Rose City Abroad: October 2011

18.09.11

These past two weeks have really flown by for me and it’s even to harder to think that I was just in Norway on the 18^th of September. The trip down to Austria was not too bad, even considering all of the crap I had to schlep around Wien while trying to find the train station and the bus stops at the same time. In the end everything worked out nicely, because I was able to find the bus from the airport that went directly to the stop that I needed to get to rather than having to take three trains on the subway line. I was actually just thinking about getting a taxi, but this worked out much better! Once I arrived in Oberwart I met Herwig and Walter at the bus stop. We then headed off to the church where I was set to stay the next couple of nights. The room had everything that I needed except for internet, but with hoarders on my hard drive life without internet was made a bit easier! The next day on the 19^th, Herwig and I went to the schools that I will be teaching out just to say hi, and so that I could get acquainted with my surroundings a bit better. I checked out an apartment later on that day, got a haircut, and went to the store to pick up some food and beer for my trip to Munich. For the rest of the evening I just chilled out and watched some TV, because I had a full day of traveling and drinking ahead of me!

20.09.11

On the following morning Herwig came by to pick me up so that I could get down to the bus station on time. The bus ride to Wien wasn’t too bad, only 1 hour 35 minutes! I wish that I was closer still, but I’m not gonna cry about it because it takes less time than getting to Graz. The train ride to Munich though felt like an eternity. Maybe because my trip two days before took 12 hours and maybe that one day break just didn’t do the trick, but it was still unbearable having to embark on another expedition. As soon as I got to Munich I checked into the Stusta, then went down to Edeka to get a case of beer, frozen lasagna, and an energy drink. Classy. J. I then waited around for Marz and Jona to get back before taking off and meeting up with Jill and David at Oktoberfest. When I was getting ready to meet them at the train station, I was trying to figure out whether or not I should wear my Trachten or not. It just became a snowball effect when I was just gonna wear my Karo Hemd, and then two minutes later I was putting on my lederhosen. I was really happy that I was finally able to see them after almost seven or eight months that we last saw one another. We went to the Wiesn where we had a couple of beers and some bratwurst. David was almost dead from the flight, while Jill was bubbling around trying to get into a Zelt! After a while walking around, we headed back to the train station where we parted ways… at least until next day.

21.09.11 The fuzzier areas.

This is where the bulk of my Oktoberfest begins. It gets hazy in most areas, but after a long time checking facebook, text messages, and tickets. It is all starting to somewhat come back to me. On Wednesday Jill and I met up downtown at the train station so that I could show here around the downtown area and into university. We walked from hauptbahnhof to Marienplatz where we were able to sit down at one of the cafes/restaurants next to the neues rathaus. The weather was perfect that day to be in Munich. I had the bratkartoffeln mit Schnitzel und ein Bier dazu, while Jill had a salat. Oh, and from now on, most of my blogs will contain a large mix of German. So get used to it, and don’t roll your eyes. After all I’ve been telling all of you for years that you needed to learn German! We then continued walking down towards Odeonsplatz and University. Jill really enjoyed seeing all of the cafes and shopping centers on route, but I don’t know many people who would disagree with that observation. It really makes the city more enjoyable when you can actually do so from time to time. We saw Frauenkirchen, and then headed into der Englische Garten by Odeonsplatz. As always during the Munich summers there are old nude men in the garten standing up and strutting their stuff around. Not close enough to see any in detail, or maybe just not big enough, but they make no attempt like many of the other pleasant nudists who lay down, rather than arching their backs. Jill thought it was disturbing and funny at the same time… a shared perspective by most everyone. We then continued on to Universitaet, then back down to Odeonsplatz once more where we sat down at Starbucks to have a coffee. A little bit afterwards I headed back to the Stusta to await the call from Emily that I could meet up with her, Balazs and the other Hungarians in one of the Oktoberfest Zelts. Once I was called up for duty, I put on my uniform, guzzled down a liter of beer, and took off! Once I got down there, we had a great time. They already had a table reserved and just need to fit me in there to grab a beer. After that tent, Hippo-, we went to the Schottenhammel Zelt, where things started to get much better. Best tent by far, because people are actually having a good time and standing on the benches, rather than sitting down like a bunch of old geezers (for brits: not gangsters). We didn’t end up leaving until around 10:45 that evening, and by the time I got home, my roommates were already asleep which was very lame. Who needs to work when Oktoberfest is happening anyway??? Haha!

22.09.2011

I spent most of the day in recovery mode before heading back out with Jill and David. The only thing I did was get another blue karo hemd for my trachten-anzug. Then around 6pm I met up with them at the Paulaner Zelt where they were able to hook me up with a wrist band which I could order all the drinks my heart could, would, and did desire. I kept it low key though because I knew that I would spend the next day drinking from 930 am onwards. So I just had about 4.5 liters of beer. The food that Jill was so kind to save for me was amazing, and I just had an overall great time hanging out with them, and enjoying my favorite city in Europe with them. We headed back a little bit earlier than usual, and once I got back to the stusta I was a wreck. Just ask Marz. I was in the happy drunk telling jokes mode the entire time. But I’m always that way anyway just before going to bed, haha.

23.09.2011

Today was definitely the climax of my booze cruise Munich run. Started out the day nicely without any kind of headache whatsoever, got dressed, and met Emily down at the Augustiner Brauerei along with a bunch of her friends. Apparently everyone who saw Emily waiting for us thought that she was a waitress and wanted to take pictures with a real life bier kellnerin. Haha… Then she just decided to go inside to wait for us instead. I had the Weiss-wurst mit Suesses Senf, und noch ein halbes liter hells dazu. Finde Bier zum Fruehstueck eine gute Tradition Deutschlands! Don’t always do it! But it’s nice to do so every once in a while. Oh, and we had Bretzl’s as well… SO GOOD! We then took off around 11 to get to the our tent around 1130 a.m. Once we sat down, we had drinks all around with our beautiful gutscheins to get them, along with a gutschein fuer ein halbes hendl, which we order later for our lunch! The Stimmung in the Zelt wasn’t too bad, but not the same when you can’t stand up and dance on the benches. Some of the other Hungarians met up with us and the Americans a little bit later. Once our reservation was up at 530 pm, we went over a Paulaner Bier-Stube to drink some Weissbier. We ended up hanging out there for the rest of the evening. We had a really good time, and later on that evening around 10 or so, I met up with Jessica in front of the Alpina Bahn. We went on for a ride with some of her other friends before getting back to the Bierstube to get some more beer. Once we were there, I order one more beer and then five minutes later I was given another for free. The free one I gave away because I to have my limits. It was fun though getting to know some of her friends before I hit the wall. I then left with Emily and the others to get back home. The journey home was 100% luck, meaning that I’m surprised that I kept myself together on the subway and actually made it back in one piece. All in all we all had a great time, und manchmal will ich die Zeit zurueck, aber so ist das wenn man eine gute Zeit hatte.

24.09.11

Today I didn’t do too much. The only cool things that I did were recover from the previous night and go to the FC BAYERN game against Leverkusen. I wore all of my Trachten gear to the game and had a great time seeing us win 3-0 with Robben scoring the final goal! After the game I just came back home, hung out for a bit, then went to bed shortly afterwards.

25.09.11

Withdrawal.

All in all… Wiesn: 5 stars.