Oktoberfest in Munich

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i took my first overnight train from amsterdam to munich which was actually quite comfortable considering i just sat in a reclining seat. the high speed train took a couple of hours off the trip too. as soon as i arrived in munich the oktoberfest mayhem was obvious. the train station was filled packed with people making their pilgrimages to this epic event. they were even selling steins of the special oktoberfest brew at the train station kiosks!

i headed towards my hostel called the tent which was a really interesting place to stay. the hostel is set up temporarily six months out of the year at the botanical garden park which is located just outside the city center. i once again met up with my friend zach later that day and we went to check out the oktoberfest or wiesn. it was much like an adult carnival with lots of amusement rides combined with huge amounts of beer and food. we just walked around to get an idea of what was ahead the following week.

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the next morning i took a free bike tour around munich which was so much fun, not to mention a great way to see the entire city in one day for free! the guide was a hilarious fat guy from maine. he took us to europe's largest metropolitan park, the englischer garten. here we saw huge fields where everyone sunbathes naked and even river surfing! (apparently all parks in germany are clothing optional, but this one was especially famous for its eclectic crowd such as the old naked soccer league). running right through the park is a fast flowing river that actually has a surf break in it where these guys jump in with their wetsuits and surfboards and ride a standing wave. in the middle of the tour we stopped at a famous beer garden where there is an old chinese tower with an umpa band playing while people guzzle down their steins and eat steering wheel sized pretzels or 'brezn'. the food and beer was great but extremely expensive, which is probably how the tour guide makes his money. we then saw some very important sites from wwII like where hitler held his first speech to become chancellor, the opera house that has been bombed and rebuilt four separate times, and the capital building. something really interesting about the capital building is that it was bombed during the war like many of the buildings in the city, but the dome did not fall, so after the war, the german government decided to build it entirely out of glass in order to prove to the people that they had nothing to hide... an important step towards democracy without corruption. however, our tour guide reminded us that hitler was actually elected democratically to become chancellor and most of his votes were from women. hard to believe...

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later that night, my good friend ethan came into town with a direct flight from los angeles to munich. it was a miracle that i even met up with him, because one my way to the airport we crossed paths in the tram station. what luck in a huge city! later that night we met some bavarians who showed us to a really cool indie club where i could finally get a break from all the techno and house music. our new friends invited us to the wiesn the next day for a real bavarian party.

ethan and i decided to surprise our new hosts by buying some lederhossen, which are the traditional bavarian outfits to wear to weisn. it took some serious scavenging to find some cheap ones, but they were a huge hit with the bavarians. we were let into a 'german only' beer tent called the Hacker-Pschorr without question (the security can tell if you aren't german very easily). we arrived at 10am in order to find a good table and started the festivities. at first i thought that there was no way we could sit there from 10am to 10pm and drink beer and eat brezn but the bavarians let us in on a big secret: they drink very very slowly. a typical bavarian will sit at the tables for 12 hours but only drink 3 steins called masses (3 one liter beers). the only problem is you are constantly drinking warm beer the whole time. ew. well ethan and i made it through the whole day without a problem except empty wallets, those steins add up really fast (about 12 bucks a pop!)

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we spent a couple more days hanging out in munich and only about half a day at the wiesn until we headed out to prague. munich was amazing especially with our personalized tour guides showing us the bavarian way. we ended up meeting up with them again in both salzburg and vienna a few weeks later. more to come as i catch up on blogging.