Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany

Oktoberfest is the largest festival in the world. It starts in September and finishes up in October. Six million attend every year and consume 7 million Liters of beer. I wasn't planning on visiting Germany on this trip. But what the hell.

My first problem is that hostels are booked out half a year in advance, so unless you want to pay 100 Euros a night (about 5x what I'm willing to pay) you need to find an alternative. Considering my awesome CouchSurfing experience in Pilsen, I decided to give it a go in Munich. As you can imagine, most hosts had already committed, but after 20 emails I find a German girl who was willing to host me. Sweet.

I take the train from Prague to Munich, which is completely reserved. I am worried I won't get on but after a mad scramble I make my way onto the train. There are no seats, so I sit down on the ground for the next few hours. I actually figure out a great way to lean back on my backpack to create a pseudo-seat. And I meet a bunch of cool people on the train.

From Oktoberfest

I arrive in Munich around 8. I figure out the UBahn (subway) and head to the burbs towards my host's house. Half of the train is dressed up in Lederhosen and Dirndl - traditional Bavarian dress. These aren't cheap Halloween costumes. We're talkin pimped out outfits. I start a conversation with some guys in Lederhosen and soon we arrive at the Theresienwiese stop - Oktoberfest. The entire UBahn unloads and the guys beckon me to join. I am tempted but I'mk carrying my big backpack and my host is waiting for me. Oktoberfest will have to wait.

From Oktoberfest

I find my host's house at LaimerPlatz. She's hosting two other cool American dudes. We head out to get dinner and drinks. The bar we end up at is packed with Bavarians in folk dress. At one point the bartender pours a flammable liquid the length of the bar and lights it on fire. The Fire Marshall would probably not approve, but it was freakin AWESOME.

From Oktoberfest

The next morning I wake early to head over to Oktoberfest. I was warned that the beer tents fill up early. I got so excited on my way to Oktoberfest that I got lost in the burbs of Munich without a map. Luckily I saw four girls dressed up in Dirndls - you know where they're going - and they offered to show me the way. One of them lives in Munich and the others are visiting from Northern Germany.

By the time we get to the Oktoberfest grounds, it's 10 AM which is very late so I'm a little concerned. Most of the beer tents were full and closed. Luckily one of the girls new a bartender at the Löwenbräu tent and we quickly get in through the back.

In each beer tent there is only one type of beer, served only in 1 Liter Steins. The waitresses carry up to 10 at a time. And it's a mad house. The German girls bring me to their table and introduce me to their friends. They teach me the drinking songs, order me some beers, tell me to order the Weißwurst, and generally take me under their wing. I'm having a pretty authentic Oktoberfest experience. I have my first Liter beer at 10:30 AM. When the band starts, I look at my watch and notice its 10:59:59. Germans efficiency. By 11:30 AM everyone is standing on their seats dancing and prosting (cheers-ing).

From Oktoberfest

My Germans friends leave at around 4 PM but I'm not ready to go just yet. I run around the tent meeting new people, sharing stories, and dancing on tables until the tent gets shut down around 10 PM. At that point I leave the tent and try to figure out how I'm going to get home. My CourchSurfing host is out of town at this point, but she was nice enough to leave me her key. I somehow find the UBahn, and am able to get to the right stop. As I turn the key in her front door, I wonder how I was able to make my way to the house. I'm asleep within minutes.

From Oktoberfest

The next day I pack up and leave my hosts' house. I have nowhere to stay so my plan is to drop my bag off at the left luggage at the train station and check out Munich. Unfortunately when I get there, all the lockers are full. It seems that every time someone empties a locker, someone else who just showed up gets it. I'm walking around the left luggage area for half an hour with no luck. I have a chat about my poor luck with one such girl. Eventually I get a locker, put my backpack in the locker, and head to tourist information.

When I get to tourist information, I see the girl from left luggage and let her know I found a luggage. She's with a friend and they invite me to join them. I tell them I have nowhere to stay. They tell me not to worry - they know a good place to sleep in the train station. Problem Solved.

We head straight over to Oktoberfest and don't leave until we get kicked out at 10 PM. Eventually we end up at the train station. We curl up in our sleeping bags on the floor and go to sleep. Three hours later, we are rudely awakened by police. Time to move on. We decide the best place to sleep is the UBahn. We hop in and sleep until we hit the end of the line, where we are awakened by someone banging on the window. We hop out and get back on in the other direction. Repeat.

We spend another day at Oktoberfest. I arrange to stay with a CouchSurfer who came to the beer tent to look for me, but my phone died before I could find him. One more night in the train station.

From Oktoberfest

I decide that I've had enough Oktoberfest and book a train to Vienna. First thing I do when I get to Vienna is wash the Oktoberfest off of me and do laundry. Time to relax.

At my hostel in Prague, I watched Pulp Fiction in the hostel lounge. Near the end, Samuel Jackson's character tells John Travolta's character that he's tired of a life of crime. When asked what he's gonna do, he replies that he's going to "wander the earth". Travolta's character retorts, "So you want to be a bum?" How appropriate :)

Pilsen, Czech Repubic - my first Couch Surfing experience

So I decided to take my first stab at CouchSurfing. Basically people offer up their couches to random travelers for free. It's a cool way to stay for free and meet local people. I decided to surf in Pilsen, Czech Republic, home of Pilsner Urquell beer, and the term "Pilsner".

From Pilsen, Czech Republic

I got into town, spent a few hours walking around, and then met up with my CouchSurfing host. He's a Pilsen local and a student studying business economics in the local university. We took the tram to his parents house in the suburbs. It was REALLY nice and overlooked the town. I met his family and there were all really cool.

We went out in Pilsen and discussed some Czech history. The next day we checked out the synagogue in town (3rd largest in the world) and checked out the Pilsner Urquell factory. I confessed I preferred the Czech beer Budweiser Budvar to Pilsner Urquell but he didn't take it personally.

It was a cool first surfing experience. The first of many for sure...

Prague, Czech Republic

I LOVE Prague. Not sure why. I just do. Something magical about it. Kind of have a crush on the city. When I finally found the town square I was grinning from ear to ear. Some of it was nostalgia from my misadventures in 2003.

Prague feels different. It has all the beauty and charm of Eastern Europe without the communism hangover. Communism here has a retro / kitsch feel. In the previous cities it was mostly haunting / depressing. Not that Czechs haven't suffered under communism. Kundera's The Joke is a devastating critique of Czech communism.

From Prague, Czech Republic

Prague is VERY touristy. Starbucks has a line out the door. For the fist time I hear English everywhere (mostly of the Aussie variety). But I forgive you Prague. I love you anyway. Marry me.

Yesterday I visited Pilsen (home of Pilsner Urquell) via CouchSurfing and I'll write about it when I get a chance. Was pretty cool.

But tomorrow I'm taking the train to Munich and crashing with a CouchSurfer to experience Oktoberfest. Should. Be. Insane.

Hostel from Hell

My bus arrives in Prague at 10:30 PM - two hours late. After stepping over urinating homeless people for 30 minutes, I decide to cheat and take a cab to the hostel. The meter is running WAY too fast, but there's really nothing I can do.

At the hostel, I'm told that they gave away my bed in the five person room. But that's no problem, I can sleep for free in the 32 bed room. In fact, I will have the room to myself because tomorrow they're doing "routine" extermination. Oh really? Actually I had read in online reviews that everyone had complained that the big room had bedbug issues. I tell him that I refuse to sleep with bedbugs, and he offers me to sleep on a couch at the bar. Um, sorry still not acceptable. He then offers a free cab to another hostel. I agree to this, but immediately go online to find my own hostel, because I don't trust this guy AT all. He comes back and says he booked me a room at another hostel, but the price he quoted was MUCH higher than what was offered online. I tell him that I refuse to pay that much and I continue to use the hostel computer to search for another hostel. This guy is trying to screw me in every orifice.

After five minutes, he returns, says he "moved" someone out of a five person room (probably offered the sucker a free bedbug bed) and said I could stay for free in a 5 person room. I accept.

The room is gross, and the bed squeaks as I climb in, waking everyone up. At around 3am, while everyone is sleeping, a drunk guy walks in and flops down in a bed. He gets mad when I refuse to make small talk with him.

In the morning I wake up, eat my free breakfast, and get the hell out of there.

Poznan, Poland

I'm here in Poznan for Rus' wedding. It's a cool town that I probably would not have thought to visit if not for the wedding. The wedding was in a really cool church built in the mid 17th century. Pictures to come. The reception followed at a restaurant in the main town square.

From Rus' wedding in Poznan, Poland

Upon finding my seat I noticed that along with the normal glasses and utensils, there was a shot glass. Next thing you know waiters bring a vodka bottle for every five people. We toast, drink, eat, repeat. Keep in mind its 4 PM. When the dancing started a good 90% of the guests were on the dance floor. Pretty awesome.

From Rus' wedding in Poznan, Poland

The party wound down at 2 or so and we headed to Buddha Bar nearby. Things are fuzzy at this point but I didn't get home till 6. I can confirm - Polish weddings rock!

Next stop is Prague. I'm staying at the Clown and Bard - a famous Prague party hostel. They have a room that sleeps 32 people. Reviews said don't stay in that room if you want to sleep before 6 am. One review said it was awesome except for the blood sucking bed bugs. Sorry to wus out on you guys, but I booked a 5 person room. Lame, I know.

PS. On the bus to Prague, Break Point came on which got me really psyched. Too bad it was dubbed in Polish - argh!

Krakow, Poland and Auschwitz

Krakow used to be the royal capital of Poland until 1596 when Poland conquered Lithuania and the capital was moved to the more central Warsaw. There is a really cool old town which survived World War II.

There is also an old Jewish quarter with at least five synagogues. Jews used to be 30% of Krakow - now there are only 150 left. Those synagogues are basically ghost towns now.

From the second you get to Krakow you see that the main 'attraction' is Auschwitz - the largest Nazi concentration camp where Nazis killed a million people - mostly Jews. Its very strange to see Auschwitz listed on a tourist agency sign right under 'salt mine tour'. At the hostel Auschwitz comes up all the time - 'Have you seen it? Is it good?' It's all pretty surreal for me because my grandmother was imprisoned there and a lot of my relatives died there or in a similar camp. The whole time I was worried someone would say something offensive but it never happened. Most people are really affected by it and take it seriously.

Visiting Auschwitz was very difficult. I joined an organized tour of 20 people. There were a few Israelis and I helped translate. It was nice because it helped me feel less lonely. We also saw groups of high school Israelis on organized tours. They had huge Israeli flags draped on their backs like capes. It was surreal to see Israeli flags in Auschwitz. I guess that was the point.

From Auschwitz, Poland

At first I thought our tour guide (who was about my age) was being a little mechanical, but then he told us that his great grandfather was in Auschwitz. He was a Christian Pole who lived in a nearby village and would occasionally sneak food in for the prisoners. The Nazis caught him and threw him in Auschwitz as a political prisoner. He survived the war. The tour guide's grandmother is a tour guide as well and has been doing it for over 30 years. He was continuing the family tradition.

Those of us in the group who had family in Auschwitz told him our stories and he was very moved. You could tell how hard the job was on him - it really showed by the end.

I was shaken for the rest of the day.

The next day I wanted to get away from Krakow so I took a bus to Zakopane - a small vacation town in the mountains with a ski resort. Most people take a cable car up the mountain and hike down. The line for the cable car was too long so I tried hiking UP the mountain to take the cable car down. Um didn't happen. Definitely overestimated my fitness / underestimated the mountain. I gave myself an 'A' for Effort, rewarded myself with a kebab (they are everywhere here) and headed back to Krakow.

Tomorrow I head to Poznan, Poland for a wedding. I heard Polish weddings are insane. I hope so.

Oktoberfest?

I'm thinking of heading over to Munich for Oktoberfest since I'm in the neighborhood. Should I go? Anyone been to it?

Warsaw, Poland

In Warsaw I stayed with Leeza's friend from our high school and her husband who were the best hosts ever. Warsaw is a an interesting city in that while its over 600 years old it was almost completley destoyed near the end of WWII. As the Nazis withdrew, they levelled the city as the Soviet army watched from across the Wista river.

Apparently only a few years ago most of Warsaw was run down, filled with decaying grey buildings built up during Poland's post-war communist period (Poland was an independent country in the Soviet sphere of influence - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were all part of the Soviet Union). But you wouldn't know that now - with money coming in from the EU warsaw got a facelift - its a really nice city. However the austere Palace of Culture and Science - a 'gift' from the people of the Soviet Union and one of the tallest buildings in Europe - is a reminder of Poland's communist past.

Saturday night we all went out to party at my hosts' friends' place. The couple living there were do-it-yourself people when it came to alcohol. They make their own wine and coffee liqueur (really good - I need that recipe!). At this point my memory gets fuzzy but there was lots of dancing, cigar smoking, drunken Polish singing, and homemade pickles (mmmm, pickles). We were the last ones to leave the party.
Nir - 1. Jetlag - 0.

Next on my itinerary is Krakow. Gonna stay in a hostel called 'Goodbye Lenin. Lets Rock!' If there is rock, I shall partake.

From Warsaw, Poland

Communism and Capitalism clash in Warsaw.

Back to Eastern Europe!

Ok I know I haven't written in a while - but I'm going back to Eastern Europe! I was in the States for a bit for my annual family trip - this time to Lake Powell and Vegas. I'm flying to Warsaw in a few hours. I need to update the blog about Vilnius (Lithuania), Lake Powell (Utah), and Las Vegas. I'll do it when I have a few minutes in Warsaw. Pics are already up on Picasa Web.

By the way I appreciate the anonymous comment inquiring as to whether or not I am still alive. I am.