Munich - the last day

1^st October 2011

Our last day in Munich! The campground was now completely choccablock and a bit of a mess too, plus the line for toilets and showers starting to get ridiculously long.

The boy (Dave and Rob) got up at 4:45 am to head to an Irish pub to watch the gAyFL final (fools) while Belinda and I had a much more refined 8am breakfast. Once the boys got back Belinda and Rob packed up to hit the road for the rest of their adventures.

Dave and I once again donned out Oktoberfest gear and headed in for our third day at the festival. This was definitely the busiest day we had experienced so far and we heavily thanked the guys who headed in at 7am to get a table (Oktoberfest doesn’t start until 10am). However our joy was short lived. We couldn’t even get past the security on the door to get anywhere near the inside where our friends were comfortably seated. We kept being told the tent was closed – ie it was full. So we decided to try the move that had worked the previous afternoon – wait until you are eventually let in. 

Unfortunately close to 2 hours later we were still no further advanced and it was now 2:30pm. Just when we were about to give up when Dave struck up a conversation with a German guy and it turned out he was a waiter from the Augustiner Tent which we were waiting to get into. We paid a bribe and he got us straight in.

So Oktoberfest hint: get there early on weekends or be prepared to pay a hefty bribe!

Happy once again we found our table and friends now including Ringo, Rach and her friends Annie, Helen and Jodie. Once again we celebrated, sand and danced our way into the early evening although this time not until close.

Welcome to Ringo and Rach

Dave channeling his inner Bavarian

Someone (in a respectable brewery tour ) told me the best beer sings to you... I was just testing this claim

We popped out to meet Ian and Anne Evans who arrived in Munich earlier in the day. Unfortunately we couldn’t get them back into the tent but we still managed to show them what the Oktoberfest atmosphere was like, sharing roast beef burgers and then moving for some drinks and snacks at a more civilised café back in the centre of Munich near Marienplatz. We said farewell at the train station and were both happy for the catchup and bit of surrogate mummy and daddy time.

A civilized catchup with Ian and Anne Evans. Pretty impressive after 3 solid days of drinking 

Munich - day 3

30^th of September 2011

The girls

The boys

The next morning we woke much more ready to hit the festival again. Belinda and I donned our drindles while Dave and Rob got out their checked shirts and teamed them with jeans.

We made a stop before the festival heading out to Munich’s Olympic site from the 1972 games infamous for the murder of several Israeli athletes – as in the movie Munich with Eric Bana. The site seemed surprisingly modern, given the site is now nearly 40 years old but we didn’t find any information/ memorials for those killed.

Olympics!

In the end the beer was calling so all dressed up we headed to the Thresienwise grounds once again. We had all been happy to find that entry is free but Stiens or masses cost 9€10 – you pay the waitress the full 10€ to ensure she keeps coming back to serve you. Unluckily Il goes a long way and you don’t need many before your singing along to all the German songs like a local.

Today being Friday was a lot busier and we had some difficulty even getting entry into a tent. We tried a few before finding out they were all by reservation only.

Trying to find a place to settle in

We decided the only course of action was to wait until they finally let other people in, but only get as far as the outdoor beer garden. Not as much atmosphere but a seat, so we got the beer that we had come for regardless.

Belinda

Practicing my weight lifting skills

We were once again at the Hacker Pschorr and were able to meet up with London Aussies Boris, Steve, Suez and a late arrival Timo (German in Germany via London and Griffith GC – AKA Pain Train).

Getting together with the crew

From left: Suez, Bel, Boris, Cass, Leary and Dave

We had a great time catching up again and ended up once again finding ourselves there at closing time.

A serious conversation

Boris the comedian

There's Timo

Boris the sneaky Russian

This time on our way home, being Belinda and Rob’s last night we decided to hit some rides – the wipeout and 5 loop roller coaster. Poor Belinda found the excitement a little too much for her stomach (full of beer and pork) to handle and was unfortunately a casualty to the rides at the end of the night. 

Riding the wipeout

Dave and I are on there somewhere

Poor Bel

Munich day 2 - a rest from the fest

 29th Sept 2011

Dave in Marienplatz

Our second day in Munich and feeling a little ‘dusty,’ as Dave likes to call it, we had a slow start to the morning having a picnic breakfast between Mulder and Belinda and Rod’s car.

We decided to have a ‘rest day’ from Oktoberfest feeling a little old, and so we headed in to explore the city centre of Munich a little more.

We found the train much easier to get around on and cheaper too. We wound up in Marienplatz  - the main city square.

The glockenspiel clock tower

Dave and I headed off in search of lunch and some souvenir pieces from Munich. The plan was lunch at a beer hall – the usual outlets for Munich’s main beer giants even at non-Oktoberfest time, however we settled for Indian – lovely but felt a little out of place in Germany’s heartland.

After lunch we hit shops determined to find some tract – anyone who knows me, knows I’m never one to miss a fancy dress opportunity. The guy at the tourist info office led us to C & A (European Target) to pick up nice but cheap costumes. ‘Cheap’ started from E9E90 on special and went upwards from there. Some women pay thousands for silk drindels. The guys started at 100E, no sales on them. We settled on getting Dave a nice checkered red shirt and I managed to pick up a full outfit on sale. We also convinced Belinda to come and pick up an outfit after we met them later at the 5pm chiming of the glockenspiel – the clock tower with revolving figurines and jousting knights. All done with our day in town we headed back to camp amongst all the drunks to cook ourselves a nice chicken and salad dinner.

The traditional get-up

So hot right now!

The scene of the crime

Fun even without beer

Munich - Oktoberfest here we come!!!

Up and at ‘em early this morning, well early for Dave and I – 7:30am (Rob wanted to get going at 4am but that would have really thrown off our European sleeping schedules). We hit the road heading North bound for Germany’s Bavaria for the long awaited Oktoberfest adventure. Belinda and Rob accompanied us for the trip and would be camping for the most of the time we would be in Munich too.

Belinda and Rob getting into the spirit

The trip was fairly easy and although we didn’t end up leaving until just before 9am we still managed to easily get side by side space at Camping Thalkirchen – lucky we changed our plans to a mid week arrival!

All settled in it was time to head to the festival to see what all the fuss was about. The camp ground had a bus running every 30misn dripping everyone off right near the festival entrance. Just arriving in town you could feel and see the atmosphere with over 50% of people dressed up in tract – traditional Bavarian outfits, Lederhosen leather pants for boys and drindels for girls.

WE were amazed to see the whole place , which is huge, covered with rides, sideshows and fairyfloss, sausage and burger stalls and of course the plane hanger sized beer tents.

Getting ready for the fun

We had a bit of a walk around before deciding to try our luck getting a seat inside the Hacker Pschorr tent. It had a great atmosphere with 100’s of tables around a band in a gazebo grandstand in the centre.

Each tent had a team of draft horses to pull their beer carts

We found a table to ourselves after a few failed attempts at asking to share, on the mezzanine level and ordered ourselves some beer. We watched a guy (who we later found out was an Aussie named Hamish) skull 3 beers in around 10 seconds each over the course of around 1 ½ hours – we were very impressed.

As well as getting introduced to the traditional Oktoberfest beer drnking songs, most we had no ideas what the words meant but they all ended in “PROST” (cheers!) and much clinking of glasses.

Carrying 7 beers... no problem

Dave, never one to do hints by halves

The Gang

At 5pm they emptied the tent and opened it for those with dinner reservations only, so we found ourselves once again wandering the carnival streets.

We headed into another of the big beer tents – Lowenbrau. This tent was completely packed and we thought we had no chance of getting onto a table… until we found the Fanatics (Aussie touring group, always at the footy/cricket/tennis etc dressed in yellow) who let us share their table to order and pay for drinks – you must be seated at a table to order and pay for drinks so seats are important!

The band here played traditional German songs as well as more mdern songs. We had an absolutely fantastic nigh dancing on the seats and tables until 10:30pm when the tents close up for the night

Settling into the Lowenbrau Tent

All smiles...

Our new friends - Dave went to school with the girl and the guy we named Psychic (My name was Ninja)

...and then the night starts to get a little blurry