The Oktoberfest Recovery Begins

Alright here's the Oktoberfest day-by-day, starting last Wednesday:

Day 1 - I left Hannover early and caught a train to Munich, which took just under 5 hours. I watched a couple of movies along the way (finally saw Gran Torino, great movie!), I am loving having a netbook! I also traded a few movies with Malisa a few days earlier, I seem to keep doing that so I am never bored on a train or plane. I got into Munich and found my way down to the campground where Cam had told me he was staying. It was only about 20 mins south of the city center, in a wooded area right along the river. The place was huge, there were thousands of people there I would guess. I couldn't find Cam though, as he was already out and about at the fest. By some miracle I noticed a piece of paper on a display board with my name on it. Cam had written me a note telling me where his tent was. Though that dumb Aussie wrote the wrong sector of the campground so it didn't help much! I was able to rent a tent and dumped my stuff in a massive tent field run by some tour company. Never ended up sleeping there though, more on that later. I had a few beers at the campsite and then hopped on a shuttle to the fest. Oktoberfest is absolutely crazy and huge. It is like Disneyland, there are rides, roller coasters, food stands, beer halls, beer tents, and beer gardens, not to mention hoardes of people, absolutely everywhere you turn. Nearly all the women wear traditional Bavarian dresses called dirndls while maybe a third of the men wear lederhosen. I wish I had gotten them, but they are way too expensive. About 100 euros for the cheapest, while they can get to over 1000 euros! Plus I wouldn't want to have to carry it in my pack after the fest.

I spent a while just wandering around the fest, there is so much to see it is sensory overload. I found one of the huge tents and grabbed a seat outside in the beer garden. I met some random people sitting near me and was amazed at how friendly people were. The beer costs 8.50 or 8.60 per liter (in a stein of course) at every major beer tent. There were maybe 8 or so major breweries that each had the biggest tents, I was told the biggest of them hold 50,000 people. After going inside, I believe it. It wasn't too difficult to get in, find a table, order more beer, and meet a bunch of people. I randomly ran into my friend Karina who I met in Portugal. Ironically, Cam ran into her separately the next night! Amazing given how many people are there. I hung out with her and her friends the rest of the night. I believe my stein count was 3 for the night (plus 2 at the campsite earlier).

Now for the most embarrassing moment of my trip so far (and possibly my life). My memory is a bit hazy at this point, but I'm pretty sure I got on the wrong shuttle back to the campsite. In my defense, there were literally hundreds of shuttles and busses picking people up outside the fest. Regardless, I fell asleep on the shuttle (as many people do on their way home from the fest!) I have no idea how long I was asleep because I don't know what time I left, but I woke up as the shuttle stopped and it was about midnight. I didn't recognize where I was and asked a few people where the campsite was. They didn't seem to be sure, but were able to point me in the direction of the river. I walked for a while, and asked a few more people with no luck. I was quickly alone and had no one left to ask. I had no map on me, it was pitch black, and I was getting really cold (was wearing a tee shirt and flip flops). I asked a few security guards at some office building and they pointed me towards the river, which I was never able to find. I wandered for what seemed like forever. I was in some neighborhood freezing my ass off when I decided to call it quits. I considered knocking on some random door, but instead found an apartment building with the outside door unlocked. The heat was on and I sat down on the stairs with my head against the wall and fell asleep! I woke up at 6 am or so shivering (the heat wasn't that great), I heard people stirring, getting ready for work. I left the building and wandered for an hour until I found a bus. I didn't care where it was going, I just got on. I got very lucky that one of the stops was the Hauptbanhof (train station). I knew how to get back from there. Then, next to the highway, right before my stop, I saw the scariest street sign of my life: Munich - 72 km! LOL! I am so embarrassed, but I suppose it makes for a good story. I was in some suburb in the middle of nowhere (still don't know exactly where, but clearly people were directing me to a different river than I thought!), and I had to pay 15 euros to catch an hour and a half train ride back to Munich.

Day 2 - I got back to the campsite at around 9 am, cold, tired, and hungry. I found Cam at the site fairly quickly. He was there with a big group of Aussies that he met in Prague on his way to Munich. Lucky for me, some people that had camped in the site earlier had left their tents. So I grabbed the nicest looking one and moved my stuff out of my original tent and into the new one. Only had to pay 11 euros a night to camp there (vs 20 to rent a tent). I probably should have gotten some sleep at this point, but everyone was ready for a big day at the fest so I showered and got ready. Cam got lucky as he was borrowing lederhosen from a friend. About half of the rest of our crew dressed up as well. We headed the fest in the early afternoon and had a blast all day. I think I drank 4 steins that day and of course crashed hard in the early evening. I was exhausted and fell asleep with my head on my beer at one point! Cam was tired too so we walked to a grassy hill with a bunch of passed out people on it to take a nap. Cam said the next day that I was asleep before my head hit the grass. He woke up a couple of hours later and couldn't find me. Once again, my memory is failing me, but I at least made it home to the campsite. I'm not sure why exactly I left Cam on the hill, I feel kind of bad about it. But he ended up back with our friends and partied more. I got back to the campsite relatively early and slept.

Day 3 - I was now mostly caught up on sleep and was feeling pretty decent. Cam and I went sightseeing on our own. We wandered around the city center, climbed a church tower with great views, and ate some interesting German seafood dishes from a market for lunch. We decided to head to the Hofbrauhaus to check it out, kind of mandatory for a tourist in Munich. I had been there when I was in Munich 5 years ago, but I definitely wanted to experience it during Oktoberfest. It was packed as expected, and Cam and I hadn't planned on doing much drinking as this was our recovery day. Well of course we decided to grab a table and have a stein. Then the plan became, 'Let's have one then head back early tonight.' A couple of American girls, then German guys, came and sat down with us at our table. As we were about to order food, some guy at the table next to us gave us his full plate of food, untouched! It was a pork knuckle, a traditional Bavarian dish, which Cam and I devoured. We ended up staying the whole night there, drinking 3 steins a piece, and having an incredibly good time. We left after midnight, hung out with our new friends in a park for a while, then headed home. Got to sleep at about 1 am.

Day 4- Staying out so late on our supposed recovery day was obviously a bad idea. The reason we wanted to get in early was because our alarms were set for 3:30 am!!! It was the day of the AFL (Austrialian football) Grand Final, which is their Superbowl. There were 14 or so Aussies in our group, so they wanted to watch it live. After a couple of mishaps, we got to one of the Australian bars in town and got in line at 5:00 or so. Just before the game started, the doors opened and hundreds of Aussies poured into this tiny bar. The place was horribly packed, it was literally impossible to get to the bathroom and nearly impossible to get to the bar. I'm guessing, but I think I was the only non-Austrialian in the whole place. And I don't know the rules to the AFL or who the teams are! It was all in fun though, and the game was incredibly exciting as it came down to the wire. The team our crew was rooting for won, they're called the Cats, which I still think is a horrible name for a sports team. Afterwards, Cam and I headed back to the campsite to try and sleep for a bit before a big day at the fest. We got an hour of sleep or so and then headed back into the thick of it. This weekend was Italian weekend at Oktoberfest, so there are groups of sleazy Italian guys everywhere you look. The fest was so crowded this day it was starting to get frustrating. Not only could we not get into a tent or a seat at a beer garden, we couldn't seem to find any place to order a beer. We spent 2 hours at Oktoberfest without drinking a single beer, unbelievable! Finally we met up with our other friends for few beers at one of the smaller outdoor bars. Eventually, our friend Lauren found us as well! Cam and I met her in Seville, then she was in Lagos, then stayed with us at the apartment in Valencia for La Tomatina. It was awesome to have a reunion! She is a really cool girl and becoming a good friend as we keep meeting up all over Europe. She had to leave the next day for China, I hope to meet up with her again in the future, maybe southeast Asia! Here is her blog if anyone wants to read about her adventures: http://laurensworldtrip.blogspot.com. Lauren and Cam and I went on one of the roller coasters, the Olympic-themed one with 5 loops. It was a blast, I will post the video! Then we attempted to go meet up with our friends in one of the big beer tents. They had a reservation, but could only get a limited number of entrance wristbands. We spent nearly two hours trying to get in, the lines were so long, and security was hardly letting anyone in. Eventually some kid gave me a wristband as he was leaving, so I got inside and tried to find our friends. Finally I found them and went outside to grab Cam. It was so late Lauren had to head back for her early flight. Cam and I got in and spent the rest of the night up on one of the balconies, standing on a table with our steins and a bunch of friends. We danced and sang all the cheesy cover songs played by the German band in the middle of the tent. We met some funny German guys that actually lived in Munich. After the tent closed down, they took a little group of us to an afterparty/club. It took forever to get to because the German guys talked to every person we met along the way. We only stayed at the club 20 mins before Cam and I decided to head back, absolutely exhausted. Amazingly enough, I remember the end of the night very well, which is a good feeling! Stein count for the day was 4.

Day 5 - Cam left early in the morning to get back to London, so I spent the day sightseeing/recovering on my own. I saw two very cool sights in Munich. The first was the royal family's summer residence. I took a really nice walk around the palace and through the beautiful gardens. I had lunch in a beer hall nearby, wurst of course. Then I headed out to the other side of town for the English Garden. It is apparently the largest city park in Europe. It was really impressive and I walked through it for a long time. I drank a stein at at beer garden right next to a lake. I spent the whole day alone which was fine by me. I took a lot of pictures, then headed back to the campsite at 8 pm or so. Of course the post-Oktoberfest party was already in full swing at the campsite, so I went to check it out for a bit. Once again, one stein turned into many, and I had one of the best nights in Munich partying with a bunch of people I just met. I spent most of the night with a German guy and girl (Julia and Florian) who study together in Hamburg. The three of us drank a lot of beer and talked to everyone around us. The campsite is mostly Aussies but there were a lot of Italians there for the weekend as well. I didn't make it to my tent until 3:30 am or so.

Today - I woke up, packed my stuff and left my tent for the next camper who shows up like I did. I caught a train to Salzburg in Austria where I am now. I got to my hostel pretty quickly and am very impressed. My room has a view of the huge castle up on the hill. I took a long hot, badly needed shower and am doing my laundry right now. I am going to stay here 3 days and hope to see the whole town and take a tour or two. There are a lot of Mozart sights to see here, plus there is a Sound of Music tour which I might do. Apparently the Eagle's Nest is fairly close, and I would love to see it. It was built by the Nazis as Hitler's summer retreat, basically. I have seen it in movies and it is incredible (they went to it in that HBO series Band of Brothers). Other than that, I just plan on relaxing, recovering, and exploring Austria!