München - Day 1

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A word of caution - I am in the middle of sobering up as I´m writing this so bear with me if something doesn´t make sense.

The train ride was about 11 hours and instead of having to navigate through the crowds at the main train station, my friend Christina was waiting for me on the platform. She drove me in her cute little Peugeot convertable back to her flat in an older part of the Munich. During the drive, I was given a taste of what Munich is like during Oktoberfest: people all over the streets dressed in their girdles and lederhosen. After taking a quick shower, we went out for a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant. I had some Italian pasta with fish and a half-litre of beer which really hit the spot after a long day on the train.

On Sunday, Christina decided to give me a quick walk-through of central Munich. I bought a 3-day fare card and we headed down to Marienplatz which is the central square. Unfortunately, most businesses are closed on Sundays (it is Europe after all), so I was not able to walk into any of the shops. However, the square was still packed with people as it is Oktoberfest. We walked towards the Hofbraühaus which is a famous Bavarian pub. We took a walkthrough inside and the atmosphere was definitely festive as people were having their steins and singing to a playing band. The neat thing about this place is that regulars can keep their steins (a true stein is a stone mug with a lid) locked up in the pub and retrieve them when they come in for a couple of litres of beer. After the Hofbraühaus, we decided to take in some lunch at an authentic Bavarian restaurant near the Viktualienmarkt, which is an open-air market that is unfortunately closed on Sundays. For lunch, I had a leg of roasted pork with mashed potatoes with a cabbage salad. I was told that this was very Bavarian and it was quite good and filling.

After having an afternoon latte at another Starbucks-type chain (the San Fransico Coffee Company), we decided to head to Oktoberfest for some beer and pretzels. The festival site is very much a fair-like environment with food stands, rides, and cheesy carnival games. We headed to a tent and of course it was packed full of drunken Bavarian-clad people having a good time. We both got a stein of beer, a huge pretzel, and a roasted chicken (which is traditional). During German songs, it's common practice to toast the people around you so that's what we did. As you can imagine, as people get more drunk, much of the beer spills on the table and the ground during the clinking of glasses. We headed down with our steins to the action on the ground where people were dancing on tables and chairs. This weekend is Italian weekend when all of the Italians flood the tents so we were surrounded by drunk Italians wearing their national colours (blue and white). The band played a number of traditional German folk songs along with some popular English ones, like Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll" I noticed that among the women, there was a contest to see who could wear the skankiest Bavarian dresses - i.e. the ones that showed the most cleavage. What was remarkable about the event was that despite how drunk people were, almost everyone was having a good time. There were no fights and people were more than willing to dance with other random people. I can see why hundreds of thousands of people descend upon the city during the festival as I don´t think there's anything else quite like it in the world.

I finished my stein, but once I got back to Christina's apartment, I took a 'nap' for about 3 hours. I then woke up to write this entry.

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