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Published: November 10th 2005
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There are a few events in the world which are a must to get to. The Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany is one of these......so off we went!
For this trip we hooked up with Fiona and Meaghan who used to work with Justin at the Student Guild, and their respective boyfriends Nick and Doug. Doug's old army mate Waity also came along for the ride.
Friday 30/09/05 We arrived at Munich airport late morning and were confronted with the same challenge as with any foreign country - how to work out the train system! Once sorted we met Meaghan, Dougy, Fiona, Nick and Waity at the main station. After a bite to eat we headed to our accomodation - a nice apartment a 25min train ride out of town. Pretty soon we realised the vending machine down stairs sold beer....and damn good beer for 1.50 Euros, so we decided to stay in for the night and catch up. Meaghan jumped on the phone (Fortunately for all of us Meaghan was a bit of a pro at speaking German) and ordered home delivered pizza.
Saturday 01/10/05 We awoke early pumped for a full day of beer drinking, we caught
a train to Oktoberfest and arrived at 9:30. We thought that this was fairly early to be drinking beer and we would have no problem finding a seat....however.....thousands of others had beaten us to the best seats. For those that don't know, the festival is made up of about 10 massive beer tents each holding between 4,000 -10,000 people. The site also hosts a theme park - just what you want to do after drinking 4 litres of beer - ride the roller coaster! We managed to get on one of the tables outside the Lowenbrau tent, so it was here that we settled in for the day. We had our first stein at 10am (8 Euros a pop). Nick was setting the pace early and looking the odds on champ for the day........but the champ peaked too early (he was first to finish 2 steins) which ultimately led to his demise. However, like a true champ he did re-join us at the table after his little 'indiscretion' (although he didn't have another drink!). The moral of the story.........pace yourself. Meanwhile we all bought ourselves a stupid hat and proceeded to wear them over the course of the next 3
days. We also feasted on pork rolls, giant pretzels, sugared almonds, traditional dougnuts, radish and cheese. We met many crazy/sleezy Italians who took a particular liking to Meaghan (check out the pics!).
Unfortunately it began to rain in the arvo....we tried to stick it out but after about an hour or so we were cold and wet, so we decided to go on the dodgem cars then head home.
Sunday 02/10/05 We decided to see some of Germany's history, other than its beer, so we caught a train to a town called Dachau. Dachau is famous for having the first big concentration camp (built many years pre-war) where over 30,000 people died during the Second World War. It was a sobering experience and we learnt alot about Hitler's phenatical ideals. 200,000 people were kept there over the 12 years it was operational. When it was liberated by Americans at the end of the war over 30,000 people were freed.
In the afternoon we thought we'd try our luck at the Oktoberfest again, but the tents were full and it was still raining. Having no luck we went into Munich in search for a traditional Bavarian pub. Once found, we
ordered the XXXL meat meal to share between 6. This included sasauges, saur craut, dumplings, pork knuckle, chicken, more pork.........meat, meat and more meat. It was MASSIVE! However it didn't take long to polish this off.....all washed down with a few steins. As we wanted the 'true' German experience we all had traditional desert.....'Kaiserchmarrn' traditional pancake. After stuffing ourselves silly, we all retired on a full belly.
Monday 03/10/05 This was our last day with the others and our last chance to get ourselves into a beer tent....so we were determined! We made sure we were at the Oktoberfest by 8:30am. Little did we know that the last Monday of the festival is a relatively quiet day! We easily got a table inside the tent, after which there was little left to do other than start drinking. We had only had a couple of steins for breakfast before Meaghan, Dougy, Fee, Nick and Waity had to go to catch their planes and trains. After saying our farewells we decided to go on the 5 loop rollercoaster and have a look around the rest of the park. Later that day we wandered into Munich and took in some of the
sights.
Tuesday 04/10/05 This was our last day in Munich, so we decided to do a bus tour around the city. This included a visit to the infamous Olympic Park (used in 1972) where the Israeli athletes were killed by terrorists. Following this we went on to visited the royal Summer Palace, the main Cathederal, and the overrated Glochenspeil which chimed at 5pm (a large clock in the main square - the main bell of this clock weighs 1.3 tonne!). We also checked out the markets, and the Hofbrahous (a famous pub where Hitler held his first party meeting). Needless to say, we fitted a lot into the last day. Finally it came time to catch our train to airport and head back to good 'ol England.
On the whole we had a fantastic time. The German's are very warm and generous people. Thanks to Meaghan, Doug, Fee, Nick, and Waity for a fantastic few days. We will remember this trip for the great beer, great food, great people and the...........GREAT BEER!
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