Our train left Besançon at 5h04… some of the girls had gone out drinking all night into the morning and were absolutely smashed when we arrived at the train station. Megan and I got about two hours of sleep as we stayed up talking for a bit after I had returned from yet another night at Madigan’s.
The first train from Besançon to Strasbourg went by quickly as I slept the entire three hours. The train station in Strasbourg was big and beautiful. A classic looking building with a modern twist.
Matt, Mike, Nick, Megan and I decided to walk around the town a bit to find someplace to eat and to check out the sights while we had time to spare in-between our trains. The town felt like a bigger Besançon. It had a river running through the middle and a lightrail type system. We found this little diner-like café and had a delicious breakfast!
Our next train was at 10 something, so we made our way back to the station to head on over to Karlsruhe, Germany. Once again I slept quite a bit on this ride. What was bizarre was the amount of English we started to hear again. It was everywhere around me, unlike France. To be honest, I do not like hearing English! I was getting used to hearing French that English in my eardrums was like an unwelcome noise.
In Karlsruhe, we had about two hours of time to pass, so a group of us decided to go explore for a little bit. It was not the most aesthetically pleasing of towns, but we did find a little fountain with tons of flowers around it. We also came across a German bakery that was like a little slice of heaven. I got a cinnamon roll type pastry with raisins in it. It was delicious and hit the spot.
Like always, the time went by quickly and we had to catch our last train for the day to Munich! On the ride over, we saw more and more people sporting the traditional German garb of lederhosen for men and dirndls for women. Meg said at the front of the train that party had already started with people drinking their pints of beer.
We finally made it there and I was officially excited. You could feel the buzz of anticipation, excitement and energy in everyone around us. (Retrospectively it could have just been a literal buzz from all the drinking that was going on ha ha) We made it over to our hotel, Germania, where we met up with Matt again. The room was rather nice with a full-sized bed (with a real mattress and box springs!) and quite a bit of room.
Luckily, Meg and I were to sleep in the bed both nights. The bathroom was quite decent as well. We freshened up a bit and went on our first Munich adventure to find food. We came across a pizza and kebab shop and decided to stop there. Mike and Matt tried this orange-cola drink called Schwip-Schwapps, it was very interesting to say the least, but in a good way.
We went back to the hotel to meet up with the other girls for a bit and to decide our plan of attack for the night. To Oktoberfest it was!
Nick guided us into the wrong part of town where we walked around lost for easily two hours. (Megan and I were not too overjoyed with this because we were both in heels and our feet began to hurt, but we did see a lot of amazing buildings all lit up at night.) Finally, with some help from the German police, we made it to Theresien, the park where THE OKTOBERFEST is held!
Talk about sensory overload. Oktoberfest is like a giant fair/carnival, which also happens to be the world’s largest shit show! There were drunk people with different pints of beer in their steins all over the place! And the food! Oh la la! It was my favorite part of the fest, besides watching drunk people. (of which there were many. One thing I will never doubt in my mind, EVER—Germans KNOW how to party… ha ha)
We ate white bratwursts with ketchup and spicy mustard in a delicious bun-type bread. After which, the boys drank a half liter of RUSS, a beer by Pauliner. It tasted like a fruity alcoholic drink, not beer at all! We also found a roasted nut stand (of which there were evidently many) where Matt and I purchased mixed bags of nuts… Our consensus is that the macadamia nuts were the superior of the mix.We walked around more to see all the sights and scope the tents. There was trash all over the ground (as trash cans were scarce and probably with good, anti-drunkenness reason too…) and broken glass from beer bottles and steins.
The way the drinking system works is very unique. You go to a stand and order your half or full liter of beer. RUSS, for example, was €5 per half liter for example, but you also pay €3 as some sort of down payment on the glass (a “pfand” in German) so as to deter you from walking away with the glasses. They also give you a token so that when you return the glass and the token, they redeem you your €3. This system applies for the plastic bottles of cola and what not as well.
At the fest, was one of those large swing rides. We decided that we would hop onto it to experience the carnival part of it all. Megan and I went on a swing together, and the view was absolutely breathtaking! The entire city of Munich, with its buildings and cathedrals, was all lit up and right under our feet! The sight of the festival itself was breathtaking in and of itself. Meg took some phenomenal photos from up there.
What really amazed us all, and still does to this day, is the number of stomach-lurching rides in combination with drunks and the overall lack of seeing medical personnel running around everywhere or throw up all over the place.
We decided that getting a good night’s rest before the next day was ideal as it was suggested we be at the tent we wanted to be at by 8 am.
27 septembre 2008 :
I forgot to mention that I purchased a dirndl with the white blouse and apron the day before. The entire outfit cost me about €60. My dress (dirndl) is red with yellow and black flowers, the white blouse with the ruffly sleeves, and a black apron with little embroidered flowers. So when I woke up that morning, I put on my little German Girl outfit for the day’s festivities.
We left the hotel around 7:50 am and went to that Hippodrum tent. We had heard in previous years that this tent is one of the smallest as well as the hotspot for celebrities and young people. Evidently, the year before, this was where Paris Hilton came to party.
We stood in “line” (think mass mentality, like cows) for about two hours. They finally opened up the doors at 10:00 am and it was one of the scariest/most exciting things I have ever been through! Everyone was trying to fit themselves through the door way all at the same time! It was hard to breathe and all I could think of was how much my mommy would have hated it! They finally opened up another set of doors, so the girls and I rushed over there.
Once we were inside, it was a mad scramble to find tables that were not reserved. We found one towards the back, and stood on the benches to flag down everyone else. The two benches were perfect for all ten of us—me, Matt, Megan, Mike, Nick, Erin, Sami, Alexis, Jade and Chiz.
We all sat down and ordered our first round of pints! Marienne, our server, was like super woman! She could carry all ten pints of the Wiesn-Bier at once! We took lots of pictures and toasted one another in German (Prost!). Then we ordered plates of schnitzel, giant pretzels, and I had a potato soup.
The tent ceiling was draped in red, yellow and green fabric with garland. As well, there was dried hops hanging around everywhere. Carousel-looking horses were suspended all over the place, as well as the heart cookies that read “Happy in Hippodrom.” Later we figured out the meaning behind the hearts. You could buy them with different love sayings and then you give it to the one you love to wear around their necks.
After having received our food and talking and drinking merrily, the band came out onto their platform with a stein full of beer for each of them. They stood in a line and chugged the entire thing before they began playing! It was very good music with a lot of German drinking songs, as expected. They even played “Hey Baby” as well as “Achy Breaky Heart!”
Of the people who I was there with, our littlest girl, and the most shy and reserved too (may I add), Erin, drank the most of the girls at three pints, or at least she was the most trashed. Matt, our Canadian and my best guy friend here, drank five pints, had a shot of Jagger and a redbull and vodka. At one point, I thought he was going to die because he could not feel his legs… everyone, except me, had a buzz or was trashed by noon. It was a SHIT SHOW!
Mike and Nick found some girls, like always, and we ended up with a group of give German guys at our table too. It was all so crazy!!!
At about 4:00 pm, everything became too much, and we cleared on out of Hippodrom to try and
sober some people up before the night. We delighted ourselves in more delicious German food and went on back to the hotel for a nap.After we had woken up, Nick was still too trashed to go anywhere so he stayed in the room while Matt, Mike, Megan and I returned to Oktoberfest to get some dinner and see the rest of the sights. Naturally, we got more delicious food and decided this time we would walk all the way around the fest area to see everything. We saw tons more rides, booths, and beer tents. *Note for Future: HB is supposed to be a good time.* I tried a Granny Smith apple dipped in dark chocolate and it was heavenly!
I also decided to fake pregnancy again with the souvenirs we had all bought by tying the bag of goods under my apron. I then had two jackets over it in which I could mold the “womb.” Ha ha One woman came up and patted my hand on my belly and another gave me a huge smile… (Will try to find a picture of that later...)
Once we were finished there, we went to bed so we could catch our 10h23 train the next morning… La fin
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