Oktoberfest — A Night to be Remembered

No really. What happened? Dana and I headed up to Munich excited for our first Oktoberfest. Our plan was to head to Oktoberfest Friday night, and then to spend Saturday and Sunday exploring the city. If we had time, we’d head back to the Oktoberfest for more fun.

We arrived at our first—and as it turns out, only—tent Friday at about 5 pm. Since it was late in the day, we had to sit outside, and we’re lucky to find a table. After about 30 minutes, we were able to order our first beers, and were all smiles.

Oktoberfest … das good!

My original plan was to have a liter of beer and then either head to another tent or into the city for some exploration. Well… one beer turned into two; two turned into more; and before you know it, I’m translating for our newly found Russian friend. He spoke only Russian and I only speak English and Italian, but that didn’t matter. We toasted in Russian, I translated his flirtations to the English speaking women. I have to admit, I was probably a bit more forward and vulgar than he was considering he kept showing me pictures of his girlfriend.

As the night progressed, we continued to drink and drink. We made more and more friends. In fact, at a certain point, everyone is your friend. Our German friends, Flo and Max, offered tons of tips on sites to see. I remembered absolutely zero of the tips.

Our new German friends: Flo and Max

Our Ohioan mates were always incognito with their sunglasses in photos.

Christian and the Ohioans

And my personal favorite of the lot: Man who claims to have sex with his wife every night.

Man who claims to have sex every night, Dana, Christian, and Natale

Last call was made at about 11:30, so Dana and I decided it was time to head back to the hotel as we wanted to get an early start on Saturday. We headed out, and upon seeing the Metro stop packed with people, I instructed Dana, “C’mon. Let’s keep walking. There’s another stop further that way.” Now, it is important to note that:

1. This was my first time in Munich
2. I had ridden this particular metro 1 time in my life
3. I had well over 2 liters of beer in my system

I really have no idea how long we walked—it didn’t seem long—or what time we arrived back at the hotel. All I do know is that I found a metro, got us on it, and got us “home”. I even realized that we were on the wrong train (it bi-passed our stop), changed trains, and managed to navigate our way to the correct stop. And I did all this without dropping Dana once—although I did have to prop her up against a wall every now and then. Once we were at our final stop, I knew that riding a bus was probably a bad idea, so I encourage Dana to walk the 20 minutes back to the hotel. Dana did request to be allowed to sleep outside despite several times in route to the hotel.

I woke on Saturday at 7 am sharp starving. I made my way to breakfast—€21—and asked if I could please have a couple pieces of toast instead of paying for the full breakfast. The waiter took one look at me, laughed, and nodded yes. Once back in the room, I ate half a piece of toast, crawled back in bed, and proceeded to sleep until noon. So much for an early start.

Needless to say, Dana and I were not feeling tip top. We each had at least 2.5 liters of beer, which, by my calculations, is the equivalent of 10-12 normal beers in terms of alcohol content. Needless to say, a bit more than we’re used to drinking. Saturday was pretty much a wasted day. We were both incredibly hungover, but we forced ourselves out for a few hours.

Sunday started much better with both of us feeling 100%. We were ready to attack the city.

Feeling Great Today!

We headed into the English garden that had numerous interesting sites. The first was a river that you can surf on.

Surfing on a river??!!

Also within the English Garden is a Chinese tower.

The Chinese Tower in the English Garden

However, the most interesting site within the English Garden was seen a few minutes after this photo was taken. Dana says, “Look that guy’s wearing a loin cloth. We must be near the nudist field.” Well, he actually wasn’t wearing a loin cloth and we weren’t near the nudist field. He was very hairy and we were at the nudist field. EWE…

After washing our eyes with soap, we headed to the Residence. This was our last stop for the trip, so I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite photos.

The Slaying of Medusa.

A dining hall within the Residence

A great visual effect, but only if you stand in exactly the right spot.

All smiles

The ballroom.

Budapest, Hungary

Back to where we left off, oh so many months ago…

A few weeks after we went to Prague, we ventured into the former communist block again by visiting Budapest, Hungary. Prague, while a great city to visit, turned out to be a bit of a let down for us. I think that we let it get a bit too built up in our minds, but with Budapest, we didn’t know what to expect. Actually, I expected some sort of 3rd world country. Instead, I got a city with a similar vibe to that of Prague, which was a very pleasant surprise. If I’m honest, I don’t remember too much about Budapest. I remember that we ate breakfast at McDonalds everyday (€3 egg muffin > €20 hotel buffet), and overall really enjoyed our trip. Here are a few of the things that I do remember.

I don’t know what it is about travelling, but regardless of where we go, we seek out vegetarian fare and sushi. This trip was no different as we once again found  ourselves in a vegetarian restaurant joking about the poor guy making flat breads. None of the other workers would talk to him, but at least he had a TV with sports on it. And, the man did make some killer flat bread.

Public transportation, like most other European cities, was excellent. Budapest did have some very unique subways. The cars themselves looked to be straight out of 1950s Russia. Small glass globe lights that you might find in your grandmother’s kitchen illuminate the cars. Teeny tiny station platforms that couldn’t have held more than a hundred people. The lines themselves weren’t that far under ground. In fact, one of the more famous stations was just a few feet below the street.

One of the original underground stations

Budapest is famous for its baths, to which we did go, but didn’t take the camera. We were a little leery of taking anything valuable to the baths, so we just took ourselves. Overall, they were okay, but a bit too crowded and under maintained for us. They were nice for a bit, but we didn’t hang out for too long as we had other things to see.

One of the few museums that we went to was the resistance museum. This museum was actually the location where numerous people were taken, tortured, and sometimes killed. A brutal place that has been transformed into an amazingly informative museum. For one of the displays, you had to climb the stairs to a hanging gallows to read the description—eerie. It was like climbing to your own hanging.

Throughout this museum we learn of the level of paranoia that existed within the Eastern Block during the height of Communist rule. I would imagine it a very scary time because if you ticked off the wrong person, you were toast. Even high ranking officials weren’t above being persecuted and removed from power or worse.

The Resistance Museum

“Chains of Oppression”

At this point, my memories of Budapest get a bit fuzzy. The pictures tell me a bit of the story, but nothing remarkable. Instead of written words, I’ll leave you with some highlight photos:

Budapest Parliament

Famous Guy on Horse

Mattias Church

Budapest is actually two cities (Buda and Pest) connected by the Chain Bridge.

Chain Bridge

Surprisingly, Budapest is known for their wines. We took a tour of a wine “museum” before snapping the photo below. The museum was pretty horrible, but their wine and schnapps wasn’t so bad. Although, I’d have to say that schnapps would not be my drink of choice.

Buda Castle

We also toured a synagogue while in Budapest. While the tour itself left a bit to be desired, the synagogue was quite impressive. Below are a few photos.

Outside the synagogue

Inside the synagogue

The tree of life at the synagogue

The market in Budapest was pretty impressive. Peppers and paprika were everywhere. We even ventured into the basement to peek in at the fish mongers. The smell was a bit too overpowering for us to stay down there for too long.

The Market

One of many stands in the market.

Below is a photo of Shoes on the Danube, which is a memorial to victims of the Holocaust.

Shoes on the Danube

The Opera House

Dana strikes a pose on the chain bridge

St. Stephens Church

Well, there’s our trip in pictures. Hopefully, I remember a bit more with the next post.

Ljubljana

I know what you’re saying: “L-jub-l-WHAA?!”. I just went with Loob-lub while we were planning to go to Ljubljana. We made the 3 hour drive into Slovenia way back in July (I know, I am behind in my blogs). Our plan was to visit a spa or two and hopefully a get break from the Italian heat. Well, we found a spa, but man was Slovenia HOT! Even the evenings were very sweaty.

Czech 1, Check 2

In August, Dana and I headed into the former Communist block starting with Prague. We’d heard numerous times about the splendor that Prague has to offer, so we were really excited about our trip.