Tuesday 22nd
September 2009 –continued…
Picking up Hamish was
quite an ordeal. He had a ticket for a particular station in Munich, however,
given the size of Munich, Hamish wasn’t aware that there was more than one
stop, so had gotten off sooner than expected. Emma and I were walking around
the central station looking all over for him, but couldn’t find him. After an
hour of searching, and Emma’s credit on her cell phone running out, we found a
pay phone, called Hamish and clarified his location, then we headed back to the
van. All the while the boys had to move the van, so Emma and I only had some
brief information on where their location was…although we managed to spot the
van quite easily. By this time the boys had come looking for us, so we had to
wait patiently for the boys to come back to the van. We eventually got to Hamish, with a few jokes being had
about the experience!
We then headed for
Erding, home of James and my favourite beer-Erdinger. We pulled up to the camp
ground, which was a free parking camp ground, with around 20 other vans parked
up there. We set up camp, had dinner and a few Erdinger beers too, then decided
to let off the last of our fireworks…seeings we were in quite a rural setting.
The fireworks were really impressive, some making quite a loud bang too. Our
fireworks session was abruptly stopped by two community Policemen (not in
uniform but one holding a pistol) pulling up to us in an unmarked car. Once
they identified we were from NZ, and that we had fireworks (not a gun which
they thought we had by the loud noise of the fireworks), they calmed down. The
Policemen spent about an hour with us, taking details of our passports and us
negotiating to be let off with a warning, as we were unaware it is illegal to
let off fireworks outside the New Years period. They did let us off with a warning, and we ended on good
terms-they even informed us of a good beer hall to visit! Quite a night to
remember.
Wednesday 23rd
September 2009
Before leaving Erding,
we drove through town and saw the Erdinger Factory (actually pretty big-maybe
around the size of the Lion Breweries factory in Auckland). We hoped to have a
tour through, although they required bookings, so we couldn’t. We had a look at
the merchandise then headed for Munich.
We checked into the
Thalkirchen Camping ground in Munich, our home of residence for Octoberfest.
Talk about tent city! The grounds held a maximum of 3800 people. The quality
was exceptional-staff hosed out the bathrooms daily with high pressure hoses,
and they had removed the toilet paper, the toilet paper holders (and possibly
the toilet seats as there weren’t any!) during the Octoberfest period. Awesome.
Nothing like feeling like a student again! Nevertheless, we weren’t there for
the accommodation!
We headed into the
city centre on the underground after setting up camp and wandered the streets.
The boys kept spotting people wearing traditional German outfits and came up
with the idea that we should dress up for Octoberfest traditionally too. We
ended up in a store, with Emma and I trying on Drindl after dirndl (which was
really fun) and we ended up choosing an outfit, along with a VERY padded bra
each. Unfortunately the men’s outfits, called lederhosen were a bit too
expensive to purchase, so the shop assistant gave us an address of a place
where the boys could hire them. She also gave us a place to go for big
Schnitzel, which we then went to do and thoroughly enjoyed. Back to bed for an
early night….Beerfest tomorrow.
Thursday 24th
September 2009
We woke early, around
6pm, to get dressed and ready for Octoberfest- with Emma plaiting my hair and
all, which looked awesome! We arrived entering straight out of the underground
station to walk into the gates of Octoberfest. It was amazing. People were all
dressed up traditionally, with a real carnival feel. There were rides, stalls
of yummy wurst, decorated biscuits (that tasted like dense chewy gingerbread)
and other tasty treats as well as beer tents spread out over the area. It was like Disneyland for adults! What
was really neat to see was the real family feel the place had, despite so much
alcohol on the premises. We headed
straight for a beer tent-Augustiner , to find this marquee filled with rows of
tables, a beautifully decorated ceiling and an Oompah band set up. We sat down
and downed our first stein, with many photos being taken- especially of the
Beer ladies…who would carry more than 6 beers at a time! We munched on pretzels
and other breads.
We then headed out to
the carnival, and James and I decided to have a ride on the rollercoaster (not
so good after 1 litre of beer) and then the boys went on a ride that rotated
them around in their pod, while the axel rotated around. They all got off the
ride worse for wear, with Maneesh even bursting a blood vessel in his eye from
the G force! Obviously we decided there, we would stick to beer drinking!
It was during this
time, we had a couple of interesting things happen. Firstly Emma and I were
approached by an Austrian TV channel, and asked to film us smiling and waving
at the camera (which we did…although we did feel bad not being German!) and
then when we were taking pictures of ourselves, we managed to get into a
Reuter’s photo, photographing the increased Police presence due to a Terrorist
threat made by Bin Laden. That picture made world news papers…only for us to
find out about it as Mum spotted us in the NZ Herald! Unbelievable stuff!
We then headed into
the Pauliner tent, where we managed to have some lunch-veal sausage and half a
roast chicken. The chicken was awesome, despite the expensive price of 10 euro!
The next tent we
walked into was the Hofbrau tent (where the Kiwis and Aussies favour hanging
out) with the infamous ‘pig pen’. We managed to find a table, opposite some
lovely Italian guys, who shared their snacks with us-brilliant! Then onto the
Hippodrom tent. After this, we wandered around the carnival until Hamish and
Maneesh needed a toilet stop, so they ducked into the Schottenhammel tent,
while Emma, James and I waited outside. And we waited. Then James decided to go
and hunt for them, while Emma and I kept ourselves entertained chatting to
people. After around an hour, we managed to catch up with James, and we managed
to convince someone for us to make a call off their cell phone, to find that
the boys were on their way home. As you can imagine, we had all had too much to
drink by this point, so even these details are hazy!
We all meet up back at
camp, chatting about our adventures! Such an awesome day!
Friday 25th
September 2009
After a slow start to
the day, we headed out to Dachau, to learn about the concentration camp. It was
very difficult to see footage of this, and to walk around the grounds was a
very sobering experience for us all. There was a great deal of information to read,
as well as the grounds to walk through, so it took us about 3 hours to see it
all.
We had a bite of lunch
next, then headed out towards the airport to try and find the boys some hired
lederhosen. Unfortunately, after the hour long train trip, we arrived to find
the shop no longer hires these out, so sadly the boys had to miss out on
dressing up.
We trained back to the
camp ground, cooked dinner and planned for our big day at Octoberfest-arranging
to meet with Hayley and Kirk at 8.30am there.
Saturday 26th
September 2009
After an early start,
breakfast and picking some bakery treats up for morning tea, we meet up with
Hayley and Kirk at Beerfest, around 8.30am. We headed for the Hofbrau tent, as
Emma and Maneesh had friends there. We arrived to find inside so packed with
people, the only option was the pig pen, or taking a table outside. We decided
despite the cool weather, we would be served at a table, so headed for the
garden area. The first pint at 9am was a little hard to swallow, but they soon
became quite easy to drink, with a welcomed table change to under the outdoor
heaters too. By around 10am the garden area was full, so we decided to stay put
there, given the huge queues of people at the entrance to all tents, knowing we
wouldn’t get a table anywhere else. The amount of people was amazing, and the
queue for the toilets was quite horrible…I don’t think any of us had ever been
THAT busting before in our lives!
Despite this, we had
an awesome time, singing German beer drinking songs (the crowd inside was so
loud it was vibrating the windows behind us!) and saying ‘proust’ (cheers) to
people at surrounding tables. It
was such a happy place given the sheer volume of beer being consumed. Lunch was
also great-we had pork knuckle and roast chickens. It was a big day of
drinking, with the day winding down with a few more drinks at Hayley and Kirk’s
hotel before James and I headed back to the camp ground.
Sunday 27th
September 2009
After another slow
start, we headed into town, via Hayley and Kirk’s hotel to say goodbye. We then
headed into Munich city centre and had a greasy feed of KFC, then back to camp
to check out and head for a camping ground on the other side of Munich, closer
to the airport. A quiet night, we played our last game of cards together.
Monday 28th
September 2009
An early rise, to head
for the Airport. Was a sad moment, as James and I knew that was our holiday
over…and back to reality. Emma, Maneesh and Hamish dropped us off at the
airport and we said our farewells. It was such an eye opening holiday for us,
and we have now decided that we too want to buy a campervan and tour Europe
too….aiming for summer 2011!
