Prost!

We are now about half way through our road trip. Our intention was to go from Venice to Croatia but due to us only loosely planning our road trip we failed to notice that Croatia’s tourist infrastructure closes down at the end of summer, that being start of September… this included the ferry we had intended to take from Venice. Driving was out of the question as Andrew was not keen to do another 2, 8 hour days behind the wheel so we decided to make our way towards Munich via Salzburg, the city responsible for the Sound of Music.

The scenery driving into Austria is breath taking, it is so green. Usually when driving down the motorway you couldn’t see much more than asphalt & concrete, but everywhere in Austria you can see rolling green hills and gorgeous houses. Salzburg was no exception. As we mentioned earlier Salzburg is the home of the original Von Trapp family and also the birthplace of Mozart… these are two things you can not escape. The city is very picturesque, it has real charm and character. We went on a jet-boat tour along the River Salzach up to Hellbrunn palace. Here some eccentric old dude in the last renaissance period obviously had too much money and decided to build trick fountains all around his property. Andrew thought it was a brilliant idea. The first spot is a massive marble table and chairs that he would set with a banquet of food & bottles of wine in ice where he would invite his guests to sit, once seated and enjoying themselves he would turn the fountains on and water would squirt up there bums, from the table into there faces and from the sides, hilarious. Andrew volunteered himself to help the guide demonstrate the idea. He thought he had it all figured out & he still ended up wet… Everyone was in tears of laughter. By the end of the tour, everyone was wet; it was a lot of fun. That night we had wanted to have a traditional Austrian meal, but we didn’t know what a traditional Austrian meal was… turns out its very much about meat. It was the most delicious meal. Andrew had roast pork and I had chicken followed by chocolate moose and apple strudel, all washed down with red wine whilst overlooking the fantastic views of the Austrian countryside. The next morning we took a cable car to the 1853m summit of the Untersberg. The view was absolutely magnificent. We hiked to two seperate look outs with giant cross memorials were, because of the perfectly clear day you could see for miles. After our hike we both needed a beer so we lead footed it to Munich or more importantly Oktoberfest! We had been looking forward to this and it was definitely worth the wait. When we arrived in Munich it was about 6pm, we quickly set up camp and headed into Oktoberfest. It was so much better than we imagined, which is saying something because, well lets just say travelling in a car around Europe without a radio has set Andy’s hyper active imagination wild. (Yes, I know I’m a brave woman.)

Oktoberfest is absolutely massive, by the time we got there it was about 7pm and it was still packed but not so much that you couldn’t move, we expected by this time to see heaps of overly drunk people in beer tents but everyone was actually really well behaved. It’s a huge carnival; there are rides, stalls and the beer halls everywhere which are massive and decorated to the max. Theres also a lot of people dressed up in German gear. Andrew and I decided to save the drinking to the next day and just walked around and take it all in. We grabbed ourselves some yummy chocolate covered bananas and then went on a couple of rides, one was this huge rollercoaster called the Euro Star which is apparently banned in the states. We also looked inside some of the beer halls and it was a huge party. Live bands were playing, everyone were dancing on the tables and singing we couldn’t wait till tomorrow. We got up early(ish) the next morning, had breakfast and a 1L can of beer (just to get us started). By the time we got to Oktoberfest it was about lunchtime. We decided to first eat in one of the many restaurant halls there. We found a place and were seated with two elderly German ladies who would have been in their 70’s and were chugging down the massive beers as if it was water. Andrew and I ordered two beers & our meals, chicken and duck. The food arrived and it was massive, Andrew had half a duck and I got half a chicken both of which looked like they had come from some kind enormous prehistoric birds. That with our enormous beers we were suffiently full and ‘happy’ when we left. We decided to venture into one of the beer hall and continue our drinking. Our first stop is the Hippodrom. Here we met a couple of Germans, King Peter and Klaus. They were so fun, Klaus could speak a little English and seemed to relish the chance to practices it but the only thing Peter could say fluently is ‘Fosters, Australia’s famous beer’. We tried to tell him that Fosters is shite but that was futile as he couldn’t understand. Over the next few hours we sang, drunk, danced on the tables and laughed with our new friends. Every few songs the band would sing a German jingle that went a little something like “a prost’e, a prost’e, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…” Ok so we don’t really remember it but saying that I don’t think we ever really knew it, anyway it was fun, everyone was having a fantastic time. We had said that we weren't going to get any souvenirs but that was before we saw the glasses inside the Hippodrom tent... they had a carousel painted around the outside of the glass in rich red, green & yellow a trophy definetly worthy of souveniring so I quickly slipped one in my bag. A few hours later our new friends had to get a train back home to north Germany somewhere (about 8 hours away) so we also decided it was a good time to move. By now we were feeling very cheery and thought it would be a great time to go on some rides. It actually was a good time, we were so relaxed that we weren’t worried at all going on all these terrifying rides and they were so much more enjoyable too. We went on the Olympic ride which basically does loop to loop of the Olympic rings, we then we went on this ride that went round and round and almost sprays water in your face… ok that pretty much sounds like all the rides we went on. After the rides, some more food and a red bull and vodka it was time to find another beer hall. We made our way into the Pauliner tent. This time it was a little more difficult to find a spot to sit but finally a group of German business men allowed us to join them. At first they were a bit uptight but within no time they were singing and dancing like Andrew and I. I think they really enjoyed the entertainment. By about 8 we were quiet wobbly and had decided we needed to get some more food into us to soak up the alcohol so we headed back to one of the food tents. We ordered another two beers and a pork knuckle to share. Unfortunately the lady didn’t understand us and thought we wanted one each, so we both had these massive serves of pork which would be enough meat to feed a family of four and side orders of potatoes and cabbage. Of coarse we didn’t want it going to waste so we scoffed it down. We then had a dance and a drink with the older German crowd in the restaurant. From here everything’s a little fuzzy, but we both woke up in our tent the next day unharmed & surprisingly hangover free… Usually I have the worst hangovers but I think because we ate so so much, we were fine. We spent most of the day roaming around Munich taking in the sights. Unfortunately we had used all our camera batteries so we couldn’t take any pics but I have the memories… Andy has all ready written his off.

Love & miss you lots.

Juz & Andy

XOXOXO


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