Munich / Garmisch, Germany 9-27-09

Germany completely caught me off guard and turned out to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen on my trip so far. Not that I didn’t think it would be nice, but the place had cute little streets with Disney look-alike German drawings on the sides of them, while mountains, green grass, and flowers were everywhere I looked. I loved it! Of course, one of the main reasons I came to Germany was because I wanted to check out Oktoberfest, but I got lucky because one of my best guy friends from college, Matt, has been living in Garmisch (a town 1.5 hrs outside of Munich) for about 9 months now. I’ve visited Matt in NYC and LA, so it only seems right to meet up in Europe now. Our friend Marc is traveling around Europe too so we all were together for the past 5 days... good times.

I got into Munich late Sunday night (since I missed that first train by one minute.. had to wait 4 hours for the next train and finally got into Munich around 10pm.. no extra fee by the way, the conductor just took my original ticket). By the time I made it to Munich, Matt and Marc had been drinking for over 10 hours. They expected me to get in around 5:30pm, so they got to the train station at 12:00pm to drink before I got there. They were in the best moods and the first thing on everyone’s mind was Oktoberfest, so Matt threw on my person-sized backpack, we grabbed some beers along the way and took the metro one stop to the festival. It was pretty late and the last train back to Garmisch was at 11:00pm, so we hung out for a little while and then got on that last train.

In the morning, we walked around the city and ate at a German restaurant called Bistro- MukkeFuck- Cafe. Love the name. And this place had one of the best salads I’ve ever had, it was HUGE! After Mukkefuck, we picked up bikes from where Matt works (a hotel/resort in Germany that is exclusively for current of retired US military), and Matt led us on a guided tour of the countryside. We parked our bikes and started hiking up through a crack in the mountain (I think caused from an earthquake many years ago). A river ran through the crevice and we were walking on a narrow path weaving through caves and around the cliff line. This gorge was unbelievable…waterfalls and pitch black dark caves to walk through. It was really cool, temperature-wise, inside and I didn’t feel like we were in Germany at all!

Matt lives in an after-college dorm, basically, with over 100, 20-something-year-olds who all work together at the hotel. Later on we got a group together and headed to a beer bar/brewery called Griesbrau. We got 2 kegs of beer (that we had to tap ourselves with a hammer the old-fashioned way) and sample some Garmisch brewed German beer. I just have one thing to say, I love German beer! SO flavorful. Mmm. The beer master came over and gave us a sample of something new he’s been brewing and he also gave us a couple rounds of shots that were a mixture of some type of alcohol, beer, cinnamon, vanilla, and spice. They were awesome! After the brew bar, we went out to a bar called Peaches and met up with everyone else from the “dorm”.

The next day, Thursday, was our Oktoberfest! A lot of Matt’s friends had the day off at work our group of 20 was all dressed up in our traditional German attire of lederhosen and dirndls (one of the girls let me borrow hers). We all bought beers for the train ride to Munich and when we got to Munich we bought six mini kegs. Our mission was to finish the kegs before walking into the tents at the festival. Oktoberfest is just a huge carnival and the tents are huge rooms, bigger than Costco, filled with people standing on tables and dancing everywhere drinking beer (and there are about 8 of them!). Well, it took us 2 or 3 hours to finish all the beers, most of us took naps on the grassy hill/passed out... and then we woke up and went into a tent to order half pints of beer (the only size). A few people in our group went out to ride on some roller coasters and bumper carts. We all made it home at different times... but it was a VERY long day.

On Friday, Matt, Marc, and I went on this great hike right near Matt’s place. We hiked about half-way up the mountain to a house nick-named the half-way house, and then hiked up a bit more. Awesome views and Marc surprised us by bringing out his ipod stereo so we could all jam out to Hall and Oates- “Out of Touch”- this was our theme song for the trip and Marc became a master performer…I have video. We headed back home and grouped up with a few more dorm mates to have a BBQ. We went out that night to an Irish Pub, and since it was Guinness’ 250 year anniversary, we drank some in honor.

Saturday we just took it easy… coffee at a café in town, walked around the farmer’s market, and for dinner ate first-class at the Edelweiss restaurant, which is in the hotel where Matt and all of the other after-college kids work. My meal was unbelievable. I had an appetizer of spicy mango Cajun shrimp, an entrée of pasta with pesto, tomatoes, and shrimp, and for dessert, a German apple strudel with vanilla ice cream. Mmmm. The guys all had fillet’s or T-bone steaks, triple-chocolate-layered cake, and chi-crème brulee. I really appreciate these kinds of meals when mostly I’ve been eating sandwiches, bread, kabobs, or fruit for most of my meals. This was a real treat and I’m really happy Matt got employee of the Month and shared his tickets with us for this incredible feast!

On Sunday, Marc went back to Spain, Matt went back to work, and I went back to Oktoberfest (obviously!). First I met up with my friend Yann, from Switzerland, who was in Munich for the day. He used to live there and showed me all the best spots in the 4 hours we had together. To start the day we went into this museum which showed the progression of boats, cars, planes through the years. The museum showcased anything with an engine, sail, or manual labor, really. They also had an exhibit on ceramics and glass and there was a glass-blower making all sorts of things, he was teaching us as he demonstrated. I don’t know any German (except for Danke schön, Nin, and Bretzel), but I think I understood what he was saying. After the museum we walked to this bridge, where the water flows so forcefully underneath, that it makes a wave. For a while we watched the Munich surfers who were dressed up in wetsuits, carve and play in these waves that looked like they were made in a wave machine. It was awesome. Best part was to see these guys walk down the street, barefoot with their wetsuits on, carrying their surfboards. Classic. We walked through the main center for a bit and then I was off to meet up with my traveling buddies at Oktoberfest.

It seems like Cameron, Sean, and I are always in the same cities doing the same thing. Great guys I met in Seville who went to Lagos, Valencia, and now Munich at the same time as me. Without these two guys, all of us girls at La Tomatina would have been severely injured, they risked their lives for us. Anyway, we had a great reunion and drank some pints next to the best rollercoaster at the festival. We rode on the quadruple flip ride but unfortunately we only had about 4 hours together before I had to head back to the train station to make my way home to pack up for my early departure. I hope these guys meet me in Asia or Australia; they’re the best!

I packed up my stuff and headed out at 7am this morning to take a taxi and then two trains to the Munich airport. I caught my 5 hour flight to Doha, Qatar, watched a few movies along the way, and now I’m at the airport waiting for my 1:00am flight to Beijing, China. Only 9 more hours to go and I’ll be there! I’m so excited! Europe was a blast... but I think Asia will be an entirely new world. I’ve never been anywhere west of Europe... so, this should be an adventure! Tell you about it from the other side…

xoxo,

me