Oktoberfest!!!

What does one even say about this? ;P

Opening day on Saturday was a bit anticlimactic, actually. It was pouring down rain, there were wayyyyyy too many people, and to get into the tent where the mayor was tapping the first keg as the official start to Oktoberfest, we would have needed to get there around 4am to wait in line until noon. No thanks. We ended up soaked and decided to head home and save the beer drinking for another day - we are here for two weeks, after all. A few minutes after we started weaving our way through the crowds to the exit, I realized Steve wasn't behind me anymore. Oh no! Since the plan was to head home, that's what I did and when I got off the subway, Steve came running up behind me - he was on the same subway but in a different car. :P

On Sunday night, Steve's dad came to join us for the Oktoberfest extravaganza and on Monday, we took a little Oktoberfest tour where we walked around with a guide who told basically told us that all the tents are very hard to get into without a reservation unless you come early in the morning. We took that as a challenge, and vowed to get into some of these supposedly exclusive tents in the coming days. At the end of our tour, we had a table reserved in the famous Hofbräu Haus tent, where we each had two liters of beer and half a roast chicken with the tour.

Let me tell you, two liters is a LOT of beer. It is six regular 12oz beer bottles, to be (within a few ounces of) precise. People were standing on tables chugging these liters of beer and doing other weird stuff like one guy who chugged one beer and poured a second on his head immediately after, and one guy who drank out of his shoe (gross.). The waitresses are amazing: they walk around in their dirndls carrying five, six, seven of these heavy glass steins filled with beer IN ONE HAND!!!!! That takes strength, people. I can barely hold one up to drink out of with one hand.

Our reservations at the Hofbräu tent lasted until 5pm, but we were one if the last ones remaining and we tapped out at around four. Steve and his dad drank a third beer, but it was all I could do to finish two. Steve refused to help me out, arguing that it was too early in Oktoberfest for me to not finish my beers. We wandered around Theresienwiese, the name of the grounds where Oktoberfest is held every year, for a little while before heading to bed around 7pm. Steve and I are renting a room out at a local's apartment and our host, Tarek, basically laughed at us because it was wayyyyy too early to go to bed - "That's not how it's done here in Munich." :)

On Tuesday we headed back out to Theresienwiese and managed to get seats at the Ochsenbraterei tent for lunch. There are only six breweries who serve beer at all the tents in Oktoberfest: the old, traditional Munich breweries who have to follow the strict requirements of the Bavarian Purity Laws. Hofbräu is one of them; the others are Paulaner, Löwenbräu, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, and Augustiner. No doubt some of you beer drinkers recognize some of these names. Among other things, the Bavarian Purity Laws declare that the beer served at Oktoberfest can only contain hops, grain, and water. The yeast is all natural yeast and there are no preservatives or any other additives, which gives it a much crisper taste than the imported bottled versions of these beers that we get in the States.

Spaten was served at the Ochsenbraterei tent, which is also famous for their roast oxen. Delicious. The tent was very colorful and a live band was playing. We had a beer with lunch before moving on to the agriculture fair, which is present at Pktpberfest every four years. We walked around looking at animals for a while before heading to one of the Paulaner tents for yet another beer, where three Germans tried to teach us how to properly pronounce the words to "Ein Prosit", which is kind of the cross between a toast and a song. Whenever the band begins to take up "Ein Prosit", everyone is supposed to clink glasses with their neighbors and take a swig.

We took a peek in the Hippodrom tent, which is supposedly where all the celebrities go and is supposedly impossible to get into. It has a circus theme inside, which was really cool, and almost immediately after we walked in, a waitress asked if we wanted a table. So much for being impossible to get into. But by this point we'd already had two beers, so we passed on the chance to sit at this elite tent. Maybe another time.

Wednesday found us at the Augustiner Brewery & Restaurant rather than at an Augustiner tent, where Steve booked us reservations for dinner. It was there that, alongside sausages and roast duck and pork knuckles and potato dumplings and other goodies, we were able to try Augustiner's Edelstoff beer. Fun fact of the day: Edelstoff is rumored to be the Pope's favorite beer. That's right - Edelstoff is on tap at THE VATICAN.

After three days of beer drinking, we took a rest day, which consisted of lots of sleeping and a trip to Therme Erding, the thermal bathhouse right outside of Munich. It has a Hawaiian/island theme, which was kind of goofy, but it was very relaxing. Plus they had a salt room where all the walls were lined with salt bricks. Way cool. Never seen one of those before.

And our days in Europe are trickling on by.... Still can't believe we head back to the States soon!

Final Countdown.

We have arrived in Munich.

It is weird to think that after four months of traveling around, we are finally almost home. In less than two weeks, we will be boarding a plane back to the States and life will return to normal. Whatever that means.

We arrived on Wednesday evening, which gave us a few days to explore Munich before the tourists start pouring in for Oktoberfest, which officially begins on Saturday. We wandered around and went on a free walking tour to learn more about Munich's history, and managed to abstain from drinking beer for those two and a half days because once Oktoberfest officially starts, I'm sure we will have more than our fill.

Steve has spent most of his time trying to decide what FC Bayern München merchandise he wants to buy (they seriously have it all here - not only can you buy the jerseys and shorts and socks, but you can also buy Bayern Munich shower gel, iPhone cases, and baby pacifiers, among other things) and we have spent a good amount of time just relaxing during the rainy parts of the day, but I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we will be going HOME soon. How are we even going to function when we get back? There are all sorts of things that we will need to do when we get back - my knee surgery, finding jobs, and looking for a place to live are among the top priorities (obviously) and we both have good leads as far as getting jobs go, but what happens from there? Normal life? How are we going to transition back into having to drive everywhere and not worrying about exchanging currency? Presidential elections are coming up soon after we get back to the States, but what do we know about what's going on? Sure, we read news online occasionally so we aren't completely in the dark, but I'm sure there are all kinds of other things that have happened that we just don't know about. We've been gone for so long... Wait, you mean I can order from this menu that is written in English AWESOME! You mean I have to start paying bills again? Notttttt awesome :P It will be interesting to see how long it takes us to really get back in the groove of things. And how difficult of a transition it really is - it could all be in my head, who knows. But I am excited to head home. We both are.

It'll be nice just to not have to lug around a heavy backpack anywhere. Whoo.

See you soon, everyone! <3

Act Like a Tourist - Use the SalzburgCard.

So pretty much every city we've been to in Europe has their own version of the SalzburgCard, which typically give discounts to museums, restaurants, etc.

The SalzburgCard? Everything is FREE.

That's right, free. Awesome, right? And there were a ton of stuff on the list of stuff in the brochure that we actually wanted to do, so we each bought 48-hour SalzburgCards and proceeded to act like serious tourists for almost all of those 48-hours.

BEGIN: NOON, Monday, Sept. 17

We spent most of the day up at Hohensalzburg, which is the big fortress/castle overlooking the city, one hill over from the Mönchsberg. We took the funicular up to the fortress and wandered around the fortress and the various museums. We stopped by one of the cafes and had cappucinos and Sacher torte (a delectable chocolate cake). We skipped most of the marionette museum because frankly, those things freak us both out. They were cool for the time, I suppose, but for today's day and age, they are a teensy bit on the creepy side.

From there, we went to Salzburg's Museum of Natural History. Natural history museums are Steve's favorite kind - he never gets tired of looking at animals. It was interesting just to see how they put together their natural history stuff versus how we do in the States - a lot of it is the same. Part of the building was also a hands-on science exhibit with machines and games that show people how things like balance, gravity and centrifugal force work. It would be a great place to take our kids someday. While we were there, a school had a field trip so there were pre-teens running around all over the place. It was still fun, even for us. I can't even imagine how cool it would be for a small child who doesn't yet understand how the world works to come to a place like this.

DAY TWO: Tuesday, Sept. 18

All public transportation is free with the SalzburgCard, so we took a bus to a mountain called Untersberg, which is about 45 minutes outside of the city. We took a cable car up the Untersberg - we went up 1853 meters, or a bit over one mile. From up there, we could see all of Salzburg and the surrounding area. There were little hiking trails all over the place where we could explore and see the view from different sides of the mountain.

The Alps are very pretty to just look at because they are so tall and jaggedy - not the sloping mountainsides like many of the mountains in California. Billy got to play in the snow for the first time, too.

As we were taking the cable car back down, I commented on how I wished we'd seen a mountain goat (like we did in Zakopane!) because they are so prolific here. Five minutes later, I look down and see TWO mountain goats grazing in a little patch of greenery on the mountainside! Steve and I both smile, happy we saw some, and I lamented the fact that we still haven't seen a mountain goat actually climbing the mountain. Two minutes later, Steve points out a mountain goat hopping from ledge to ledge up the mountain! At that point I decided I was the mountain goat whisperer and declared that I would like to see a mountain goat doing the macarena. FIVE MINUTES LATER WE SAW ONE!! (Just kidding.)

Our visit to Untersberg was followed by a visit to the Salzburg ZOO!!! We walk into the zoo and the first thing we see is a little red panda running around his little patch of land - Steve's favorite animal is a red panda! Other than manatees and cows and kitties, anyway. We saw many an animal, red pandas and (more) mountain goats and lynxes and tigers and MONKEYS ALL OVER THE PLACE and some pretty birds and fish and zebras and.... The list could go on. Most of the exhibits (they weren't even in cages! Just patches of land with high fences. Somehow I feel better about that than when they are in cement cages with glass windows.) had babies of whatever animal it belonged too. We spent the whole time oohing and aahing over how CUUUUUUUUUUTE everything was!

Soooo here are a bunch of pictures of cute animals!!!

YAY, animals.

For our last stop of the day, we went to the Hellbrunn Palace to see the trick fountains.

Something to note about many of the attractions we've seen in Europe: you ave to keep in mind that some of these things are tourist attractions because of how awesome they were for the time they were built. You can't look at a clock tower and think it is silly that they keep those creepy puppets that move around up there when we have better technology available. When that clock was built 500 years ago, those moving puppets were an innovation.

Same with these trick fountains.

They must have been way cool for the time, because everything is powered basically by the pressure of the water.

But seriously, the water show at the Bellagio in Vegas is cooler, and that isn't even that cool.

The grounds are very pretty though, and it was fun to watch people freak out when they got wet (some of the fountains sneak up behind you if you aren't paying attention). But overall, Steve and I both agreed that we were glad we had the SalzburgCard and didn't pay the 10euro each to see the fountains because they were pretty anticlimactic.

DAY THREE: SalzburgCard good until NOON, Weds, Sept. 19

For our last stop in Salzburg, we headed back out to Stiegl brewery in the morning to visit their brewery museum. It was pouring down rain once more, so when we checked out of our hotel, we put our stuff in lockers at the train station and took a bus out to Stiegl (rather than walking, like we did with Michael). The museum is half a how-to kind of thing about beer, and half a history of beer in Austria. After the tour of this three-story museum, we had the opportunity to try three of the Stiegl beers in the restaurant downstairs, and afterwards we both were given pint glasses as a thank-you gift for visiting. It was a very good final use of the SalzburgCard, even if it was before noon. :P


And then we took a two-hour train ride to Munich.... OKTOBERFEST, HERE WE COME!!!!!!

Officially Part of the Family.

I have officially become part of Steve's family.

Salzburg has a special place in the hearts of everyone on Steve's mom's side of the family: his mom and aunt have spent time studying abroad here when they were in school, his grandparents on that side have been here, his cousins have been here, he and his brother have been here.

And now I have, too.

I can officially say that I am part of this family now. :)

When we arrived in Salzburg the other day, it was POURING DOWN RAIN!!!!! Good thing I bought a coat :P an good thing our hotel was a five minute walk from the train station. Nevertheless, we got soaked!!! Since we are in Salzburg for almost a week, we decided to take it easy on that first day and have a true Austrian dinner of Stiegl beer (Salzburg's oldest and most famous brewery) and wienerschnitzel.

When we were planning this trip, we decided that, since originally we were going to spend almost two months straight on WWOOF farms, we would splurge when we got to Salzburg and stay in a fairly nice hotel. Well, as you may know by now, plans changed and we ended up hanging out at the beach and hiking around national parks in Croatia instead of working our buns of at another farm. Soooooo we get to stay at a nice hotel after three weeks of leisure. Woot.

Needless to say, we spent some time that first rainy day relaxing in the hotel saunas and steamrooms while Billy pigged out on Mozartkugeln.

Our second day was a beautiful, clear, slightly chilly day. Salzburg's Old Town is about a fifteen minute walk from our hotel, and we spent the day just wandering around the Mirabell gardens and laying in the sun by the river. At some point, we also hiked up the Monchsberg, a big hill on top of which is the place Steve, his brother, and his mom stayed when they came to salzburg about ten years ago. I got to see where my mother-in-law lived and spent time when she was studying abroad in Salzburg. It was a beautiful, tranquil wooded area with a small fortress and cow pastures.

In the past, whenever Steve mentioned anything about his previous trip to Salzburg, he would inevitably mention these "two skinny bratwurst in a bun, with onions and curry powder, that was sold at a tiny hole-in-the-wall kind of place where [he] ate all the time." Guess what? HE FOUND THAT PLACE!!!!!!! And those things (called bosnas) are delicious. I can now personally attest to that.

We spent the rest of the day basking in the sun by the Salzach river and admiring the silly displays of bread and beards in the shop windows on our walk back home.

On Saturday afternoon, MICHAEL CAME TO JOIN US!!!! You all remember Michael, right? The Austrian guy on the farm with us? Yup. He came to visit us and we had a splendid time walking way too far to Augustiner and Stiegl breweries that evening, eating delicious vegetarian Nepalese food, meeting up with another friend of Michael's and going to a bar because of COURSE we hadn't had enough beer yet, and engaging in all sorts of shenanigans, one of which involves me getting stuck in a hotel's revolving door -.-

That silly yellow thing on my finger? That's Kristofferson. He says hello. You don't want to know what he is or where he came from.

Also, when we woke up in the morning, I discovered that somehow a Mozartkugeln (Salburg's famous marzipan chocolate candy ball) had found its way into the bed and I slept on it. Chocolate was everywhere. We couldn't stop laughing. The world had gone mad. :)