Big Adventures, Little World

Here is a photo of my clean shaven face from the 1st of November. Bring on the Mo!

Movember Day 1

Movember is almost upon us and at The Alexandra we have decided for a group of us to all grow our mo’s and raise some money in the process for prostate cancer research. So check out my Mo Space page and feel free to make a donation. We will be putting up some progress photos of us as well so keep an eye out on here and also on Facebook.

We had most of the day to kill before Elese and I had to catch our train at about 10PM and Mark and Abbers were catching their plane the next day, but had no where to stay were going to sleep at the airport. Sam was heading off about midday and flying back to London for a night, then back to Australia, so after he went off, the rest of us went out for some food, and where we ended up was the Hard Rock Cafe. A few of us hadn’t been before so we decided we might as well give it a go. This, and we had had enough German food the past few days to last us a while. So in we went and stuff ourselves with some delicious burgers, while we used their Wi-Fi for a while before heading out to Marienplatz and lazing around in a park for a few hours to kill some time. We were all tired but eventually we had to get up to go back to the hostel and collect our bags, then continue our journey on to the train station where Elese and I said goodbye to Abbers and Mark who were going off to the airport, and on to Prague. Elese and I waited around the train station until it was time to get back on the horrible train and make the dreaded 11 hour journey back to Paris. We at least knew what to expect this time which made it easier, but it was a relief to get to Paris, and then eventually back into London where it was only an hour before we could make it back home and we could have some proper sleep.

We thought that rather than just drink beer we would actually get out and see some of the city, which was good seeing as the last time I was there, we only had a few hours there and didn’t get to see too much of the city. So we went on another one of the New Europe walking tours, like we had done a few of already in other cities throughout Europe. We had an American guy taking us around and at first we thought he was a bit of a tool in a typical American way, but he got better as we went along and did end up giving quite a good tour. We started in Marienplatz (Mary’s square), the main square in Munich, which is home to the most famous Glockenspiel in the world. It chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century 3 times a day and consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures. We weren’t there at the right time to see this happen, but we did come back later on to see what was a waste of about 15 minutes, as that is how long it goes for each time it chimes.

Other than that, we were taken around and told the numerous stories to go along with each place. Munich is full of history, and a lot of the places we visited came back to me from when I was there earlier in the year and we were taking on our brief walking tour. We were taken to (or at least saw) the Hofbräuhaus (the world’s most famous beer hall), the Royal Residence, the New Town Hall, the Old Town Hall, National Theater, the Church of St. Peter and Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). This has one of the more interesting stories to go along with it, but whether or not it is true or not is up to you. The church was built in a record time of just 20 years, from 1468, which is amazing because of its sheer size. It is said that this was only possible, because the architect made a deal with the devil, where it would become the devil’s church. All the architect had to do was make sure there were no windows in the church so that no one could see in on the devil. However, the architect tricked the devil, and built columns in front of all the windows so that from the foyer the windows could not be seen by the devil. When the devil found this out, the church had already been consecrated, so could go no further inside the church, so he stomped his foot so hard that it left a footprint indented in the ground, which can still be seen there today. So that’s the story of what was supposed to be the devil’s church.

Once we had finished the tour, we decided on heading back to Oktoberfest for the last night there. The Fanatics were in the Lowenbrau tent so we thought we would go there, but after lining up for about half an hour and getting nowhere, we gave up, and went looking for somewhere else. We tried a few others, but most of the tents were full and weren’t letting anyone in, or if you could get in there was nowhere to sit. Our last try was the Hofbrau Tent, which we thought for sure would be full, but when we walked in, one of the beer maids came up to us nearly straight away and asked if we were looking for a table. She said to follow her and she weaved through and then mad some people squish up a bit more so we could fit in on the table, and then proceeded to bring us 5 beers. It was crazy inside, with just about everyone standing on their chairs, or tables, and singing along as the band played including a number of German drinking songs like The Fliegerlied Song, complete with dancing and actions, which was played about 1 in every 10 songs but never got old at all. The night went on and we had more and more fun. We were surrounded by different groups of people including some German locals as well which was a lot better than being with just the Fanatics group, as it was mainly just obnoxious Australians. I’m not saying that it is all like that, it is a generalisation, but a lot of the people on the Fanatics tours I went on were like that, but of course there are exceptions to that. Sam went back to the hostel early, and after 4 or 5 steins each, (which was a good 3+ hours) we decided to head off as well. As we were walking back there was one thing we all agreed on, and that was stopping at McDonald’s where we stocked up before making our way to hotel for a night’s sleep before our journey home the next day.

It was much too early to be up and about but we were leaving about 7.30AM so we could get a good position in the Paulaner Tent at Oktoberfest. We were promised a lot by the Fanatics but they seemed to let us down. Supposedly there were reserved seats in the tent for us but when we got there we were told the tent was full and they were only letting a few people in at a time. It was extremely frustrating, but eventually they got us in to the beer garden area where we had to all squeeze into any seats we could find so we could get served a beer. We were then told that once we finished our beers we could start making our way inside, a few people at a time, and even this involved a short line up before we could get inside. So Mark and I finished our steins, got our stein count started on our arms (where each stein you finished would be tallied on your arm) and then left the girls, Elese, Abigail and Sam to make our way inside.

It was HUGE inside. Such an incredible sight to see. There were people everywhere and the noise was so loud with people talking, yelling, screaming and singing. The tent could hold nearly 8500 people inside, along with another 2500 outside in the beer garden, and it was pretty much full when we got in there, and this was about 10AM in the morning so we knew we were in for a big few days.

We found the rest of the Fanatics that were already inside and we joined them in the section they were in. There was areas called boxes which were kind of enclosed with seats and booths arranged in them. This one was the one that was supposedly reserved for us, but there was nothing stopping anyone going in and out of there that weren’t from the Fanatics, so we weren’t really sure if they actually had anything reserved for us or not. It was a big letdown in what we got from them, but we weren’t going to let that stop us having a great time. It only took a few minutes before the beer wench was coming over and taking our order which was impressive because the boxed was packed and we could barley move around in there. There wasn’t anywhere for us to sit so Mark and I stood around with our beers and had a chat with anyone and everyone, which was mainly other Australians with the Fanatics. After a while Elese, Sam and Abbers managed to find their way in and join back up with us. The rest of the day gets a bit hazy but it pretty much just involved drinking more steins, keeping the tally on our arms and just singing along with the band and all the other 9000 odd people in there. By the end of the day my stein count on my arm was 5, but I’m sure that I had 6, or maybe 7 by the end and just forgot about getting the tally updated, or couldn’t find someone with a texta to do so. Other than that, we ordered chicken, which was just half a chicken on a plate that came out and then not long after, Elese and I made our way back to the hostel early in the afternoon. It had been a long, long day and it was time to sleep.