough, we got into Munich a few days earlier and stayed in a hostel near the city, only possible because Oktoberfest hadn't started yet, the entire city was completely booked out and insanely expensive. So we decided we might get lucky if we buy a tent and rock up to a campsite and hope that they have a spare space.
Wednesday
We spent the whole day looking for a tent and got laughed out of a few shops when we asked to see the twenty euro range. Beer is cheaper than water here but tents seemed to be more expensive than renting! Finally we found something more suitable to our budget after eight hours if walking around Munich and it's outdoors stores. Was the most sightseeing we did the whole time however so let's consider this day a success.
Thursday
On Thursday we crossed our fingers and head off to the campsite, about twenty minutes in transport out of town. We set up our lovely little tent and tried attempted to create make shift beds by lining the floor with clothes and using coats and the thin blankets we took from Prague to keep us warm. We had a relatively early night, had a few beers to warm us up for the cold night ahead. Siobhan got laughed at hysterically for buying some microwave meal from the deli at the campsite. It had mash potatoes and gravy and veggies and what looked like a sausage roll, and looked pretty good. "you do realize it is kraut?" the lady said laughing.
" I don't know what that is. Please dont tell me!" she agreed and it was pretty tasty! I got it another two times before Bon asked her (I finally felt ready to know) and she said it was parts of animal head. I am still not ready to hear what part of the head and don't think I ever will be, I didn't eat meat for a week after that!
Friday
Bon and I went for a walk into the town and had planned to head into Munich to get some second hand blankets or pillows anything, we had both had one of the most uncomfortable coldest nights of out life. We were distracted however when we saw in a fuel station a beer that was a liter large and 10 percent. It was black and had an angry man on it and looked a little scary, we thought it was our Oktoberfest duty to give it a try. Back at the campsite someone came up to Bon and asked her if she knew Gen, turns out they were both from Bridgetown! We had a lot of fun drinking with Josh and his friends, recounting old "down south" stories and as it was the day before Oktoberfest the camp site had heaps of people and music playing, was a great night!
Oktoberfest
DISCLAIMER- to all the parents who read our blog, please be assured that we were all very safe during this time, and that the next part of the blog is aimed at a different audience then you may be accustomed to, so if stories about drinking and not much tourism doesn't interest you, then no need to read on :)
Saturday (first day of Oktoberfest!)
We got up bright and early to jump on the wifi and get a hold of clare so we could meet up as she was staying in Munich with a tour group. As none of us had phones it was a little difficult so we went into the city to meet up with some of the Bridgetown boys (new ones, down south people were everywhere!) so that we could have some beers with them and use their phone. We went to a pub which looked like a mini beer hall, everyone was singing chants and when someone lost the drinking game they would have to skull their drink. When we started yelling skull skull skull the hundreds of people in the pub would join in, yelling and pointing and banging on their tables, it got a bit loud! Luckily custard had a phone so we could message clare and get her to come to the pub. Clare got all the directions and said she would be there in rwenty minutes, only a few minutes later we got a message from her friend saying that clare probably wouldnt be able to make it as she was passed out in a park. Bonnie had a spew and got back on it. Siobhan got lost with one of the bridgetown boys trying to find Bon, ended up accidentally crashing and very soon after getting kicked out of a wedding. We had a good time drinking with them and managed to catch up with clare later that night.
Sunday
Sunday was the first day we actually managed to get into the beer halls, and were pretty lucky that Clares uni friends were already there to save us seats. The beer halls were amazing, they were huge and absolutely packed, and had people dancing on the tables singing the prosting song which went a little like this; "Ine prostite, ine prostite I'm proo-osting" you get the idea. After which everyone on the neighboring tables would Prost,(cheers) and skull their stains. This happened about every fifteen minutes. Needless to say everyone was going a little crazy. Some seedy Italians on the table next to us kept stroking our hair from behind us and then became our enemies. It started off innocently enough, with clare zooming up on their faces with the camera and taking unflattering photos and shoving the camera in their face yelling "SEEE!!! This is what you look like!!!!!!" things went downhill fast with Bon and clare (pretending to be their friends) prosting them a little hard on purpose and smashing their stones everywhere, Lauren, Clares unis friend was swearing and yelling at them, it ended with clare punching them in the face. It was a messy night where we all got a little lost but found each other again and were ready for the next day.
Monday
On Monday Clare played mother hen to Bonnie and I, insisting we both take long showers while she put on our washing for us. We ended up waiting around the camp site for six hours waiting for the washing to dry as people kept taking our clothes out of the dryer and putting their own in. It was a nice little catch up, drinking in the warm cozy pub at the campsite. By the time we finally decided to head into town it was nearly ten and we got delayed even further by a run in with the transport inspectors. Munich is incredibly easy place to fare evade, and we managed to escape a forty euro fine by sort if slipping off the train when the inspector was talking to his friend. It wasn't our stop and delayed us even further and by the time we got into the city it was a little late to head to the beer halls which were going to be closing at twelve. We met up with some Bridgetown people at their hotel and drank a bit with them. We all got very rowdy and slept on the floor of their hotel, which was better than sleeping in a cold, wet tent.
Tuesday
We woke up at seven in the morning on three hours sleep ready to do it all again, with a few sit ups and some yoga in preparation we were ready to go, while the boys were spewing in the bathroom. We went to Clares hostel and managed to score a free breakfast, a big buffet meal feeler with everything delicious. Then at about ten o clock, Bon, Siobhan,Clare and Tim went around the corner to buy some hangover supplies and a few frosty beers. We sat in a park for the next few hours and had a bit of hair of the dog. While Clare and Bon went back to the hostel to quickly use the toilet they met up with their friend Mike yelling at them from the window of tge hostel, with nine other people, all excited to join us in a bit of merriment at the park. By the time they returned with a basket filled with picnic food and beers, Siobhan and Tim had been kicked out of what apparently was a private park, where they had an awkward run in with a lady staring at them aggressively for half an hour. We had heard about this beautiful park with beautiful gardens so we jumped on a tram there to have a lovely picnic. We sat around there really getting to know every one else, everyone was from different circles and hadn't really met before. We decided to head off and get ready for the beer halls and also to sober up a bit. We all headed off on our huge troop to the beer halls, where it was absolutely packed, you could barely move so we only had one stein there then headed off to the next hall to find a table. Bonnie and Clare had a slowdance on the table to "Simply the best" and entertained a few strangers. Siobhan, Bonnie and Clare then went off to where all the rides were, got sone food and went on a lame ghost train. Bonnie disappeared for a minute and returned with an animal on her head, he looks like a hamster crossed between a lion and was wearing an Oktoberfest outfit. We all had to sit down and laugh a bit at the irony of a vegetarian wearing an animal on her head. We met up with the others and enjoyed a few more steins at a new hall. Everyone was standing on the table prosting, where a few Spanish bouncers were trying to kick some of us out. Clare, who doesn't know much Spanish at all, then talked to them for half an hour in Spanish and managed to talk them out of it. Siobhan had a little nap on the table while the rowdiness continued. We stayed there until Oktoberfest finished, afterwards we all went back to Clares hostel to try and sneak in as Siobhan and Bonnie didn't want to go back to the cold wet tent. We all scaled the walls and jumped in through the window. It was really scary because the security was so strict, and had already kicked out a hundred people. We hid under the window sill of what we hoped was our friends room. Meanwhile Bon and Clare were running around the hostel maze trying to find each other, we all stepped out to the same hallway only to see the security guard looming up behind us. We ran into Vanessas room where some of us hid on the balcony, some in the bathroom, and Bon safely dived under one of the beds. The guard came in and found all of us but Bon. He was very very angry. We had a huge fight with him and he said if he ever saw us in the hostel again he would call the police, which was unfortunate for Clare who was actually supposed to be staying there. We all got kicked out and afterwards Bon snuck out from under the bed, suprising all of the guests in the room, jumped out of the window and met us at the park across the road. There were five of us sitting there, including a new English person called Pete who we became friends with. While we were trying to convince the other two to go back inside with their disguises it ended up being Siobhan,Clare,Bonnie,Pete and another new person who came up to us who was called Life. (seriously.) While us girls were trying to figure out whether to go back to the campsite or not Pete and Life became fast friends and ten minutes later we looked up to see Life getting into a rickshaw, with Pete tucking him in under a big doonah. Life rode away on his rickshaw, all tucked in, smoking. We then decided to just go to a pub and join our new friend, "Glorious Pete". We went to a late night sports bar where we saw a lady of the night, drank pints and met two other Australians. We stayed until closing at 5.30 in the morning where it was starting to get light outside.
Wednesday
We were all a little hazy today. As we couldn't go back to the hostel we decided to grab some subway which was probably the best subway of our lives! We meet up with the rest of the gang who were wanting to hire some bikes and ride over to the English gardens. Shiv was feeling a little worse for wear and really wanted to head back to the tent to rest. Then there were 9, we all chose our bikes and road off through Munich following mike who had the directions. It was a beautiful sunny day and was such a lovely way to see some of the sights. After about half an hour we stopped off at a pub and had a beer each. We road for another 20 minutes before we reached to gardens, it was probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. As we drove along the bike path under the trees we road over a bridge and saw people surfing in the rapids. We also saw trapeze artists walking along a thin piece of silk between two trees, nudists sunning themselves on the opposite side of the creek . It was so nice to be out in the fresh air so we stopped had lunch then after a while rode back into the town in the late afternoon. Best day ever!
- comments
coralie NUP. DEFINITELY NO COMMENT.
Greg Bike ride sounds very pleasant indeed!
Genevieve Wells tuesday is my favourite! hahahahahaaha but now i'm sad - wish i was there with you!!! lots of love missing you more and more xxoxoxox