Munich--Where Beer is Officially in the Same Category as Tea, Milk, or YooHoo

Back to Munich!  The last time I was here I was on an official Biola trip for 2 days, and we couldn´t drink, even though we went to have dinner in the largest beer hall in the world.  This trip was completely different.  Not only could we drink, but there was no tour guide holding our hand, no mandatory education, and no curfew.  And, to be honest, I remember Munich being a lot cooler than it was on this trip.  It kinda felt like the only reason people went to Munich was to drink beer.  But maybe that was becuase Oktoberfest started the day after I left.

Oktoberfest (which ironically starts September 16th), for those of you who don´t know, is pretty much several million people getting trashed on beer in one place.  Munich´s population is about 1.4 million, but they get 6 million tourists during the 2-3 weeks of Oktoberfest.  Yes, it´s nuts.  And, from my experience, half of them were Aussies and the other half Kiwis.  Those guys love alcohol like John Kerry loves to contradict himself.  They were so bad last year (passed out in the street after having lost their wallet, passport, underware, and pants) that the German goverment was seriously going to ban all Aussies from Germany during Oktoberfest.  Seriously.  So as the compromise, the Aussies now have a temporary embasy tent with an enormous blow up kangaroo out in front (just in case there´s any confusion) in the middle of Oktoberfest to take care of their slobbering drunk nationals.

And, just in case the Aussies get too drunk, there´s a giant kangaroo marking the entrance to their temporary embasy tent...

But I still had a good time.  Jake and I had all you can eat sushi (delicious) and we hung out with a few girls (Ahsley, Erica, and Hadley) from Biola who were in the area.  We went to the Alte Pinothek, Munich´s 14th-18th century art museum, and it was great.  A beautiful collection of Reubens, though we missed a DaVinci exhibit that was going to open (ironically) on the same day as Oktoberfests, for all the Aussies who come to Oktoberfest looking for some culture.

We also went on a pub crawl that was fun, and then everybody left me the day before I left to go to the most unlikely place ever...Switzerland.  Switzerland still isn´t a part of the EU, which is nice for people like me who have to worry about overstaying their Visa and need to renew it.  I was going to go to Geneva, but the girls said something about skydiving and this place called Interlaken...