First stop: Munich, Germany

I left Heathrow airport on Friday 24th September 2010 at about 3.30pm with a spring in my step (once I'd checked in my heavy, brand spanking new backpack, that is!).

I wonder how long it will stay this clean for...?

First destination: Munich, Germany.

With my oldest brother in tow (actually... who am I kidding? He was leading the way), we eventually made it to our other brother's house in Munich. What a city. 

We went out to dinner and, with it being Oktoberfest, everywhere was busy busy busy! We went to a mexican restaurant, and ended up having lots of cocktails, without truly understanding how expensive they were. 40 Euros later, I'm thinking that this will be a very expensive trip. Lesson learned on day 1 though... make sure you KNOW how much things are going to cost!

The next day (Saturday), saw us going out on some bikes to explore the city. This is by far the best way to see any (flat) city! What a beautiful day. Thanks so much for the guided tour, Nick & Nadine!

 

If you're a surfer, don't think that just because you in Munich and hence far from the sea, that you can't go surfing. There's a spot next to a tunnel in the centre of town (next to the English Gardens) where the water breaks in such a way that it's great for riding! Personally, I think they're crazy! There are some videos in my Picasa gallery if you want to see the surfers in action.

 

 View from the riverbank

 

 

 

View from the bridge

The rest of the day was spent cycling around, and then we went on a 'Beer Challenge' in the evening, which was pretty much a pub crawl. 

 

Had a great night, and went to bed pretty drunk, and excited about the the following day: Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest

Having had good intentions of hitting Oktoberfest at 9am to secure a table, we instead woke up on Sunday feeling pretty worse for wear, and unconvincingly made our way to Weis'n (the German name for Oktoberfest) in the early afternoon, wearing the obligitory dirndle. 

 

As anticipated, there were no tables in the big tents, so we sat outside, and as is expected at such events, we got straight on the beer. The BIG beer. And it was good.

 

 

 

 

Strategically placed gherkins...

 

3 Mass (litre beers) later, and we went to find some food (with Nick managing to blag some free chips in the process). Then we made our way into the big tent. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! The last time I'd come to Oktoberfest in 2005, we'd stayed outside, and therefore missed out on the true Oktoberfest culture! The entire tent is filled with benches and tables, and everyone stands on the benches, singing and drinking with each other, and clinking glasses shouting 'Prost' with anyone whom they happen to make eye contact with. Every 15 minutes or so, the band plays the a traditional song, everyone sings together and toasts each other at the end. It really is great fun...

 

 

 

 

Santa Claus took me dancing...

 

The song, if you're wondering, goes:
Ein prosit, ein prosit der gemütlichkeit!
literally meaning a toast, a toast to being in the comfort of you all.
I meant to video it but forgot, so here's a youtube video of if you're interested... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR8VmCDdt5o 
i've been singing it non-stop for the past 2 days - joy!

3 more Mass beers later, and I'm feeling pretty happy, jumping from tabletop to tabletop to meet new people... and then we got thrown out of the tent because it was shutting! Oh the cheek of it. So we made our way out (along with our new German friends), and tried to get home. Oh - what's that? They've shut the tube because there's too many people down there? Great. Taxi it is then!

Next day I woke up feeling dandy. Adam on the other hand... not so great. We went for a stroll when he finally felt up to it, and that was pretty much all that our day consisted of. A nice relaxing day in the city of Munchen - not too bad for a Monday! Then we went out for an Afghan curry, which was delicious.

So today I had a pretty scary time of it trying to move some money to my new NZ bank account... I got locked out of my UK online banking. So instead of going to Dachau (as I'd wanted to), I spent a nervous couple of hours trying to reinstate my bank account from overseas. Not an easy thing to do when you've left all information about said bank account in England...

Wow... what an essay. I wonder how long it will take for my blog entries to diminish in length. The only reason this is so long is because I'm waiting to get my train to Berlin, and am killing some time. I'll give it 2 months, and a blog this length will be covering a full month.

So onto Berlin. But before that, I've got to pack that damn backpack again!