Munich – Oktoberfest

I’m pretty sure this will be the last post I do before I return finally. Yes finally, to Sydney. Wow, 9 months, all but over for 3 more nights. Insane to think about really! 1 night here in LA, 1 night on the plane flying to Fiji, 1 night in Fiji and I’ll be in home sweet home. Hello sunshine! I haven’t seen any sun for almost 1 week now and it’s raining cats and dogs here in LA, it’s all driving me bonkers.

Anyhow, onto the real topic today, Munich!

Oh yeah! I went there! I saw, I drank, I conquered. Something like that. I had the most amazing time in Munich, thanks in no small part to my dear friends Iris and Sheloian who lent me their lovely apartment for 8 whole days, while they were in the states themselves. I wasn’t going to stay that long, but I decided to extend since I like the place so much and let me tell you, what an upgrade from hostel dorm rooms to an apartment to myself. Yeah… extending was a good call.

Day 1

Where possible I always start with 1 essential place. The food market. Lucky for me Munich had a daily food market in the city center right by Marianplatz. The center, again lucky for me, was walking distance. I enjoyed the lovely sunny and warm weather thawing myself after Iceland. I was very happy to be in short sleeves and jeans. Very happy!

Marienplatz, the clock does a little dance every hour.

Lots and lots of bike in Munich

Beautiful art deco facade

Candied fruit anyone?

City museum I think it was, it was closed, so I didn’t go

This is when you know you are in Bavaria!

Beer garten in the food market near Marienplatz

I had to cross the river to get to the city, but it was only a pleasant 20 mins stroll

The neighbourhood, so cute with all the pastel coloured apartments

The apartment building, in the middle of a guitar and violin shop

So I walked around, got to know the town, bought food, then went to the supermarket and bought more food and of course beer. Wiessbier, OMG, Franziskaner is my favourite… I’m glad they have it at Lowenbrau in Sydney. And so I cooked and ate… what did you expect me to do? I spent the previous night on some benches in bloody Stansted airport, I was glad enough to be alive!

Fruits! Grapefruits, heirloom tomato, figs and gooseberries.

The balcony, with my dinner, pork chop, salad, red cabbage with a glass of weissbier. I spent a lot of time on this balcony. Isn’t it just the cutest!

Day 2

I went to Duetche Museum, I thought it was a history museum, but it turned out to be a science and technology museum. It was very big, so big in fact, I didn’t have time to see half the things. Many of the exhibits and displays are very old, but nonetheless I enjoyed it and they had English explainations, which helps a lot.

That night was back to the apartment for more cooking and eating. Just 8 hors d’oeuvres… nothing fancy :p

They have everything in this museum and I mean everything.

Urh… factory machines

Real ships

Inside of ships

Model ships

Airplane engines

Rockets

Space suits

Model moon

Lead type

Cameras

More cameras

Back of the museum

Day 3

I walked around the town more. Took Iris’s bicycle out for a ride. I hadn’t been on a bicycle since I was 12, let me just say, it was a challenge. I’m finding that the older I get, the more chicken shit I’m getting. That’s surely not a good thing. But I spend a good hour and half riding around the block. Munich is very safe for bicycles, they have bicycle paths built into the footpath, so you aren’t fighting for space with cars at all. Mums drag a cart or crate with their children in it with their bikes, extremely bike friendly city. I felt fine on the bike on the path, on my own… however when another bike comes my way, I start shaking and have to jump off. Hmm…

Walking is never a problem thankfully

Tree lined path on the side of the river

Interesting to store bikes

Somewhere in the city

Oben poster with real balloons

Painter and his audience and women in drindles!

Inside that building with the clock that dances

Day 4

I finally made it to Oktoberfest! It’s very daunting and I just refused to go on my own. Then Jady kept delaying her arrival so I rang up her friend Romesh who was already in Munich and tagged along with him and his gang.

What a day. One of Romesh’s good friend is French and a gang of his friends came over from Paris, they are a brass band. Yeah. They were great fun!

The beer halls, wow! The Bavarians all dress in their drindles or lederhosens, they all look so cute, the boys and girls! Made both Jady and I want to buy drindles… but then we checked our bra sizes… urh… sorry… won’t work for us Asian girls. Damn! So back to the beer halls. People are dancing and singing standing on the tables while downing their liters and beers and eating their whole roast chicken and pretzles! My my, what a sight!

Beer tent

French brass band/French crazy kids

French man and German man

The avenue and mountains of people

French man, Harry Potter, Romesh, me and I forgot her name

Then the pants started to come off

But they kept playing

Even when they hit the ground

Cute Japanese kid dressed in drindle watching the crazy Frenchmen

Glorious pretzels

Man spotted with the most amazing beard

That what happens when you drink too much beer kids, you fall over each other…

Ok, a little basic background information about Oktoberfest. I suppose most of you don’t know about this, unless you’ve been before, because I certainly didn’t know how it worked til I got there. So Oktoberfest happens each year at the same spot a few subways stops from central Munich. Everybody rides the subway there and away. You can’t get lost, just follow the crowd and you’ll be there in no time, well, that’s a lie, there’s always mountains of people, slow moving crowds, so it takes a little time. But they are all drunk, they sing songs and everybody’s happy! EVERYBODY!

The avenue is a long strip with the fun fair at 1 end, then along the sides of the strip are food stalls, beer halls and beer gardens. Each beer brewery will have a beer hall and a beer garten just outside the hall, each serving their beers. Paulaner is the biggest brand, therefore they have the biggest and most lively hall. Ok hall is a misleading word, these are just giant tents. Wood panels on 4 sides, tent canvas on top, each year before the festival, they come and take days to set it all up and at the end of festival, they take it all down and pack it away for next year. Neat huh!

So you have your beer in the halls or gartens but you can’t take them outside. Each beer hall also serves food, but the menu is limited, if you get to see a menu at all and it’s also more expensive comparing to eating at one of the stalls on the strip.

Beers are served in steiners, 1 liter giant, heavy glasses. Filled with beer, they are quite a work out for your arms. And when you see your waiter come towards your table with 5+ steiners, especially when your waiter is a waitress… then you cheer and give her a good tip! Let me tell you, that’s a sight and she must have big guns!

So it was a drunk and fun day.

Day 5

I went with 2 of Romesh’s friends to the swimming fun fair thingy thingyo… I’m so so sorry, lovely girl and boy, but I’ve forgotten your lovely names u___u Now now, I was very toxicated throughout those few days, yes… blame it on the beer. The swimming galaxy thingy thingyo was actually very fun. It’s a water park with many water slides, everything is galaxy themed, so slides would have crazy lighting in them. I went on all the rides expect 1 I think, it looked too painful. Arh yes, I remember now, the park was in Erdinger, where the wiessbier Erdinger is from.

In the afternoon it was back to Oktoberfest with Romesh and the gang. The Aussie gang. It was so weird hearing all these Aussies. Ello mate, pass me that beer, will ya :p

I was too busy consuming, not much photo taking.

See how tall that ride is?

We went on that thing the next day, crazy!

Fun fair

He was going pretty high

Day 6

Jady finally arrived and look what I got her! “Super dicker something something” The woman assured me it meant “my sweet fatty”, oh well, she’s one wearing the cookie, not me!

Photo from Jady’s camera

Again, too busy consuming, not much photo taking. Oh but look! Flickr logo toffee apples! Jady and I had 1 each, they were yummy.

Boys being interviewed

Bring sexy back!

Oh that day I ate so much food there, like nuts, fairy floss, corn on the cob, lager, weissbier, roast chicken, crazy Bavarian thing cheese eggy pate with made me want to gag half way through. So yet, too much beer and food makes my tummy go crazy! I ended the night puking the toilet, you might recall the facebook status update. Classy way to end the whirlwind fun that was Oktoberfest.

Here’s me devouring a chicken with Jady, pre puking.

Day 7

Jady and I parted ways again after such a short time. Actually… that was the last time I saw her. But it’ll be soon enough before I see her again Jady went on to stay with Romesh at the student housing.

I flew to London to meet my parents. I travelled with them for 2 entire months. That was damn tough, but we covered so much ground, both in Europe, American and Canada. I’ll get to blogging those eventually. Eventually.

Weren’t there meant to be 8 days? Hmm… It dissapeared with the beers…