Has it seriously only been 1 week since I got back from Prague? For some reason it seems so much longer than that. Has my body learned to shift the forces of time to slow things down like some superhero so that I can enjoy my last two months in Barcelona? I can only hope. Knowing me I'd only have some random superpower like growing knuckle hair fast. Speaking of knuckle...
Just as a warning. This is gonna be one long ass post so go get a cup of tea, settle yourself into your chair and get your scroll finger ready.
I pulled these pictures from the SO's camera. Looks like they started the festivities early. Drinking at the airport
The first night we (SO and 5 of our travel companions/fellow beer enjoyers/parkour afficionados) arrived in Munich and we headed out to dinner at the Augustiner Keller. Augustiner Bräu is apparently the oldest independent brewery in Munich and is one of the 6 Munich producers who have a tent at Oktoberfest or Wiesn as it is called in Munich.
We later found out that this white sausage (Weisswurst) is typically enjoyed as a breakfast dish. Well, we're Americans and we do things differently. Take that Germany!!
The next day we started bright and early at like 11am and headed out to Munich city centre. Our goal: Marienplatz. My goal: More beer. Will we succeed? Will I succeed? Oh the suspense.
I kept thinking how much of a pain this would be to water.
People were definitely in the spirt of the Wiesn. Lederhosen and dirndls everywhere.
The weather that day was amazing.
Finally at the Marienplatz. So we accomplished our goal. What? Our goals are not very lofty? Excuse us, the whole point of our trip was to drink liters of beer and not to push ourselves in ambitious sightseeing.
So there's this statue of Juliet from Romeo and Juliet and supposedly you're supposed to rub the right boob for good luck. Sexual molestation for good luck? How could this not be a good idea? Let us hope it catches on.
Oh and since I couldn't figure out what this statue was I had to type in "Munich"+"Rub Boob"+"Statue" to find out that it's a statue of Juliet. Maybe I should go delete my browser history. But guys you already do that periodically right? You know you do.
At the Viktualienmarkt, Munich's central open air market. Amazing selection of produce, meats, meats, and more meats.
So with all this meat around us what do we eat? Yes, seafood.
This is the scene on a Monday.
One prerequisite if you are travelling with us. Must enjoy egregious amounts of food. Not pictured is the new addition to our group, our Munich tour guide SW to whom we owe many many many thanks for showing us a great and spectacular time.
I've been to the Hofbräuhaus before but didn't know they had this stein locker system for regulars. I'm impressed by the passion and ambition for beer drinking these people have. Prosit drunkards.
This festive and beautiful courtyard also has a darker side. Hitler utilized the Hofbrau inn as the venue to conduct his propaganda speeches. As was pointed out, what better way to rile up and gather supporters than to ply them with beer and food.
The Theatinerkirche in Odeonsplatz. Beautiful 17th century Bavarian Baroque church. It's yellow on the outside but
white on the inside. Hmmmm.
The English Garden in Munich. I like how certain countries have gardening styles named after them. Japanese gardens. English Garden. Okay I guess those are the only ones I know about.
English bike tours in the English Gardens. English spoken here.
Duck crossing. What a quacky thing.
The Hofbrau clydesales. Beers and horses? Sounds vaguely familiar.
Geez you Germans steal everything. So what if your country served as a central part of the Holy Roman Empire and Germanic tribes have inhabited the area since AD100. America steals from no one.
SW took us to the Chinese Tower in the English Garden. Why there's a Chinese Tower in the English Garden I have no idea. More importantly, this would serve as our break area. Beer AND pretzels this time.
SW was telling us this story about housekeepers and nannies who all decided that they would take 1 day to relax and drink hard. Unfortunately, this is all I remember about his story as I got distracted by getting buzzed from beer. Damn you beer for getting in the way of culture.
Where am I? At Oktoberfest. No way, you're just posting pictures from your visit to the LA County Fair. No, I'm serious this is Oktoberfest.
LA.
Munich.
Munich again. It definitely does have the feel of a county fair. But this fair has something so utterly infinitely more awesome than the LA County Fair.
Beer Tents!!!!
Where our afternoon/night would begin.
Still very tame. Around 5:30pm I think.
Oh now we've got some drinking companions.
THERE ARE GIANTS IN THE TENT. Just kidding. Everyone's on the benches by this time.
Poor guy just wanted to eat in peace. He is the eye of the hurricane.
We be dancing. We be singing. We be throwing down mass.
I must be great at translating chaos into serenity. I think at this point I've made 5 random friends, had 1/2 liter of beer spilled on me and sang Ein Prosit like 35 times.
So the tents close at 10:30pm. Thank god. We barely had dinner at this time so we were starving.
The Germans are smart. What do people need after drinking tons of food?
Possibly. But even better.
Curry powdered hot dogs. This was freaking awesome. I'm definitely making these at the next BBQ I attend.
This is such a terrible idea but there were so many participants. What is this? The damn thing spins and you try to be the last person in the circle. Is this supposed to be fun? I don't get German humor sometimes. SW is in there somewhere.
Exiting the Weisn extravaganza. I wish I had taken pictures of the parkour performed by 2 people who shall remain nameless. They almost would've been named by the German media after their arrest as they decided to parkour off of police vans, parked cars, shop windows and bicyclists. Oh and when I say parkour I mean slamming their bodies against said objects and yelling parkour. Almost a perfect replication of this...but just on German streets!
Parkour!!!
End of Day 1. How many days are left? 6....yay?
