Since I'm heading out on a trip to Puerto Rico tomorrow, its a good time to actually blog this forever in progress post. It only details the first weekend of our Europe trip, but at least its something.
In the beginning of October, Cindy and I flew across the Atlantic to soak in the sights of middle/eastern Europe (and satisfy Cindy's annual "I must leave the country" requirement). I wasn't super keen on the idea originally, but she warmed me up to it and I figured I'd give this traveling thing a try.
We first landed in Vienna and met up with Oggie, Cindy's friend/our travel guide/beer drinker extraordinaire. After a brief night tour of Vienna we got some sleep to prepare ourselves for the weekend... and what a whirlwind weekend it was.Oggie had already picked up our rental car so we hit the road toward Munich on Saturday morning. We stopped along the way at a few small towns (Durnstein, Krems, Melk, Salzburg, Friesing ... no pics up yet of those). The towns were nice, Krems had some kind of political festival going on where people were carrying around colored balloons representing their favored candidate (Bush probably would be yellow, right?). Salzburg had some nice views and a human-sized chess board (that people were actually playing). We also swung by the oldest brewery in the world (11th century!)... they even had a Weihenstephaner das boot.
We got to Munich in the evening and parked in a garage outside the gates of Oktoberfest. It didn't take long for us see where the party was going on since there were thousands of people out and having a good time. It seemed like most of them had been partying all day long, but fortunately not too many people were doing stupid things :)
All of the beer tents (and by tent I mean 5000 person wooden structure) were packed to the gills, but we got lucky and squeezed ourselves into the Löwenbräu beer hall (pic). There is no doubt, we were the only sober people in there. The inside was lined with people standing on tables, singing and dancing (and drinking) their hearts out. The funny thing (if thousands of drunken dancing people isn't funny enough) was that Löwenbräu was the "rock" beer tent -- meaning that pretty much all the music was english and stuff we could sing along to. Unfortunately I can't remember the exact songs, but I do know there was some good ol' John Bovi (I've given in to my incessant mumbling of his name). Unfortunately we were only starting to really get into full swing (after two liters of beer) when the hall started to close at 11:30. Bummer.
The carnival atmosphere continued to live on after the tents closed. Particularly we were drawn to the a mob of guys staring into the fun house. We learned that Drunken men + women in Bavarian dresses + an unexpected floor updraft in the funhouse = a really enjoyable 15 mins.
The next few hours are a bit of a blur, but the jist of it was lots of (very cold) walking around in Munich. We trekked across to some of the typical tourist sites, but really there isn't too much to see at 2:00am in the morning. We stopped into a couple bars to warm up and have some more beer (and see a scary trans-dressing guy). We even found a bar open at 6:00am. We froze our butts off getting there (musta walked 2 complete circles in Munich already) but it was warm and we had breakfast. The other two continued to have yet more beer, but I wussed out at the point and had some water.
We eventually figured out that there was no way we were going to be able to stay up for another whole day so we headed back to the car hoping we'd figure out someplace to crash for a bit (hotels were booked loooong before we arrived). Even after 24 hrs of being awake we were wary of sleeping in our car in the garage, but our fears were alleved when we got back to the garage). Not only had we seen parked car after car with people sleeping on the streets, but the there were tons of people in the garage already sleeping in their car. The real kicker was the guy who was sprawled on the concrete outside of his car, with his car door wide open! I guess he passed out at a really inopportune time :)
We woke up (rather unpleasantly) a few hours later and were thinking there was no way we were going to be able drink at 9:30 in the morning (much less last a whole day). But what did we go to Oktoberfest for... to drink beer of course! So we sucked it up and headed toward the tents. Our spirits were picked up by the surprising yet glorious sight of thousands and thousands of people making their way past the Oktoberfest gates (man these guys don't play around!)
We looked around and started getting worried that we wouldn't be able to get seats, but there was still a some space in the Hofbräuhaus. We sat a little away from the thick of things, where the dedicated were already in full swing, and started to soak in the atmosphere. When the waitress came we sheepishly ordered our first beer and pretzel. But when we tasted it... oh my, definitely the best beer I've had in my life! And the pretzel was just as good -- warm, crispy, soft, salty, and yummy.
From that instant the day went swimmingly. We forgot about our lack of sleep and had good times with the Germans and Americans that were seated around us. The German guy right next to us was hilarious. He told us all kinds of stories -- his times in America, why there was a large statue of a saint in the Hofbräuhaus, and how Oktoberfest beer is specially brewed. Really, the beer seemed to have magical bladder controlling properties . But the funny part was his stereotypes. The Colorado natives near us were goldiggers and cowboys, I (the programmer) was Bill Gates, and the Japanese guy was "sushi samuri".
As the day moved on and the party heated up the band joined in on the fun. While the music in the Hofbräuhaus wasn't as contemporary as the previous night, it was still pretty familiar. The two tunes that stick out in my mind are Country Roads (by John Denver) and a europeanized version of "Be my girl". I don't quite understand why the germans would be singing about West Virginia. My best guess is that they have a fondness for drunken tunes and there is nothing better than raising a glass and belting "Take me home/To the place/I BELOOONG..." :)
The other song though was a bit more weird. I knew the tune well enough and some of the words, but had no idea why "If you'll be my girl" could be so popular. It was definitely the hit of Oktoberfest and crowds all around were singing it (well before any of the bands played it). The biggest change (other than a general "popification" of the song) was a twist on the chorus. There was a bouncy musical run added on to "know" and a few grunts added after "my girl". That probably sounds pretty preposterous, and there has to be some reason why everyone in Oktoberfest knew (or quickly learned) the song, but really there is something to be said about drunken guttural noises :). "I wanna kno oh oh oh ah oh, if you'll be my girl EW AH" will be burnt in to my memory for quite some time.
At three o'clock it was time for us to leave the beer tents and make our way to the Bayern Munich football (soccer) game. We were pretty sad to have to leave Oktoberfest, but I was very excited to see a real European football match.
The Allianz Arena was quite a stadium to behold. It has a sleek, futuristic exterior styling that looks metallic by day and glows red by night. It really is quite a sight to see in the evening. The inside was nice, yet simple. There were bathrooms, food, and beer stands as expected but it didn't seem near as busy as the American baseball and football stadiums I've been in.
The match was awesome and certainly lived up to my expectations. FC Bayern soundly defeated FC Nürnberg (three to nil) with a generous show of offensive skill. While the match was enjoyable, the environment even better. American sports fans are no match for European football fans. Pure enthusiasm, singing, and shouting for 45 minutes. Then a break to prepare for another 45 minutes of... pure enthusiasm, singing, and shouting. There were no vendors, no beer runs, and rarely any bathroom runs visits. This is how sports should be experienced (and no, the standard "Let's go Red Sox" cheer sung in an awkward round around Fenway doesn't hold a candle to the entire-stadium-in-unison songs I heard in Munich).
I almost forgot the best part (thanks for the reminder Cindy). When Bayern scores a goal the stadium goes nuts (of course), but when things quiet down, the announcer starts the post-goal cheer/ritual by proclaiming the first name of the goal scorer. Then the crowd yells the last name back in unison. Again the announcer says the first name, and the crowd chants back the last name. After repeating that process once more the announcer says "number" and the crowd yells back the goal scorer's number. To top it of the announcer finishes with "Danke" (thank you) and the crown crescendos for the final response, "Bitte" (you're welcome). You'll never hear a more guttural, aggressive, and yet jovial usage of "you're welcome". It may sound cheesy but that cheer was awesome... especially when you are ready to put your gut into it the second time around :).
So I left Munich with a huge smile on my face, already thinking of when I could visit once again. Unfortunately that high didn't last for long, since we had a long car ride ahead of us (which started out with a sobriety check the minute we got onto the highway). We ended up back in Vienna at 2:00am making a total of 40 hours with just a couple hours of sleep. I don't regret a single minute (.... well maybe we could have done without the 20 minutes of parking trouble when we got back).
So now I can finally say that I've traveled in Europe. I had actually been to Europe before, but going to Germany when you are 16 years old and caring only about the soccer tournament you are playing in doesn't really count.
(Did I mention that only paying for 2 hotels for 10 nights in Europe is awesome! Thanks again Ogi)
I'm glad that I've started to open up to want to see more of the world, it actually deserves more credit than I initially gave it :)