HB Bek, Hope it was awesome
As they say in Bavaria, GruB Gott. (cheating, of course … using a capital B instead of the German symbol for “ss”)
So it’s been a busy few days. Let me break it down for y’all.
Wednesday night flew out of Brisbane at 8pm. Arrived Singapore around 2am, and then arrived Dubai around 6am. All times are local, don’t make me convert them. The flight on Emirates was good … the food was a highlight. I even got Moet with and before each meal. Fabulous. The Emirates lounge is far better than the Qantas lounge too, it’s a really nice place, both in Brisbane and in Dubai.
Left Dubai at around 8:30 and arrived in Munich around midday on Thursday. Customs was a short process, and Godez and I caught the UBahn to the Hauptbahnhof.
Our one-night-only hotel was in the city centre, near the Hauptbahnhoff and the Oktoberfest arena, so was fairly well positioned. We lugged our bags up to our room, giggled stupidly at the smallness of it, and then went off to Oktoberfest.
It’s bizarre, but I recommend Oktoberfest. It’s a bit like the atmosphere of the Ekka, but with heaps of drunk people, and heaps of hotties wearing the bavarian costume. It can be hard to find a seat in a bear hall (you can only get served if you’re sitting) but you soon make friends with the wierdos on your table. A liter stein of beer (called a MaB - again, cheating with a capital B instead of the German symbol that means “ss”) costs EU$ 7.50, which makes a beer worth around $14-15 but it’s an unavoidable expense unfortunately.
We had a few MaB and were pretty tipsy, mainly because of the jetlag, I think. Bought a 1/2 metre hotdog, and a gingerbread heart and headed home. Went to sleep while it was still light, much to Godfrey’s disgust. He slept just as soundly and long as I did, he just loves a whinge.
Next day we had to change hotels, which was more difficult than we imagined. The new hotel was in Schwabing, which must be German for “the sticks”. Eventually we worked it out, and found a map on the internet, which we transcribed in true mud map fashion. We worked out we needed to catch two trains, an S-Bahn and a U-Bahn so that was it’s own brand of fun. Eventually we got to Alte Heide station, and realized our map was useless. So we wandered until we saw the hotel. Put that in the “extremely lucky” category.
We took a (long) walk through the Englische Garten, which is studded with little Biergartens at this time of year. We had planned to stop for lunch at the See Haus (Lake House - interestingly, See is German for “lake”) which was situated on a beautiful lake with swans and fish etc. Unfortunately meals were around EU$20-30 range, so we skipped that and caught the UBahn back to the hotel, by way of a supermarket.
Another early night, with much complaining by Godfrey, but again, he slept soundly.
Yesterday we saw Castle Neuschwanstein, the fairy-tale caslte from the Disney symbol. It was pretty good, but exhausting. Godfrey opted for the (difficult) walk up the mountain with the tourguide, I took the bus. It was great, but a long day - about 2 hours by train each way.
Today I’m at the show, and hope to soon be cheering on the Broncos at either of the two Australian bars we know of showing the football … The Ark and Ned Kelly’s. Go the boncos!