Munich and Oktoberfest

The train to Munich didn't take too long on the train from Augsburg.  I had put on my trachten (traditional german clothing consisting of lederhosen and a plaid shirt) that morning so that I would be ready to head to Oktoberfest as soon as we got there.  We dropped our bags at the hotel and walked to the larger fairgrounds where it was taking place.  It was Sunday and so everywhere was choked with people.  It was overwhelming but in an exciting way.  I read before I left that about 7 to 8 million people were expected to attend Oktoberfest this year.  I could believe it.  After wandering around a few big tents that were completely packed and wondering how you get a table, we went to a small tent that was more of a restaurant and found an open table.  We eventually figured out that most of the tables will have someone's name and the times that they had it reserved.  Most of the tables weren't reserved until 5 or 6pm.  We found out on Monday that on weekdays, fewer tables are reserved so its better to go during a weekday and really crowded on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

It was 12:30 so we started off with some type of sausage with sauerkraut and some beer.

Lunch was delicious and now we were ready to spend the rest of the day in one of the big tents.  We went to the Lowenbrau tent and one of the waitresses found us a table that still had room for two people.  For about an hour or so we sat with this German family and talked with them for awhile.  Some of them spoke decent English too.  They left and a group of guys from northern Germany sat down.  We talked with them and they invited us to a table that they had reserved.  Doug and I hung out with them the rest of that day.  Here's some photos of the tent and some video of the whole tent singing.

About midway through this video you'll see a guy in a black shirt dancing funny.  We met them later in the day.  They were Australian and English.  Most of this tent were Germans.  The English speakers tend to go to the Hofbrau tent, which is why we avoided it.  Apparently, Americans, English, and Aussies overdo it and it gets disgusting over there.  We really enjoyed this tent and the Germans were so friendly and so much fun.

Doug and I learned some of the standard songs like "Ein Prosit" (a toast) and also became familiar with some of the German pop music, some of which was rather silly.  Some of the other popular songs were "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond and "Country Road" by John Denver.  We also heard some ACDC, Bon Jovi, Hey Jude by the Beatles and lots of other stuff you wouldn't expect to hear at Oktoberfest.  However, most of the music was German.

This is where they was all of the beer glasses.  I saw waiters and waitress carry out 14 mugs full of beer at once!

We sang with the Germans until the shut everything down around 11:30pm.  Doug had already wandered back to the hotel to check in and sleep since he was still jetlagged but I stayed till the bitter end.  Our hotel, Eurostars Grand Central near the Hackenbrucke train station was really nice and we had a good deal on it. Here is what it looked like.

This is the shower...

The hallway...

The next morning we headed out for some breakfast and wandered around Munich.  The big pedestrian area is the Marienplatz.  Here are some pictures that I took on our walk.  Keep in mind that this is a Monday and there were tons of people out because of Oktoberfest.

Munich's City Hall...

The courtyard inside City Hall...

We came upon this church and when I saw it I told Doug that it was probably going to be pretty cool inside.  It was.  This was another Rococo-style church with a very ornate interior.

After the church, we made our way back to Oktoberfest for another day of German-style fun.  It wasn't as packed and we wandered around the fairgrounds for awhile.  There were lots of traditional horse drawn beer wagons too...

We went to a different tent this time and a waitress found a table for us right away.  There were only four people sitting there and they were keeping to themselves.  We were just happy to have a table.  It was about 12:30pm so we ordered up some spaetzle (German noodles) and Doug had some sausages... and of course we ordered some beers.  Pretty soon, the people at our table left and four young Germans who had just finished their tests at one of the universities in the area sat with us.  They were very friendly and we hung out together the rest of the day.  One by one more of their friends came to the table until there were about ten to twelve of us.

The tent was pretty full by mid-afternoon.  It was completely packed by dinner time.

Usually as the night goes on, more and more people stand and sing on the tables.  Almost no one is sitting down at the end of the night.  There are a lot of factors that are key to enjoying Oktoberfest.  According to the older mayors that I met, the key is to eat lots of food and sing!  Doug felt that the key to enjoying German beer for 11 hours is to "drink slow enough that you can drink all day but fast enough that your beer doesn't get too warm."  While there are some Germans who will stand on top of their table and guzzle an entire liter while everyone cheers them on, we took our time so that we didn't overdo it.  Also, there are people walking around selling giant pretzels and its best to order your food before 5pm otherwise it can take a long time for it to come out because everyone is ordering around dinner time.  I ordered half of a roast chicken around 4:30 and it was the best chicken I had ever had!  Oktoberfest was great but many German's that I met actually prefer some of the smaller local festivals like Nuremberg's Altstadtfest or the festival that was starting in Ingolstadt before I left.  The beer is much less expensive and the festivals feel more traditional.  A beer at Oktoberfest is about 9.10 Euro (about $12) per liter and they don't fill it up all the way to the top.  At Altstadtfest, I bought a half-liter for 2.50 Euro or about $3.25.  I would like to go back to Oktoberfest someday.  It was a lot of fun and I met some great people.

We left when everything closed down that night at 11:30pm and went back to the hotel.  I caught a train to Erlangen at 8:30 the next morning.  Despite all of the beer, each morning, I actually felt pretty good.  I did have to change trains because of some construction on one of the lines but I made it to Erlangen.  I'll talk about Erlangen as my next and final post for the German trip.  Hope you enjoyed Oktoberfest too!  Thanks for reading!

Blogging Man... as in my blog is online and I'm going to Burning Man.

Welcome all of you to my blog!  For a long time, I had thought about starting a blog so more people can share in my travels, live vicariously through my experiences (I've had serious requests for this!), and learn more about the development and planning projects that I visit.  Of course, you will still have to tolerate a few bad jokes, puns, and other forms of witty banter but I'll make it worth your while to put up with all of that garbage.

During the next two to three weeks, I will blog about my trip to and from California and my experiences at Burning Man out in the middle of the Black Rock desert two hours north of Reno, Nevada.  My friend Jamie will be accompanying me as we seek out some friends and soon to be friends among the sold out 50,000 attendees who will make up the bustling, temporary metropolis of Black Rock City (BRC).  Since we will be out in the middle of the desert and do not have high-powered equipment that can tap into military satellites or Ted Turner's pinky finger, I will not be able to post anything during the event itself.  This means that from August 29th until September 5th, there won't be any new posts.  Expect a lot of material showing up after September 6th including lots of photos and videos.

The next excursion that you will have to look forward to is a trip to southern Germany.  I will be spending three days in Munich with my roommate Doug (Oktoberfest will be going on), a few days in Freiburg to check out the "best planned city in the world" according to some, and Ingolstadt and Erlangen where I will hopefully get tours of each city from their respective former mayors.  I'm still making arrangements to meet up with the former mayors but I do have my flight booked and a few nights reserved at a hotel in Munich.  I'll have more to write about that trip as we get closer to the middle of September.

For those of you who are not familiar with my current situation, about four days ago I finished my last day working for the Planning Division and Community Development Department at the City of Westminster, Colorado.  For four years, nine months, and twelves days, I did what I could to answer the public's questions and help people get through the planning process.  My coworkers were great (I'm just saying that since many of them are reading this. HA HA!) and I met a lot of interesting people during my tenure.  After all of that time, I had an opportunity to move on and try something new.  Now, I'll be doing some travelling, attempt to work in planning in other capacities such as consulting, and spending a lot of time doing research and writing on urban planning and other related subjects.  No, I did not win the lottery nor do I have a pallet of gold bricks in my garage.  I made a decision to plan ahead for a clean break and now was the best time for me to do it.

I hope I've given all of you enough of a teaser that you will check back later.  Also, I will backfill some material (please, no engineering jokes about what kind of retaining wall I will use) from my three week road trip from July because I have a lot of video and photos from that.  Thank you all for checking out my blog and I'll write as often as I can.  Cheers!