Oktoberfest. Please leave all decorum at the gates.

In the main square of Munich, Marienplatz

Okay, so, Oktoberfest.

No wait, that isn't where this story begins. It really begins in Munich itself. Oktoberfest wasn't for a couple of days. And I might go again before I leave here on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Munich... I should really start writing these things down.

So, our last night in Frieburg, I offered Wes, the American guy we met, Jordans place in the tent we were to be staying in for Oktoberfest. Since Jordan bailed, and everything. So, because I am without a phone over here (a decision I am repeatedly coming to regret), we agreed to meet at the entrance to the Weis'n Camp between eight and nine at night. If he wasn't there, then for whatever reason, he wouldn't be able to make it.

At about seven thirty, it began to rain.

I stood out in the puoring rain from about five to seven until about eight thirty or so, when Wes decided to come to the front gate and let me know that he'd been drinking, and having fun, and hitting on pretty girls, inside the whole time.

He may not have been doing all of those things, but standing out in the rain, with a stein of beer, the only company I had, were the gatemen, Steve and Stefan. All in all, pretty good guys, but it was much nicer inside the main tent.

So we drank. Keep in mind that this is after the huge night in Frankfurt. And we drank a lot. You might notice that as a pattern for the next few days I'm going to describe.

We drank, and talked to tourists, all of us who were there for Oktoberfest, but who hadn't made it that night because of the rain and the fact that the camp is roughly a half hours train ride east of the centre of Munich. Oh, and FYI, Oktoberfest is a short way on the other side of Munich central.

It didn't stop raining until the next morning. And the tent, which was later dubbed 'The Taj MaTent,' leaks. Quite a bit. But not on my side. Wes went to bed still pretty drunk, and woke up still wearing his clothes from the night before, the entire right side of his body soaking wet. And I mean soaking in the way that you can wring out water from them without really trying.

It being Saturday, and this the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest and all, we decided not to even try to get in that day, but to go to the Hofbrauhaus elsewhere in Munich. It was full, so was the one accross the street, and it was getting cold, and the wind was blowing.

Oh yeah, and Wes was still pretty wet.

So we went to some other bar, which was also full, but Wes managed to talk a few girls into letting us sit with them and drink.

Now, if I recall correctly, from left to right, there's myself, Wes, Nina, Ilsa, Ana, Susanna, Antonia, Olga, and one of the many Italian guys who just would not fuck off, despite being told to do so many times.

Some of the many beers at the table

And they were actually really terrific, amonst them were two Germans, three were Dutch, and one was from the Ukraine. And they were all lovely. So we sat for serveral hours, and drank a whole lot more, and then we decided to see if we could get into a beer tent at Oktoberfest. In the rain. Surprisingly (?!?) it was packed, so the girls decided to go home. And we, well, what would two fairly responsible twenty-six olds do? Go to a bar and drink some more of course.

After trying a Mexican place, Salsalidos, which Wes had been to before, which was full; we decided to go to some underground bar where we met another American guy named Bill, and a couple of Canadian girls. We drank a whole lot more, and talked rubbish to one another. Oh, and by the way, Mai Tais are actually pretty tasty.

Eventually, we lost Bill, and then the Canadian twins, so Wes and I decided to head back to the camp. We'd missed the last train to Riem (suburb where we're staying), so we caught a taxi.

And then? Well, sleep. For awhile. And then we woke up, and went to the Oktoberfest. Now, like I said yesterday, Oktoberfest is kinda like a huge carnival. With about eight to ten really large beer halls throughout. We went straight to a beer hall. There's only so much justice words can give it. So instead, here's a few pictures. And all of them should be embiggenable.

This is what you first see upon entering the beer halls. People dnacing on tables, and singing German drinking songs. Within about a half hour, we were doing the same.

When you're bald, people seem to like pretending you have hair. Especially long´haired Italian girls.

That was about my third or fourth.

For that matter, there were a whole lot of hats etc. being passed around.

Even around the older Germans we were drinking with.

 

I really, really wish that this picture was in focus. It was one of the funniest things from the night.

Many random photos, with very many random people.

Actually, I don't mind this look.

Oh, and the unshaven scumbag look? Not intentional, I just hadn't shaved in about four days. Because I'm a bum.

And more random people.

After that, my commitment to taking photos kind of waned. We drank a whole lot. We had some very good times. And then we went home. Oh, they close the beer halls at around ten-thirty, when they force you to either scull your beer, or throw it away. Or attempt one, and then do the latter. Which may or may not lead to projectile vomiting at security guards. Who, as it turns out, can be quite nimble. And pleasant about the whole situation, but largely because they ducked.

Let it never be said that Oktoberfest is classy, by any means.

Anyways, the next day, Wes decided he'd had enough of the Taj MaTent, and packed it in. I went to an internet cafe, and was so scattered from several day of heavy drinking, that I haven't had a drink since. Time to focus on sleep, and y'know, basic nutritional needs. So yesterday I wandered around munich some more, and took photos of some of the places there.

I believe the name of this, is Saint Pauls. I just kept seeing that name everywhere around here.

And no, I can't quite explain my fascination with gargoyles, I just like them is all.

But seriously, remember that cartoon about fifteen years ago? Kicked ass, that's all I'm saying.

Munich is nice, but aside from the Oktoberfest, and the couple of thousand years of extra history and culture, it just kinda seems a little too much like Melbourne. Although a friend of mine told me off when I said that, after all, it is Melbourne that copied Europe, not Europe that copied Melbourne.

Well, that's about it for now. tomorrow I think I'll head to the Bavarian Alps, there's a place there I swore I had to see when I was here. I'll take pictures.

You are in my heart always.

Painting a picture...

Okay, so I'm sitting in an internet cafe, and the plans were to write a huge post, detailing the last few days I haven't been updating, and like a fool, I left the cord which connects my camera to a computer in the tent. Which is about a half hours train ride away.

*Sigh*

I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

Until then, I'll do my best to paint you a picture. Try to imagine the greatest carnival you can. Not a show, like we have in Australia, but a carnival. Okay, got it? Now multiply the Awesome of that carnival by about a million, and you still aren't even close to how amazing Oktoberfest is.

Good luck with that mental image, and I'll write the real post tomorrow.

You are in my heart always.

Pre-Oktoberfest...

Okay, so it's been a kinda big few days.

I got pickpocketed. Or I left my wallet somewhere, or I dropped it. But the romantic in me likes to think that I was pickpocketed. Luckily I didn't have a great deal in there. I've been leaving the really important things locked up, so I lost a credit card (already cancelled), an electrical license (can probably get a new one when I get back), and a couple of other cards and various notes. And about thirty euro. Kinda lame, but stressing about it won't fix anything.

Some more gargoyles on the Munster in Frieburg

A kitcheware store in Frieburg, that not only sells pots and pans, but hunting knives and rifles.

And this is without a doubt, the strangest water feature I have ever seen. I mean, it's a boy, riding a snail, shooting water. I just... I just don't really get it.

Wednesday night we thought we'd just have a quiet one, but like those nights you go out, planning a quiet night, or short, it always, always ends up bigger than you'd planned.

Wednesday night we met an American guy, Wes, who'd spent the last six days trekking 180kms through the black forest with a twenty kilo pack. He's about six months over his visa, and he's starting to run out of cash, so he decided to walk to Freiburg, from Constance. At least, I think it was Constance. He knew Freiburg pretty well, so he took us to a Knieper (May have to check the spelling of that one). Appparently most Germans don't go to the regular bars, but to these small places where you can sit and drink. His words, 'They're a terrible place to meet girls, but if you're after a quiet drink and good conversation with the locals, you can't beat it.'

In there, we got into a great conversation with a Freiburger named Ceasar. Quite old, drunk as I don't know what, and his English was flawless, but seemed devastated that he spoke with a German accent. "NO, I don't WANT a German accent, I want an LA accent."

I didn't have my camera on me, but get this: They pointed to a poster on the wall, and asked "Do you know this place?" And wouldn't you know it, it was an old poster advertising 'Ballarat Bitter.'

Fly twenty thousand kilometers away, and there's a small piece of home, right on the walls.

Unbelievable.

View from of the street in Frankfurt where our hostel was situated, from the Hostel main window.

Yesterday (Thursday), we got up fairly early, and went to Frankfurt. Jordan needed to be at the airport a little sooner than we'd thought, so we had to leave Freiburg a day early. So we booked a hostel, and then went for a beer with a couple of Irish guys, Adam and Blaine.

Heh, 'a beer.'

With the Irish, one drink, as it turns out, is never just one drink. It's a couple at the hostel, followed by hitting up an Australian bar, then to an Irish bar for Arthurs day' (A Guiness thing), where they hand out several free shots to us because both of the Irish guys work there. Then to other pubs, with an Italian girl named Theresa who worked at the hostel, and one club had eleven beers for eleven euros, and the next had one euro shots.

I never did get around to going to the laundromat like I'd planned.

Anyway, today we got up (both still half-cut), and went to the train station, then to the airport, where I said good-bye to Jordan. It's been fun little brother, even the shitty bits had their moments. I will miss you.

Mere moments before Jordan leaves.

So, I'm now on a train on the way to Munich, for the ever popular Oktoberfest. I'll post this the moment I can find an internet cafe, but after that, I'm not sure how long until I can post again.


I'll post as soon as I can, and as ever, you are in my heart, always.

Joshua.

On top of the world in Freiburg. Pinches of salt. And a quiet couple of days.

Okay, so, Freiburg. What else have we seen, what else have we done? To be honest, not a great deal, but it's still been fun.

For the rest of our first real day here, I'm not going to lie, the stress of a few things going on at home, and a couple of things here I had to worry about, kinda got me down. I've been going ratther well, and it's the only day I've actually had to worry about, well, anything at all. So, I resolved to do the only thing that made sense. I went to a bar with my brother, and drank the night away.

Okay, sure, it's probably a bad idea, generally speaking, but I couldn't be more glad that I did. We drank, and talked rubbish, and met people and talked more rubbish, and just generally had a whole lot of fun. People here are so nice and lovely. Not a bad one among them. Even the seedy looking Russian guy staying at the same hostel as us seems pleasant.

Oh, speaking of the hostel, I've since decided that travellers are just my sort of people. So many wonderful people, from all over the world. We met some wonderful people in Amsterdam, and we've met some amazing people here, too. All really quite pleasant and lovely.

Yesterday we went for a walk into the Black Forest, well, kinda. There's a lookout tower we saw from the streets, and we decided we wanted to go look.

Here's my attempt at a panorama of what we could see from the very tippy-top of the tower.

As well as a fantastic view of the Munster.

We also got a couple of shots in of ourselves up there.

Jordan, as I've discovered, has a fear of heights.

And where were the glorious shots taken? Why, from there.

Didn't see it? How about zoomed in a little?

Oh yeah, that platform is not where it stops, if you look really closely, you can see the spire which goes up futher, and moves a great deal.

And the path through the Black Forest, towards the lookout,
is guarded by gryphons.

Today, well, so far, it's only just afternoon right now. I finally got a look inside the Munster itself, and got a few shots of the stained glass windows and general interior.

Also,when we walked past a childrens toy store, in the wondow, we saw something that we found really quite surprising. A kid-sized bowie knife.

We don't know the word on the book next to the knife, but we assume
it roughly translates to "German kids don't fuck around.'

I guess I'll write some more in the next day or two. Jordan's flying home this Friday, and I'm off to Munich for Oktoberfest, where I'll be staying in a tent, and will most likely have to struggle for internet access. Or, y'know, get off my lazt butt and try and hunt down an internet cafe.

I love you all.

Joshua.

Ignorant Australians, wondering what wildlife is in the Black Forest. Wolves? Bears? Every mythological horror we ever grew up listening to in fairytales? We should totally sleep in there tonight, and tell each other ghost stories!

So, the last couple of days have been fun. Yesterday, we left the very lovely city of Amsterdam, and made our way east, into Germany.

Oh Amsterdam, how we shall miss you. Some things we will never look at the same way. 'World of Sleaze' by Regurgitator is the song that kept coming to mind when we were there, forever and always I will be looking into shopfront windows a little too expectantly, and the ever-present smell of the coffee shops which remind me of an old housemate... you know who you are.


But, all good things must coem to an end, and Jordan and I wanted to see the Black Forest before we finally make our way to Munich, for Oktoberfest. So we got on the train to Frankfurt, with only a slight idea as to where we would be going from there. Oh, by the way, the train we took had a food cart in it, and when Jordan tried to purchase some food, was asked what sort of drink he would like. He asked for coffee, but apparently he could only have beer, or maybe a 7-up, which seemed as if that was bending the rules a little. Ahh, a place where you have to drink beer, and only beer. Do you ever get that feeling that maybe you've come home? I don't get that often (having lived in about twenty-one houses in twenty-six years of life), but I think that was the feeling I got yesterday.

Once in Frankfurt, we found that the train to Freiburg was due to leave four minutes before we got there, however it had been delayed by six minutes. Only just made it.

"We are BORED + TIRED but we know that this was the right
thing to do." - Taken from train graffiti in Frankfurt.

I think that train ride was the biggest eye opener of all. We spent the whole train ride just kinda feeling like really igonorant jerks. I mean, the train was packed, but standing near us was a girl who looked about our age, and not only spoke English and German, but spent most of the trip having a conversation in Spanish with an older woman who was also standing nearby. It just got me thinking, a very lovely friend of mine here not only speaks those three languages, but French as well. And here my brother and I are, speaking only one language (poorly), and about four words in German, and we just decide to up and go to Europe, because 'they all speak English over there anyhow.'

We really did feel quite stupid on that trip. And rightly so.

And Pac Man will eat you if you sit down. Or so we gather.

Once in Freiburg, we got off the train, and just relaxed for about an hour. Jordans foot is still pretty sore from Friday night (excessive shuffling injury). Then we headed in what we thought was the right direction.

As it turns out, we didn't really know where we were headed, and the locals seemed to keep directing us to different places, and each turn we took at their suggestion, seemed to lead down a less well-lit path than we'd been on before.

Walking besides the Black Forest, for kilometers, at night, no idea what time, the thought did eventually cross our mind that we may have to sleep in the Black Forest itself that night. Are there wolves in the black forest? How about bears? I guess we weren't to know. We decided to walk a little more before it came to that, and just talked rubbish for the next half hour or so. Including a conversation we had about us living the Grimms fairytales.

"D'you reckon that little old lady that gave us directions, just directed us to her gingerbread house?"

"It's okay Josh, I've been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs."

"I wonder if we'll walk past a girl with a wicker basket and a red cloak on, being pursued by a big bad... Oh fuck, yeah, I think there are wolves here."

But, we walked some more, and eventually found a hostel, just not the one we were looking for. So we swallowed our pride (and my dissapointment that we wouldn't, in fact, be sleeping in the Black Forest), and we went inside and got ourselves a room for the night.

Wake up early, and we find that this town is really quite a lovely place. It's like a cross between Melbourne, Ballarat, and Halls Gap, if you can imagine it. Freiburg is really quite beautiful, and although we're yet to go wandering throught the Black Forest, it is on our list of things to do. I wanna catch a pixie, and apparently there aren't any wolves there. We haven't asked about bears, but I kinda hope there are. Scary, sure, but hell if it doesn't sound exciting.

It's only early afternoon here, but we're taking a quick break. So far we've gotten ost a few times, found the hostel we wanted to stay in, been to Germanys oldest cathedral (The Munster, built in the thirteenth century). Taken a few photos, and eaten delicious food. Marzipan croissants (God damn i love marzipan, it's been so long since I've had it), bretzeln galore (big, breadier pretzels), and tried some candied kiwi fruit from a market outside the Munster.

You know the best thing about being here so far? Unlike Amsterdam, where we met nothing but tourists, and about three Dutch people, here we've met mostly Germans, not all of whom speak English, which is really exciting. Some of my old German classes are coming back to me. 'Nicht sprechen Deutsch' has gotten a fair workout, but things like 'eine wasser' and ''danke' are also useful.

Okay, so I guess that's about it for now, hopefully next time, we will have been to the black forest, captured a pixie, and braved bears which may or may not even be there. Might bring a stick.

I love you all.

Joshua

Entrance to the Munster.

Inside aforementioned entrance. There was a service on,
so we'll go inside tomorrow. 

Side view of the Munster.

Gargoyle on the side of the Munster. It has plenty, and I really like this shot.