Sept 12: Munich
Helloooo Munich! Kenneth and I took separate flights since we're in different locations
within the United States and Denver has a direct flight using Lufthansa. I arrived at 10am and he
was to arrive at 4pm. I had set up an airbnb reservation with a guy named
Christoph. Before arrival, he provided great directions for transportation from
the airport. When I finally made it to baggage claim, I sat, waited, and
reviewed a brochure for the airport. The place was ginormous! It was like a
mixture of a shopping mall and a small theme park. I read there will be a flow
rider machine in a week. After grabbing my luggage, I walked around to
figure out how I would get to Munich Central Station. One of the very first
things I stumbled across was a bar that was highly advertising Erdinger - my
favorite beer of all time. This is gonna a great trip! I became very excited to
finally be in Munich. Eventually I figured out that I wanted to use Lufthansa’s
Express bus to get to Munich Central Station. The bus ride was about 40 minutes
long and once I got to Central Station it blew me away. It’s so huge and open
and so many people were walking around trying to find their new destination.
There were also bars and restaurants and kiosks - just so many different things
to see every direction you looked. I decided now was the time to indulge in one
of Germany’s famous pretzels. They were surrounding me like a tribal ritual and
I couldn’t resist. I ordered one that came with butter inside of it and oh my
gosh did it blow my socks off! There were also a lot of other pretzel varieties
that I could have chosen from - they take this seriously. I then bought a bus
ticket from the counter so I could take it to Christoph’s flat. I arrived about
one hour later than anticipated and bumped into Chris as he was walking his dog.
He immediately was very smiley and welcoming and I couldn't wait to strike up
more conversation. He showed me my room, how the bathroom/shower works, and
other amenities in his flat. As I was riding the bus, I noticed that THE Paulaner
Brauhaus is only three blocks away. Danger danger! Once Chris helped me settle in, he headed back
to work. I decided to take a well-deserved nap - I only got 2 hours of sleep on
the plane. I woke up around 2:30 pm and turned my phone off airplane mode for a
second in case there were any text messages from Kenneth. The next thing I read
was the most disappointing news. Kenneth missed his flight from DC and
therefore had to re-book so that he flies in tomorrow instead. This was so
upsetting because I was looking forward to grabbing a beer with him and
welcoming him to the world of international travel. At this moment I was unsure
what I would do with the rest of my evening. It’s never safe for a girl to
wander alone in the streets of a big city. But yet there was so much to do….I
contacted Chris and Hallie (Safak’s friend) but neither of them were available
for the evening. I asked them both if they thought Munich was safe enough for a
young lady to wander around. They both answered yes without question and said
Munich is probably one of the safest cities in the world - there are always
many policeman patrolling. Once I heard this good news, I decided to walk to Paulaner biergarten and indulge in one of my favorite beers,
straight from the
tap. I moseyed in and there weren't too many people there yet. I kept sitting down at tables that were reserved or for
wait staff assignments only. Eventually it became comical to me because I kept
sitting down at the wrong tables. I finally situated myself at a long bench
table that you see in the movies depicting Oktoberfest. A tenacious bee began
pestering me and my food (I ordered Schweinebraten based off a recommendation
from Chris. It’s a very delicious sliced pork meal). I eventually moved to a
different seat next to an older gentleman who was reading. I discovered that he
knew English and we had a pleasant conversation. I try not to think about Kenneth’s missed flight too much
because it makes me upset and sad. I’ve learned over the years that the only
thing we can control is our reaction to situations. Deciding to make the most
of my night, I went wandering through the city to Marienplatz, which is the
main area of Munich. It was a 20 minute walk from Chris’s place to the pub of
desire. The plaza and the main clock tower building were overwhelming.
It was so beautiful at night and the artistic detail on
the building was
incredible. This spot was hopping with people and many of the bars and biergartens
were overflowing. I also noticed as I’ve been in Munich that bikes are very
prevalent in the area. I’d say it’s very similar to Amsterdam. It’s really cool
because they have their own methods of getting around and there are bike lanes
everywhere! Most of the time they are next to sidewalks slightly depressed and
separated from the pedestrian area. This makes it very easy to get around and Chris
says going by bike is the fastest method. I returned to the flat around 11:30pm
and met Chris’s girlfriend, Aida. She is super sweet and nice. We hit it off immediately and I wish we could have spent
more time together. After we said are goodnights, I was
completely exhausted and a little stressed about Kenneth’s new flight schedule.
He had two layovers less than 1 hour each and he had to make it to Munich
Central Station by 2:30pm so we can catch our train to Salzburg. He arrives at
12:20pm. I’m very doubtful that this is going to work out. We’ll see what
happens…
Toilets in Munich!
Sept 13: Munich/Salzburg
Woke up at 5am and couldn’t go back to sleep (cue jetlag…). I sat in
bed for a bit while I waited for Chris and Aida to wake up. I read a little and
researched what I should do for the day. I also found out during this time that
Kenneth’s flight was delayed out of DC so he was not gonna make his
connection….aye yi yiii. Chris and Aida woke up around 7:30am and I met them in the kitchen.
They offered me a smorgasbord of different breakfast items which was so sweet
of them. I ended up having yogurt with granola, fresh cut fruit, and oh so
delicious coffee. These two are such sweet people – I want to take them back to
the States with me! They both didn’t end up going to work until 9am. In Munich,
people tend to go in later and stay later. No wonder so many people were still
out drinking in biergartens last night until 11:30pm! They helped me figure out
where to rent a bike for the day, and then I walked along the Isar River to get
there. This little trail on the north side of the river was absolutely amazing.
It reminded me of the Huckleberry Trail in Blacksburg but with a gorgeous
flowing river next to it. The layout had three sections: road for cars, trail
for bikes, and walkway for pedestrians. I loved the sense of tranquility and
seclusion that you could feel just next door to this bustling city. I could
definitely get used to this Munich lifestyle. The bike path was the most
heavily used of the three. It seemed people were riding with many different
purposes – to get to work, to go to the store, leisure, etc. It really was like
its own little world. As I drifted away from the river, closer to city center,
I came across the most beautiful roundabout. It had a massive assortment of
colorful
flowers with a small concrete fountain in the center. You better
believe I took a good amount of photos (hello Instagram!). This area was pretty
close to the bike rental shop, however, I still had 30 minutes before it opened
at 10am. I decided to station myself at a café and order a bagel with herb
cream cheese (yum!). At this point I started WhatsApping Kenneth to figure out
a game plan. I discovered that there was a later train to Salzburg we could
take as long as he arrived in Munich before 9pm. Game plan set. He was gonna
take a direct flight to Munich from Copenhagen and arrive at 4:15pm. Awesome,
now I could rent the bike and explore for longer. The bike shop opened and then
I rode all around Munich. Oktoberfest grounds were # 1 on the list. They
weren’t letting anyone in but man, it was quite the operation inside! There
were cars/trucks driving every which way, tents being set up, roller coasters
being tested. This place was MASSIVE. And the word massive doesn’t even do it
justice. I biked around the perimeter and it took me a good 20min. Wow. This
got me so pumped for Saturday and the opening ceremony! I then took a quick
beer break at Hacker Pschorr (another one of my favorite breweries). It is about 500 yards from the main Oktoberfest
entrance.
Afterwards, I biked to the
apartment we will be staying at when we come back from Salzburg. It’s pretty
close to Central Station but we’d definitely need to rent bikes for the day to
get to city center quickly. I then rode along the Isar River which is absolutely gorgeous. The bike trail
on the south side is more exposed and closer to the bank of the river so the experience was much
more
rewarding. TONS of people were biking on this trail or
sunbathing on the riverbank. It was so full of energy and it was contagious. By
this time I was getting pretty tired of biking around, but I decided to push
through and go to Englischergarten which was about a 20 minute bike ride north.
There were certain areas where the people were hanging out by the river nude.
That’s European for ya! Finally made it to the Englischergarten and it was a huge park with lots of green space and bike trails. I
returned the bike around 4:30pm and then took the bus to Central Station to meet Kenneth. We planned to
meet at the Burger King within the station at 6:25pm (train left at 6:55pm). I
arrive on time and don’t see Kenneth…I grab a hold of some spotty WiFi and
contact him. He says he’s in front of BK, but I don’t see him. Is he at a
different location? This BK is pretty huge and hard to miss. After speaking on
the phone, we still couldn’t spot each other. Now I was getting a little
worried that we’d miss our train….eventually, I see a sign that has two arrows
for BK. There are two BKs?! Really?! Of course I would pick the one place that
has two locations in one station…I walk to the other BK and spot him close by.
We reunite and are soo relieved that we finally found each other after all that
has happened in the past two days! It was very nice to see someone familiar and
speak English fluently again
We hop on the train, have great conversation with lots of laughter (I felt like
we were disturbing others on the train because we were the only ones talking),
and arrived in Salzburg about 2 hours later. The station in Salzburg is mostly
made of glass and is super modern with a grocery store even included. Well
done. We decide to walk to our airbnb place instead of taking the bus. We plug
the address into Kenneth’s phone (he bought an unlimited international plan)
and mosey our way through the streets of Salzburg with our ridiculously loud
luggage. Every little café or restaurant we passed had people who would stare
us down. The Americans have arrived! Eventually we reach the apartment and I
message Elisa that we are outside. She doesn’t answer…I use Kenneth’s phone to
call her through WhatApp and she picks up and says we need to go to the artist
entrance at Landestheater to pick up the key. That would have been nice to know
ahead of time! I leave Kenneth to grab the keys. It was a little
difficult to find the artist entrance considering nothing was labeled. At long last I retrieved the keys
and returned to the apartment door. We examined the key and it was very odd.
More futuristic than normal keys. There was no way it fit the lock in front of
us. We then tried another address (Linzer Gasse 3) in case airbnb gave us the
wrong one (it said Linzer Gasse 33). Again we failed. We tried contacting Elisa
again but she would not answer. Ugh. After many attempts of reaching her we
decided to just grab some dinner. All the while people continued to stare us
down as we passed with our loud interruption. The first place we tried was no longer serving food (it was 10pm by this
point). We finally reached Elisa and she stated we were at the wrong address
and to go to Linzer Gasse 31. We walk to that address and tried the key. And hallelujah
it worked!! We then followed her instructions to walk through 3 more doors.
Each time we entered the new area it was super sketchy and dark. I was so glad
I wasn’t doing this alone! After 4 seconds a motion detector would sense us and
the lights would turn on. Very freaky. We had so many issues finding the right
place but eventually we got there. Success! We get in, put our stuff down, and
head out to eat. We came up to the first door and I watched Kenneth struggle to
push it open. I knew he had to pull it, but it was fun to watch :) Then, I told him to
pull and BOOM the handle rips off. Bahaha. I keeled over with laughter. It’s
the hardest I had laughed in a long time! It could partially be due to sleep
deprivation. But still, it was hilarious - just what we needed after a long,
stressful day. We ate at an Italian place right outside our door and man, the
beer was out of this world. It was
brewed in a small city in Germany. Kenneth ordered an appetizer that was
basically a pizza and then ordered a pizza. Pizzatopia! I had some tomato soup
and gnocchi, so yummy. We had such a blast talking and laughing and analyzing
Elisa’s text messages. It’s always fun texting international people. Their
English usually needs some work. At one point during dinner, I asked the waiter
what type of beer they had and he immediately bent over like he had just
finished a marathon or something. It looked like I asked a very difficult/stressful
question! I immediately chuckled and so did Kenneth. Our waiter was so funny. We
went back to the apartment, showered, and hit the hay around 1am. 8:30am alarm
for tomorrow! We’re off to see Lake Konigssee and Mt. Jenner. A national forest
area in Germany, but only 45min from Salzburg. It’s so nice to have Kenneth
around! It’s been a grand adventure so far!
Sept 14: Salzburg
This morning we woke
up at 8:30am in order to leave the apartment at 9:30am and walk to the station
to catch a bus to Berchtesgaden at 10:15am. We get to the station and grab some
croissants to go. We ask the info desk about the bus pickup because the only
info I knew came from a single website blog. The guy was not very helpful in
pointing us in the right direction because we soon returned to ask again. By
this point we only had 5 minutes to catch the bus! The next would come in an
hour. We were getting slightly nervous at this point. Eventually, we found the
right location (which was not intuitive at all) and chatted with a nice older
gentleman from Canada. He was asking if the bus took us someplace neat and just
decided to hop on. The ride was about 45 minutes and we drove through some incredible
landscape. Many of the buildings were white with brown trim and brown tile. And the
grass was insanely green.
Super lush like Ireland! (as I write this on our back
patio, 3 different church bells are ringing to signify it’s noon, pretty cool. And
when they stop I can hear someone playing piano through their window). We
arrived at the Berchtesgaden station and then waited for the Konigssee bus. It
seemed we were on the right track because loads of people were lining up. We
jumped on that bus without having to pay and arrived in Konigssee 15 minutes later
in the Berchtesgaden
National Park (technically we were in Germany now, not
Austria). During this whole time I was kinda winging it for us because I wasn’t
able to do as much research as I normally do for my trips. But it went as
smooth as butter anyway! We first walked up to a map of the area and bumped
into some nice people from Britain who helped us with all our questions. Thank goodness
for them because they advised us about the boat ride along the lake which I
didn’t even consider before. They had been there several times in the past. We
decided to grab a beer before buying our boat tickets and wouldn’t you know it,
there’s a biergarten especially for Erdinger (my fav beer of all time)!!! This
was just too perfect. We sat down at a table and the ground was covered in
small stones instead of concrete or grass. Very unique. The waiter came by, we
ordered the heavenly beer, and Kenneth also got some food. When the waiter
returned, the plate was so full of food and it was only 6 euros! Amazing
portion sizes here in Germany. After we pay the waiter, he leaves the table and
says “Bye!” It was such a short and sweet bye that it made us laugh. Usually
people would say “Have a good day” or something, but this guy was like,
“Peace!” We are loving our waiter/waitress interactions so far.
Now it was time
to hop on the boat. The tour took us along the lake as we gazed up at the monumental
cliff faces/mountains on each side. It was breathtaking. As we rode on, our tour
guide spoke only German and once in a while everyone would laugh and we had no
clue what was going on. We would laugh too to feel included. At one point
during the journey, one of
the workers pulls out a flugelhorn and plays out to
the right of the boat. We all become very silent to hear what’s to come. What
ends up happening is the most amazing echo I’ve ever heard. The guy would play
a short phrase and then the tune would circle through the mountains and back to
our ears. Kenneth and I both agreed that the echo sounded better than the
actual thing, the mountains seem to be a form of autocorrect for music. The
high notes sounded especially amazing in the echo. This was a highlight of the
boat tour and totally worth the money (only 16euro round-trip anyway!). After
about 45 minutes we docked at the St. Bartholomew area and walked around a bit.
First order of business was the bathroom…and a pretzel (duh). By this point it
was 1:30pm and we decided to only stay until 2pm since we still wanted
to ride
the cable car to the top of Mt. Jenner (the main reason I planned this trip to
Berchtesgaden National Park). We return to the main area around 3pm and indulge
in another beer at a different biergarten. Another fine choice! The beer
selections for weissbier are always incredible. We then walk over to Jennerbahn
and catch the cable car (which was basically a ski gondola). The lady at the ticket
counter informed us that the last car from the top leaves at 5pm. It was 3:30
at this point with a 20 minute ride up. Holy moly! Let’s step on it! We jump in
the cable car and man, is it tight and stuffy! Thank goodness Kenneth and I
like each other because we had little to no personal space. Also thankfully,
the windows could be opened slightly. It was like a traveling sauna! As we went
up, we passed some cows below that were making a ruckus with no, not their
mouths, but large bells around their neck. Cowbells! I have never seen cows
wearing them before and now the name for the musical instrument made so much
more sense! It sounded similar to a wind chime and some cows were louder than
others depending on the way they were grazing - it was very beautiful and
intriguing. We finally reached the top and Kenneth was a little on edge the
whole time. It may seem strange, but I’m very glad we share a fear of heights.
Though the cable car didn’t bother me much. Now, we only had 1 hour to hike to
the top and soak in the view. We pretty much took a 15 minute hike and made it
a 5 minute one. Thanks Colorado for the training! The top point was only
6,000ft, but the difference of elevation was practically 6,000ft from where we
came
and so when you looked down, it was extremely daunting. As we neared the
top, my fear of heights finally kicked in. Oh geez. My body froze and I became
immobile. Kenneth was confused what happened. He continued forward on all fours
and shouted back at me, “Come on, Julie!” I yelled back “Kenneth….Kenneth!
Where are you going, slow down. Kennethh!” Eventually my body unfroze and I
continued on. I’m so glad I had a beer before this. I highly doubt I would have
made it otherwise because the top was very exposed and veryy high. Once we
reached the top, a bazillion vicious flies attacked us and wouldn’t leave us
alone. The view was insane so I guess it was worth fighting off the pesky flies.
Wayyy far down into the gully was the large lake that we floated on earlier.
The mountains next to it were so immense and it was like a fantasy world coming
to life. We could see the boats as tiny specks moving ever so slowly. We could
also hear some noise in the distance that sounded like music. We figured out
this was coming from the cowbells from the tiny specks on the rolling
countryside below.
We were completely surrounded by mountain peaks and in one direction
was a large area of flat land with homes and streets. We stood at the peak for
a bit, soaked in the amazing views, took lots of pictures, and headed back down.
Shout out to Mirko for suggesting this side trip! We jumped back in the sauna (cable
car) to reach the parking lot, grabbed a quick bite at a café, and then rode
the bus back to Salzburg.
We returned to
the apartment around 7pm and took showers. We ate at a restaurant that was 1
minute from our door and they gave us free pretzels and bread! 100 points for
this place. Once again, we were entertained by the wait staff. The girl was a
tall blonde who kept saying “yes please” to everything we said. “I’d like the
salad and beer”, ‘Yes please’ “Do you have such and such?” ‘Yes please.’ It was
comical. We hit the hay around
midnight and I counted up our beer consumption for the day. Four 0.5l beer servings.
Oktoberfest prep is getting real.
Sept 15: Salzburg
This morning we
slept in until noon and it was wonderful. I had no real plans for the day so we
were in no rush to do anything. We left the apartment around 1:30pm and
explored Salzburg. It was a beautiful day and bustling with people. We first ate lunch at a small
outdoor café with a nice view of a small plaza. We sat at a table for 4 and I
ordered a very delicious ham and cheese croissant with herbal lemonade (I
didn’t know what to expect with this but it was very tasty!). After this, we walked around little kiosks and stalls for
window shopping. I bought some things here and there. We walked down a
particular alleyway that was hoppin' with people and shops. In many of the
windows there were these cool springy Mozarts that dangled from the ceiling. Seeing
them made me chuckle each and every time. We also ended up walking into Mozart’s
birth house. What up homie! We didn’t feel like taking the tour so we left
shortly after.
We then strolled along the river which was gorgeous. Not a cloud
in the sky and you could see all the historic buildings and mountains in one
view. We stumbled upon the Mirabel Gardens
which was definitely a highlight for
me. The flowers were arranged in beautiful formations and there was a big
fountain in the center. Looking down this channel provided a view of the
gardens and the castle in the background. Very picturesque. Later, we headed back
out for bar hopping around 9pm. We went down an alley that was supposedly where
the locals go to drink but found absolutely nothing. The next street over, however,
was very successful. We hit 4 different bars and ordered a delicious beer at
each. One of them, I think it was called Monkey Bar, was my favorite and it was
situated right next to the river. The lights from the city were bouncing off
the water. It had a neat little lounge area outside with comfy chairs. The last
bar we went to had three Austrians playing Stump! The memories of Virginia Tech
tailgating flooded in! They weren’t very good at it though haha. It was very novice
stump. They didn’t even throw the hammer - they just held it close to the nail
and then slowly hit it. HOWEVER, we did some research and it turns out Stump
was actually invented by the Germans! Who woulda guessed?? After our 4 bars we started
to walk back. But as we were walking we heard (you’ll never guess this one)…..the
Macarena! We did a double take and then walked into the bar. It was like a
straight up college club in there! The energy was so tangible and everyone was belting
out the words and showing off their best moves. It was a pretty sweet find.
Kenneth really loved it. They played a bunch of foreign music with catchy beats. And also a few English songs
like the Spice Girls! A girl approached me and said something in German. I
responded that I spoke English and she said, “You found the good place!” Yeah we
did! We headed to bed around 1am and prepared to leave tomorrow. Salzburg was
nice and all but I have to agree with Kenneth, it’s time to return to Munich
and get this party started!!
Sept 16: Munich
Today we woke
up at 8:30am and we left the apartment at 9:30am so we could catch the 10:15am
train to Munich. Once we arrived in Munich, we asked the
information desk how to get to our new place (we are staying with a friend of a
friend named Matt. He is on vacation in Italy and kindly offered to let us stay
at his place while he’s away. So nice – thanks, Matt!!). It is only two stops
away from the Central Station. Very convenient. We hopped on the S-bahn and
just about every line goes to our apartment. At this time, it was close to
12:30pm. We reached the correct destination with ease considering I scoped it out
earlier when riding my bike on Monday. The key retrieval was another story.
Hallie told me that Matt placed the keys in his post box and we could get them
out with a stick or long object. We got to the post box and I basically tried
to squeeze my hand in there because there was mail all over the keys. In fact, I
couldn’t even see the keys. It was quite comical because people who actually
lived in the complex we’re walking by and wondering what the hell we were
doing. I finally retrieved the keys from the post box, but Hallie forgot to
mention which apartment Matt lives in. We had the correct building but we had
no idea how to find his actual apartment. Oh boy. There were 10 people in the
building and 5 floors. We were wondering if we had to test the key in every
door to find out our mystery place. We soon discovered that the doors had last
names on them. Thankfully, I saved Max’s last name from a message I received
from Hallie while ago. We did some detective work by riding the elevator and stopping
at each floor of the building to read the names. Of course, Max lives on the
very top floor in the very last room. But we finally found it! Max’s place is
very large and in a great location - we are very blessed to be able to stay
here while he is away! There is lots of space for both of us in the common room
where each of us are sleeping on a sofa.
We placed our stuff down and then decided to go to Marienplatz city center to check out the area. This time we discovered a quicker way to get to
the S-bahn and it only took 5 minutes to walk there! We got to Marienplatz after
4 stops and it was only 2.70 euros for a trip. Very cheap. We decided we were
going to go big and try to find Hofbrauhaus for some liters of beer.
Kenneth was
already enjoying himself with so many younger people walking around and the
excitement of the city life. We found Hofbrauhaus and sat down in the biergarten.
It was pretty awesome because there were trees growing in the middle of
cobblestones and women running around with baskets of huge pretzels and people always
coming up asking for your order. It was a very busy place. We sat next to some
people from America and the one guy was traveling all over the world. They were
very nice to talk with and I was still mesmerized by how gigantic the entire
building was. We also heard some music similar to that of Festhaus at Busch
Gardens. I
finished my liter of beer before Kenneth! I just wanted to throw that in there
because I think it's important and it probably won’t happen again :p
He was very impressed and
confused because I gave him the impression I wouldn’t be able to finish one. I’m
a hustler. We then went to another brauhaus for some other beer and it was just
ok. We started going back to the apartment and I ended up buying some postcards
for people along the way.
We went back to the apartment for a little bit and I
wasn’t feeling so well. I forgot to mention that I ordered a veil sausage at
Hofbrauhaus. When they delivered it to me, it looked disgusting. It was bathing
in a bowl of hot water and was white in color. However, I wanted to try it
anyway. I believe that this was the culprit for my tummy ache later in the night.
Possibly the mix of the liter beer as well. We initially planned to go to the
second biggest biergarten in Germany, Augustine Keller, which is close to our place.
But I still wasn’t feeling so well so Kenneth went without me. It was raining at this time and pretty miserable
outside. He came back around 11:30pm and we went to bed around 12:30am. It’s supposed
to be a rainy, miserable day tomorrow and we’re not really looking forward to that, but we are looking forward to the soccer match!
Sept 17: Munich
This morning we
woke up at 8:30am so we could leave the apartment at 9:30am to make it to the
parade route for Oktoberfest around 10:30am. There was definitely some time fluff
put in there since we didn’t exactly know how to get where we were going. Plus,
I wanted to send the postcards that I wrote last night. We walked toward the
Oktoberfest area and I struggled to find a way to mail my postcards. So I asked a convenience
store and they said I could ask the mail lady down
the street who had her bike parked on the sidewalk. I went up to the lady and
told her my problem. She said she could take care of my stamped postcards.
Sending postcards is always an adventure, I tell you! Now I can tell people
that I handed them over to some random mail lady. We situated ourselves along the parade route on the main street and it
was roped off to keep people off the road. We saw many people darting across so
we did the same because the other side had less people. It was fun to watch
others try and cross because eventually the police officers became very strict
about it and chased people down. It was like a real-life video game. We sat and
waited and finally the parade began. There were very small bands made up of
older people which was cute. Lots of drums, lots of trumpets, and it was
raining the whole
time. I felt a little bad for them. They also had these huge
horses that looked like they came out of a fairytale or a mythical movie. Many
of the floats were decorated with beer kegs and people waving ferociously. Around
11:30 we decided to walk towards the Oktoberfest entrance since it would be
packed if we waited until the parade ended. We get in and it was still raining
pretty hard, yet everybody was still excited to drink beer. We started walking
along the side but then came to a barrier and had to stop. The parade came
through in front of us and eventually the people hopped off the floats. Someone
let down the line in front of us so we started walking out into the main area.
But then this big guy came and roars/yells at everybody so we scurried back. We
made sure to scurry beyond the barrier that was previously in our way. Well
that worked out in the end! We walked around and we found the Augustine Keller
tent but it was full of people so we couldn’t get in. We then went to the
Hacker Pschorr tent and walked inside to see the sights. It was a madhouse inside
with everybody wearing lederhosens and dirndls. Every single table was full to
the max. Not a single space was left and everybody
was elbow to elbow. Wait staff were
running everywhere and lining up to pick up their customers’ beers. We ended up
going outside and sitting at a long table in the rain. The lady
was wiping down my seat and just as I sat on my end of the bench the other side
of the bench flew up like a seesaw. Weeeeee! The lady was still wiping it down
so I was afraid I hit her. She said "oh no I’m fine are you okay?" And everybody
was laughing at me. That was slightly embarrassing, but it could have been WAY
worse. I’m picturing beers on a tray getting hit by the bench and flying
everywhere, creating chaos. We ordered our liters of beer and began. We had 3 people join us to
our left and they each ordered two liters. Champions. We had a little bit of food
there and since we needed to get to the Bayern game, we left around 1:30.
We left Oktoberfest and headed to the S-bahn. Figuring out this system wasn’t
too difficult but it was a lot of lines going this way, that way, and every which
way. We finally made it to the arena and the tram was packed with people. We
were stuffed in like sardines. We arrived at the stadium a little bit later than anticipated -
close to 3:00. It was raining pretty hard but everybody was still having a good
time. We walked into the arena and found our seats. They were pretty high up.
We sat down and it was just
filled with crazy fans everywhere. To our left was the visiting team fans and
they were going nuts with cheers and shouts. But even louder was behind the
Bayern home goal - they were constantly shouting and chanting. I don’t know how
they did it the whole game but it was very amusing. I didn’t really need to
watch the game for entertainment! They were probably running on lots of beer.
They were waving huge
flags and jumping up and down in unison. When the game
began it was electric and very fun to watch because Bayern is very good. Their
passes were smooth and they were moving around the field constantly to provide
support to their teammates. The visiting team went up 1-0 which was shocking.
But then Bayern scored 3 goals and won the game. We jumped on the tram to get back and
all was going well until everybody exited the tram except us and 5 other
people. We were very curious what was going on. The tram continued to move but
then one minute later it stopped. In the middle of nowhere. It seemed to be a
track between the running trains. I guess we went out of service… It was pretty
comical at first because it was literally us 7 just sitting on the tram looking
at each other like WTF mate - it felt like a ghost town. Did they know we were
still on the tram? It seems unlikely that they would not check to see if the
tram had emptied. As time went by, we all became more irritable and began wondering
what was going to happen. Were we going to sit there for 1 hour? After about 20
minutes of waiting, the tram started going the opposite direction to where we
had come before. We immediately got off at the stop and transferred to the
other side. It was really weird occurrence.
We went to Augustine Keller later in the evening. It was about a 20
minute walk and at first we were going to sit outside but there were people
smoking and inside seemed like more fun. I also wanted to get a chance to meet
some new people. We had a little bit of trouble finding a place to sit down,
but once we did we ordered some beer and I ordered a cream dessert. It was
super delicious. About 30 minutes later we were asked to move tables because a
huge party was coming in and needed the entire table. Two of the people seemed
sorry that we had to move and we started talking to them. Kennneth started
talking to this guy named Shane who was from Ireland and while I spoke to this
girl named Mel who was from Australia! We hit it off right away. We continued
to talk for the rest of the night and she asked us to join them tomorrow during
Oktoberfest. She and I were talking about all our travel adventures and we
really clicked. She said that all of them in the group are Australian except
for Shane and they all live in London now. They seemed like a good group of
people who have a good time. Typical Aussies. Kenneth actually wanted to leave
earlier than I did which was a rare occurrence. We left but not before we got
their contact information. I really hope we can find them tomorrow! They even
convinced us to buy outfits. It would be strange if we tried to meet with them
and we were the only ones not in an outfit. We realized that all the major
tents required it. Fingers crossed!
Sept 18: Munich
We woke up
around 10am and headed out the door around 11. Before we left, I messaged Mel
to give her an update of our status and asked her to text Kenneth where they’d
be at noon. We then
began the search for a shop that sold dirndls and lederhosens for cheap. We
jumped in and out of a few places and then landed in one that seemed to be a
winner. We were in there
for a bit and the girl was very excited to sell me a dirndl.
I must say it was much more complicated than I thought. Kenneth and I were in
adjacent dressing rooms and the young man was helping Kenneth as I struggled to breathe in my outfit. I tried the first
one, came out, looked in the mirror, and I looked like a housewife
about to make some soup. Eventually, we figured out our outfits and we
were ready to go drink beer! Mel messaged Kenneth saying they were in the
Augustine tent. We walked into Oktoberfest, now looking like the rest of
humanity. We went into the Augustine tent and tried our best to find Mel and
her group. She gave a pretty good description of their location and so I searched
for her, yet we still couldn’t find her. So we decided to find a table and order
some food and beer for the time being. We sat at an open table with a couple
who were 15 years old. One was Australian (the girl) and the other was her
boyfriend from Spain. But they both live in Germany now. It was interesting to
talk to them and they were very chatty. I don’t think I was like that at age 15. I continued to try
and reach Mel
and even called her through WhatsApp. It was such a chaotic debacle and
eventually we figured out that we were in different tents. How is that
possible?! ...there were two Augustine tents….so after we finished, we headed to
the other tent. We actually found them pretty quickly and sat down with their
crew. It was PACKED with people. Shortly after we arrived, a line of men started
playing trumpets and drums. Everybody stood up and danced while yelling and
screaming and having a great time. Hey Baby was the song of choice in most
tents which I loved considering we played that song all the time in high school
band. Mel's group had been there for about 4 hours and they were a really fun group
to be around. After a lot of dancing, yelling, and
photo taking,
Kenneth and I wanted to check out another tent. We initially
intended to go to Paulaner but then saw the roller coasters in the distance. We
headed towards Wild Maus which was the coaster we rode at Busch Gardens in
Williamsburg, VA while growing up and it made us very nostalgic!
We rode the coaster and it was such a blast! We then rode
the coaster right next to it - the blue one that was really fast and much
bigger. We stopped by a snack shop to get some food and then went to the Paulaner
tent. We found a space in the middle of a table that actually wasn’t open but
the girl that was near it was very nice and said we could sit there anyway.
Everybody at the table was standing up and most of them were from Australia of
course. After a bit with them, Kenneth had to use the bathroom and I walked over to another
table and sat down with a nice French girl and
her boyfriend from Germany. We had a very pleasant conversation and the French
girl was very nice. I really enjoyed talking with her. She told me that the
people who live in Paris are always nasty and in a bad mood so it’s not just towards
Americans. It’s a very expensive place and it’s very busy and full of tourists
so they get upset. And they all know it they are in bad moods haha. Kenneth and
I then headed to Hofbrauhaus to check out their tent. Hofbrauhaus tent was complete
madness. It was like walking into the biggest frat party of your life. Everyone
was standing on the tables and chairs yelling loud. Some people were falling
over and it was chaos everywhere you looked. So after a
long time of partying it up, we walked back to the
apartment.We then went to sleep in preparation for next
day. Oktoberfest is complete insanity! Such a blast, but extremely worn out!
Sept 19: Munich
We both set our
alarms for 8:30am and prepared for our day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. It wasa two hour train ride from Munich. I
didn’t quite know which ticket to buy to get there so we went to the information
booth and the lady just printed out the ticket and didn’t really give us any
information. I kept asking, but she didn’t seem like she wanted to tell me
anything. We got on the
train at 10:55 and rode it for one hour before we transferred to another train.
The next train we hopped on was a double decker which was pretty cool.
Everything around us during the ride was so green and lush. Once we arrived in
Fussen, we pretty much just winged it and tried to find the bus that would take
us to the castle. Everything worked out great. We arrived and grabbed some food
at the nearest café which was playing hard rock music. I guess when you have
tourists coming in at a bus stop right across the street you can pick whatever
music you want to play! We went to the ticket Pick Up and saw a huge line
waiting to buy tickets. Oh no... Are we going to have to wait in that too? But
then I saw the other line that was labeled reserved tickets, we hopped in that
line and immediately got to the counter. We walked to the top
where
 |
| Hohenschwangau Castle in the distance |
the castle was located in the drizzling rain. It was supposed to take 40
minutes but it only took us 20 minutes. It was a very nice walk through the
woods and a lot of people were taking the option of hiking. We could have also
taken the bus or horse carriage but those were a little expensive and took a
while to wait for. We got to the top and it was really beautiful. The fog and
the clouds were so low and it made it a little creepy and gave it that castle
vibe. We got there so early that we had to wait 1.5 hours. We had some good
conversation and eventually, we
were
 |
| Neuschwanstein Castle |
called for our tour and we walked through the castle. It was pretty neat
and the view from the side was really gorgeous. We had to walk up some stairs
in the tower and Kenneth and I both froze a little bit. The tour was only 30
minutes and at the very end we were in a large concert room for the king. It
just so happened that we were in the same group as a talented choir that was
traveling throughout Europe to sing in many historic buildings. They started
singing and it was like heaven on earth. Their acapella was magical. We were
very lucky to have them in our group. The other groups behind us and the tour
guide behind us were all very jealous. They were called the Saint Anthony on
the Lake choir. I’ll have to look them up on YouTube later. We then decided to
walk to the bridge that was near the castle and very high above the waterfall.
We got there and we started walking across the bridge, but then my fear of
heights struck me. I froze and could not continue. Kenneth froze for a bit as
well but eventually he worked up the courage to cross. I stood there and people
came back from the other side asking, “Do you need me to hold your hand?” and I
said I was holding
my brother but then he left me! They laughed. They then said,
“You can do it!” It was a beautiful
view. The castle was there with the mountains creating a backdrop and then
there was a low valley with a lake in the distance. If I looked down I got
scared, however, if I looked out it wasn’t so bad. Eventually I was able to grab
a hold of Kenneth and have him walk across the bridge. I was grabbing onto his
jacket so tightly. We got to the other side and it looked even better. I was
really glad I made it. I keep testing these fears and yet I feel I'm not
getting any better with them… After this, we rode the bus down and went to a hotel restaurant. I was served
some delicious rice with chicken mushroom sauce. It was amazing! I don’t think
I’m cut out for German food so this was like a breath of fresh air. We boarded at the train station at 7:05pm and then transferred around 9pm. The next train we boarded was exactly like the one from
Harry Potter! It had the sliding doors and we were just waiting for the trolley
to come by and serve us chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.
We sat with a fellow from Germany who was born in Pakistan and his favorite futbol
team was Barcelona. I was waiting for him and Kenneth to duke it out. We had pleasant
conversation with him and then we eventually reached Central Station at 10pm.
We got back to the apartment around 11pm and I
couldn’t sleep for a bit because I kept thinking of all the stuff we still
needed to do tomorrow. Last day in Munich! It’s quite sad actually. Usually by
the end of a trip I’m ready to go back home. However, in this case Kenneth has
been such a great travel companion and made it so easy to do all sorts of
different things, that I’m not wishing to be anywhere else. It’s pretty great :)
Tomorrow I plan to meet up with Mirko, the guy Anish
and I met in Peru. He lives about 2 hours away in another German city. It'll be
good to see him. This whole trip Kenneth and I are never really in the
apartment. I'd say we spend 3 hours out of the day in the apartment. We are
always doing this, that, or the other. Busy busy! Also I've realized there are
no microwaves in any of the places we’ve stayed in. I guess the Germans like
they're ovens.
Sept 20: Munich
We woke up at 8:30 and
headed to Nymphenburg Palace which was a palace for the king during the summer.
It looked really pretty and it was very picturesque. I kind of threw the idea out
there last minute this morning and Kenneth was fine with it. I love how he
rolls with anything. We took the light rail - another mode of transportation
yay! We arrived there around 10am. We
walked around and there was a beautiful
lake with swans and the huge palace in the background. It was actually somewhat
sunny at this time! There were blue skies and it was unbelievable. We walked
through the gate and explored the garden behind the palace. There were beautiful flowers surrounding pools of water
and a huge gravel walkway down the center. This gravel walkway then transformed
into a waterway and there were two walkways on the side through trees with park
benches along the way. We
walked through the wooded portion and then ended up on a bike path that was supposed to take us to S-Bahn back to
city center. We looked at the map and there was a cross street with the bike
path intersecting it, but in real life we didn’t see it. We walked around and
eventually realized that we were about 3 stories above the intersecting road
- there was almost no way to get down to it. We could either shimmy around the
pole from the fence or we could jump the fence area that was somewhat pushed
down. We decided to do the latter because otherwise people would see us from
the sidewalk scaling the side of this concrete barrier. Not a good example for
the kids. This was our own little form of adventure that I’m pretty sure no one
else would have done with me. We slid down the gravel and then we also had to
hang from the concrete ledge and drop about another foot. It was really thrilling
and so spontaneous! We walked to the S-Bahn and hopped off at Marienplatz (city center). Our intention
was to get there before noon because the Glockenspiel would have its
human-sized figures move around in a circle at that time. We walked around a
little bit, bought some souvenirs, and watched the clock at noon. It was pretty
cool. Kenneth then left to go to Oktoberfest and I met up with Mirko. He and I
went to grab some food at a brewhaus that I read in an article Will (from work)
gave me. We caught up on life and he was telling me some nuances of the German culture and language.
It was nice to have someone around who spoke fluent German. I felt somewhat
like a local. We then
walked a great deal north of the city center and it was really pretty because
the buildings were so historic. It reminded me a lot of France. Mirko said that
they are both very similar. They even had a large arc structure over the street
like in Paris. We walked into Englischergarten and then moseyed back to
Marienplatz. By this time it was 4pm. I asked Mirko if he wanted to join us for
Oktoberfest later. He had just flown back from San Francisco the previous day
and took a train to Munich this morning so he said he was too tired. I really
appreciated that he met up with me. He went out of his way to see me.
I walked back to the station and
then took the train to the apartment. I was really tired after all the walking during the long day. I didn’t really
want to go to Oktoberfest honestly. But it was something Kenneth wanted to do and
he had been doing a lot of things I wanted to do so it was my turn to return the favor. Around 5:30pm I
went to find Kenneth. We agreed to meet at 6pm.
He messaged me saying he found some cool people to hang out
with. I met his new friends, most of whom were
probably in their mid-30s to 40s. They were very nice and the place was
electric. They were playing all sorts of high energy songs where everyone was
performing dances moves and yelling at the top of their lungs. It was very cool
to be a part of. Unfortunately, I only recorded one video #regrets. We then
moved to the Spaten tent. We joined a table with people who were standing up and
ordered a liter and a pretzel. The band
played BSB and a few other songs, but it wasn’t as crazy as the previous tent.
Kenneth and I still had a great time. I saw Kenneth eyeing some girl in the
distance and I said, “Dude, who are you looking at?” He said some blonde girl
who was really pretty. He then said, “Hold on one sec. I’m gonna go make her
day.” I watched him go over there and say something to her and she was very
cute. He came back and I was getting tired
and wanted to go back to the apartment. We
returned to the apartment around 10pm and we have an early departure for the
airport tomorrow morning – 6am! Let’s hope we’re functional enough and make our
flight. Kenneth leaves at 9:30am and I leave 2 hours later. This was the best
way to end our trip: a fun-filled night drinking beer and making the most of
Oktoberfest :)
Sept 21: Munich
We woke up
right at 6am and quickly packed up our stuff to leave. We rode the line that
took us all the way to the airport. This line comes to the stations every 20minutes
so we didn’t want to miss it. As we were riding (takes about 45minutes total),
Kenneth turns to me and asks, “How much longer until we get there?” “About 20
minutes.” “I think I’m gonna throw up.” “WHAT?!” Yikes. We didn’t have the
option of getting off and then getting back on because we would be late to the airport.
So I told him he’d have to stick it out and I gave him a plastic bag that I was
carrying my shoes in. I also asked him to switch spots with me so he’d be near
the window and further away from the people on the other side in case he
actually did throw up. I saw him slump over on his suitcase and he was sweating
profusely. Ohhhh no. This is gonna happen. Ah the consequences of a successful Oktoberfest outing. Minutes kept passing by and he didn’t
throw up. What a champ! Once we made it I told him I thought for sure he was
going to lose it. He did too. Phew, close call. We went through the check-in
and then ordered some food for breakfast. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.
It was so sad! I didn’t want it to be over yet. Another trip in the books and it was extremely
special because I got to share it with Kenneth. Hopefully more are in our
future :D
