Oktoberfest

So this is kind of an experimental post. It is now 5pm on Friday afternoon here, my train leaves for Munich in about 5 hours. In this one post, I plan to talk about pre-train events, then pause for the day and enjoy Oktoberfest, then finish the post Sunday morning, Post-Oktoberfest.

There are really two way this could end up, pretty interesting... or a complete failure. I'm hoping for the first one, but preparing myself up for the later.

Like I said,it's 5pm here, I'm on a rather large break from class and am about to start up the last part of class any minute. We took a tour of the Berlin Wall museum earlier this afternoon and it was pretty cool. There is so much history here and it is all hard to believe. When you look at the city now, everything seems to normal for me, it is hard to believe at some point in time (not to long ago) there were people killed for attempting to cross this wall that split the city in two and created two different worlds, not just cities.

Today we learned about "No Mans Land" and how they used the space not only to spot people escaping, but how the also raked the soil so that they could see footprints and find all the hotspots so they could block them, and also they could use the footprints and track who was on in that area and punish them. We were told of a story about this man who was separated from his wife and family, so when a new sports car came out which only stood 3ft from ground to top of the window, he went out and bought it. He put his wife in the truck and his mother-in-law squeezed in behind the seats. He deflated the tires as much as possible so that when he approached the gate he appeared to be pulling out his pass and then gunned it at the last second and went right underneath the gate at Check Point Charlie! It was so close that he had to duck his own dead!

Anyway, pretty interesting stuff. But tonight I leave it all and go to Müchen for the Oktoberfest celebration. This will be a first for me and I don't really know what to expect. I know there is going to be tents and tons of people, but other than that, I don't really know what to expect. I'm excited to see this though, this is a tradition that started in 1810, it is the worlds largest fair! So like I said, the train leaves here around 10pm and arrives in Munich at 6am Saturday morning. That gives us a solid 8 hours to sleep if we want.. which I plan to do! We enjoy the city and culture until 11pm and then arrive back to Berlin at a wonder 7 am Sunday morning! Pretty good plan... I don't see ANYTHING going wrong! :)

Thats it for now.. catch ya on the flip side...

It is now the flip side! I got back from Munich Sunday morning, but I didn't feel like posting yesterday, so I am doing it today instead. Oktoberfest was awesome and I had a really good time. When they said its the worlds biggest fair... they mean it. This place had like a full size roller coaster and everything. It was almost like an amusement park, but with the feel of being a fair.

We arrived in Munich at around 6:30 am Saturday morning and followed the waves of people wearing the lederhosen to the site of the actual fair. It was only a 10 minute walk, so it wasn't bad. We were there pretty early, we stepped in line at the first beer tent around 7, but none of them even opened until after 9. We first got in line in the front of the building, we were only 4-5 rows back, so we were in pretty good shape. Then everyone started moving to the side... apparently you enter from the side entrance.. the front is for looks only! This made us fall back in line a ways and by the time we entered the tent there were no more seats! NOTE TO EVERYONE, if you are ever looking to go to Oktoberfest, reserve a seat at a beer tent before you go... its an extra 50€, but you're guaranteed a spot to sit all day. You have to reserve months in advance, so don't plan last second.... like I did.

Anyway, we ended up eating outside, but it was still fun to walk inside and check out the festivities. People kept standing up on the table and chugging their beers... probably 1/2 liter at a time. Everyone would start chanting "chug, chug, chug" and if they finished it there would be a big cheer, and if they left even a sip left, they would all boo! There is no mercy! People all over are chanting their "cheers" song before they all take a drink, and more everyone threw out a "PROST!", which is the equivalent of 'cheers.'

The food was amazing. I ended up eating some kind of goulash, which is like a beef stew, and mine had small pieces of potato in it. It was so good, I wish I could have more! I also tried to get pictures of the kitchen area, you'll have to look at the pictures to really understand what I'm talking about, but there was more rotisserie chicken than I have ever seen in my life! 10-15 chickens per rotisserie stick, and 5-8 sticks all rotating along this wall of heat! It was so crazy to see. On top of that, there is a giant big, I've also never seen a pig this size, rotating on it's own rotisserie. It was like a big you see the Mythbusters use on their show... full size... just there. You'll have to see the pictures to fully appreciate this. We also ate a lot of pretzels, very big pretzels. I'm not sure if I got a picture of this, but it was probably 18" wide and probably 3" thick. I didn't know how to order, so I just told the waitress "Groß Bretzel!", which is 'Big Pretzel!" and she brought one.

Anyway, I am in the process of posting pictures, so keep an eye of the Picasa page (link can be found on the right) for new pictures of Oktoberfest and more.

This has been a very long post, but I think it was pretty successful, before and after thoughts. The train ride home was long, but I'm pretty sure everyone slept, it was pretty long day in Munich, and we had just enough energy to walk back to the apartment at 8am Sunday morning and go back to bed for a few hours.

Overall, it was a great trip and I suggest it to anyone. The beer tents are just a small part of it and can easily be avoided. There is an entire fair there and I'm sure there is way more then we saw. It was so big and so easy to get lost... which happened a few times! Though after 6 it starts to get a little more rowdy. Everyone has been drinking since 10am, and around 6pm is when they start playing more modern age music so young kids get a little crazy, until then they play original festive music so it is not as bad.

Ok, seriously, that is it for now!

Take care, Tschüss!