Munich, Germany (Oktoberfest)

Day 63

Maria decided to join me in Munich for Oktoberfest. Random last minute decision but it's going to be good. We headed to the central is station to catch our bus to Munich. The ride took about 8 hours. The only time the bus stopped was to change drivers which was literally 2 minutes. It was so costrophobic-. 

First stop at Munich was to hunt down food. It was 8pm when we arrived. We were so hungry because it has been so long since we last ate. We shuffled down a doner kebab so quick that our belly was hurting at the end. Once full, it was time to figure our way to the campsite. Maria actually had no accommodation booked and plan to wing it. I knew I had the tent to myself on the first night and offer to let her stay in there. It took a while to figure out how to get her into the Campsite but I eventually figured out a way to smuggle her in. 

It was freezing but being in nature brings such a relaxing feel and especially being disconnected from the world. It was so peaceful. We bought ourselves beer and chilled on a log until we were adopted by these fellow Australian. They invited us back to their Jack Sparrow van. Maria and I looked at each other and said why not? So we followed. Majority of them was already drunk but I guess we could live with some drunken entertainment. 

Stevo from Sydney was probably the most sober one. He was actually quite interesting. The rest was just being idiotic drunk which is always a laugh for me. Stevo has a van that he has been using for the past few months road tripping. He has definitely inspired me to go see Europe by driving. I have heard numerous times its the only way to see the best of Europe 

Day 64

I ditched day 1 of my Bus-a-bout tour. There wasn't much going on, only an introduction to Munich. Maria and I followed Stevo to this so called 100 Club. Apparently it's this game that the Kiwis and Aussie has come up with. It happens annually on the Friday before Oktoberfest begins. It is unofficial and underground. Each year the location is changed. There was even a coach running to the undisclosed place. Best way to make a quick 5 euro per person. 

I was told it is called the 100 club because you need to take 100 shots in 100 minutes. How it works; Daring Aussies and Kiwis will participate. They all sit in a circle. Every minute they would need to drink a shot of beer however that is not the only thing they drink. The winners from last year will b the judges. As a judge you can make any rule up you like. I heard last year guys had to drink urine, vomit, public hair beer and anything they could come up with. It sounds so disgusting but I decided to come along and see how idiotic they can get.

This years locating was at a different camp site. I was told it is usually at an abandoned field and it normally commences at noon. We arrived at the other camp site and was told by word of mouth that it was happening at 2pm. We made ourselves comfortable with wine & beers to kill time. 

We arrived early but still managed to be late. It started and all the participants downs a whole bottle of beer and 25 push ups. There was so many funnels going around. I see one judge shaving his beard into one if them mixing it with beer. I watched them randomly select a participant to drink it. There was a girl keeping track of time and every minute that passes by she would bang two pots together. It means a shot if beer needs to be drank. The more I watched it got more disgusting but at the same time hilarious to watch. Judges were cracking raw eggs into their mouths. The worse was seeing the judges feed them dog food. They had no choice by to eat it otherwise you are out. It's kind of like the last man standing. 

One of the judge does his toilet business (number 1) in a funnel again mixed with beer. He actually takes a big sip of it before passing it onto the guys. It was super disgusting and I cringed so hard. The first participant throws up and onto his poor friend. In order to stay in the game he needs to drink his own spew. It was disgusting. Then one if the judge puts his fingers down his throat and into the funnel it goes. Another disgusting moment. Beer was poured on their heads, flour thrown at them and even tomato sauce. Whoever came up with this needs to be sent to a mental hospital. 

20 minutes into it the Police arrives and of course they were trying to control it. However if you think about it, there's nothing illegal about this. It's just a bunch of people playing a idiotic game. The commander asked us all to leave and to stop otherwise we will be asked to leave Munich. It didn't stopped them and they continued. We watched for another 10 minutes and decided to get out if here. We didn't want to get arrested. When we left there was about 10 police vans outside. This shit just got real. 

We trained it back to our campsite and chilled the rest it the night. The opening is tomorrow and the site was getting very busy. We needed to be awake at 5:30am the next day. Apparently getting there super early is the only way you could get a seat. It was so hard to sleep because everyone was so loud and it was freezing. 

Day 65

One of the crew from Busabout was screaming wake up in a high pitch voice at 5:30am. Is she serious? It was continuous and the most dreadful thing you could hear. Buses were taking us out to the festival grounds at 6:45am and breakfast was already being served. Simply a roll of bread, half a sausage and scrambled egg. At least they had coffee. I managed to pull off my wristband and passed it to maria to score her free breakfast. 

They were strict on letting people on the bus, so Maria & Steve headed to the trains. I knew straight away we would not find each other because non of us had any form of cell signals. it was 7:20am when we arrived and the whole Busabout headed to the Luwen? tent. The doors don't open till 9am but we need to be quick smart. As soon as the door opens we needed to grab as much table as we could. I an totally not a line person. I ditched them and went to a local coffee shop to chill. I came back at 8:30am which was perfect timing. They started to let people through. 

I was actually with my tent buddy Stef that I met one month ago in Valencia. She's a sweet petite girl but I really have known her for all up less that 24 hours. Within the first hour of waiting in line I already know that its everyman for himself. She may have thought I walked away but I didn't and saw(undisclosed) .I don't know whether this has come with age or the things I have seen in life but I am very wary of everything. One thing I know for sure is the passed 7 years working in the Casino industry has opened my eyes to many things. You have to be in it to understand.

Our Busabout crew managed to be let in before the doors open and secured an area but we still needed to race in there and bagged the spot.  The door opened and everyone raced in. It almost felt like everybody was running for their life. Luckily it was only 2 of us which made it easy to join any table. We sat down with some unknown Busabout people and in an instant we pretty much became family. It was 9am and no alcohol will be served until noon or well at least till the first keg has been tapped by the Mayor. The whole tent was already packed except for the reserved tables. How to kill three hours? We bought some cards to play with and to find out they aren't your normal playing cards. They had different type of pattern and the cards start from number 6. We came up with all these silly games to play with.

The wait is finally over. I assume the major has ready tapped the first keg because a marching band came inside the tent and went straight to the stage. The band settled in and German music started playing. The Germans on stage gave a toast and everybody cheered. Within an instant all the waiters started taking orders and numerous steins of beer started coming out. These female waitress are not to be messed with. They can carry up to twelve steins at once. You wouldn't want to mess with them. Don't get in their way because they will just knock you out with the steins. I encountered it a few times. I wouldn't want to be their husband.

The first round of orders for beer took a while. We were told that it would be wise to tip the ladies on our first order. This will make them happy and make us happy. The whole table tipped our waiter at least half of the bill. This definitely made her happy because she was super accommodating to us throughout the day. She kept on coming back to see whether we required any more beers or food. Throughout the day we had gutsy people tackle the whole 1L stein all at once. The tradition was, you would stand up on the bench, the music will stop and all attention on you. If you succeed you get a round of applause and if you fail, you get a roady boo. You are also suppose to pour the left over beer over your head.

As more alcohol was consumed the more friendly everyone got. I was only half way through my second stein and found myself dancing on the bench rather than sitting on it. The music kept on playing and time after time they would play the famous german drinking song. If you were sober, you could see the whole place was in chaos with the rush of beers needing to be serves. I don't know how I agreed to this but I was on my third stein. This was only about 4pm and everyone was now half way into silliness. Well at least I knew I was. I was now jumping on the bench rather than standing on it. People was coming up with so many silly ways to consume their beer. One even used their shoe as a class. It actually felt good to be silly and not be judged.

I finished my third stein of beer. This would be the record of beer consumed at once in my whole life. At this point you could see many people swaying and at the tip of being drunk. I was most likely getting to that point. I could already vision myself suddenly hitting rock bottom. I needed to get outside and go for a walk. I picked up my backpack and snuck out without anyone seeing me. I had no idea where I was heading too. WOW! Outside was like a big kids amusement park. Big kids meaning all ages including elderly. This festival has just gone up a level for me. Where on earth would you find a 60 year old going on a ride?

OK. I need to get back to staying focus and sober. I ended up at a street with free wifi. Maria was online. We were reunited. I was kind of glad to be around someone my age. I spent the whole day drinking with the young ones and I could not keep up with them. Maria lost Steve. Apparently she decided to go for a walk while they were already seated in the tent. She was refused reentry so she spent the whole day walking around. We walked around for a few more hours and decided we would come back tomorrow and be big kids. Somehow we ended up on the bumper cars. This was probably one of the best bumper car rides I have ever been on. Everyone was aggressive but friendly at the same time. These boys started stealing out beanies off our head. We ended up with half our bodies leaning out of the car to trying to retrieve it.

We got back to the camp site at about midnight. Steve was no where to be found. We thought he would at least be back already. Maria and I had no form of contact for him. All Maria's things are in his van. This is a very bad sign. I didn't know what to do because I now have a tent bud. This was a very bad sign. In the end Maria decided to sleep in the showers and hope for Steve to eventually be back. At this point I felt really bad and didn't know what to do or say. The only thing I could offer her was my spare blanket. I wanted to stay up with her but I was too exhausted myself.

Day 66

I woke up this morning and straight away went searching for Maria. I checked Steve's van and found her sleeping in the front. It was 7:30 and way to early for me to start my day. Most of the Busabout people was ready to tackle the last day of this tour. These young kids are guns. I could not do this two days straight. My tent buddy never made it back either which had me worrying a little. I had her wallet with me. Knowing that Maria was safe I went back to sleep. 

At about 9am, Maria came to wake me up and to tell me about Steve. I was too drowsy to understand her. We agreed to meet at the van later on. I don't understand how it can be freezing cold at night in the tent but extremely hot during the day. I got up and ready myself. I struggled to find Maria for a whole entire hour. The whole camp place was now deserted. I decided to leave a note on Steve's van for Maria to meet her later on. I asked the German boys that was camping next to Steve whether they have seen Maria. They said yes, isn't that her in the front. OMG! All this time she was sleeping in the van and I was stupid enough just to walk pass it and not thoroughly walk towards the can to find her. 

Reunited, we made out way towards the city square, Marienplatz?. This place was amazing and old at the same time. It was Sunday and everything was closed but that didn't kill our spirit. We were entertained with the never ending buskers and the old buildings. I was super impressed by a group of buskers. They actually had a grand piano out on the street, with a violinist, chailo?, ? and ?. They were playing old classic music which once again touches my heart. I am in love with Munich and I much prefer it over Berlin. I prefer old over new. 

We didn't really do much. We walked around and stopped constantly to sit but it was perfect. We stopped by the festival grounds for a little but couldn't help ourselves in not eating. We wanted to eat everything. I love this festival. It was entertaining watching the drunks pass out around the festival grounds. I am just glad I am not one of them. I have had a few times passing out at home where I would tell my friends to go away and leave me to sleep on this random grass or footpath. Ahhhh! Those were my younger days. 

We met up with my tent buddy at 6pm as she had no plans for the day. It was her birthday and it must be hard not having your love ones close by. She needed a good night but I couldn't offer it to her. I was anti alcohol at this point. We headed back to the festival once it was dark. It is actually prettier at night with all the lights on. We went on a few rides and took countless photos. After a couple of hours we separated. Stef had to go return something. Maria and I stopped by the local Mcdonals to use the free wifi. Two Turkish men joined our table. It was peaceful at the start where we were doing our own thing. Long story cut short, in the end I was almost at the point of knocking one out. My mother has taught me as a little kid that these men don't allow women to speak up. They like to be in control of everything. Mum has experienced this first hand when she was working at dad's pizzeria. I know too have witnessed it first hand. It's a pity how a grown man can handle their own jokes but not a joke from a woman. Maybe because we are way better than them when making a joke?

We eventually made our way back to the campsite. Steve was recovering from the pervious night. We ended up putting on a movie to watch to mellow down. It was a zombie movie which I dislike. I only realised it after 30 minutes into it. I think zombies are the worse thing us human has come up with. It is totally ridiculous. I decided to leave and call it a night. There was no way I was going to continue watching it. 

Day 67

The 3 night camping tour with Busabout was up. The whole place was a mess with sleeping bags & air mattress all piled up. It looked like a giant mountain. The party was over and everyone was on their way to their next chapter. I was staying an extra night. I wanted to have at least one day to see Munich before I continued with my journey. 

Maria had decided to come to Sicily with me too. She booked the same flight as me. It is a pleasure to have someone around for a long period of time. Sometimes it sucks to meet someone for a day and then having to say goodbye the next. She was finishing off the portrait of Steve on his van. I didn't want to hang around and opted to meet her in the city centre. 

It was monday which means shops were open. There was a market right outside the station. There was so many people around chilling and eating. It was amazing to see the butchers not only offering fresh meat to purchase but they would cook it for you too. The same at the seafood shop. There was countless bakeries, cheese stall and antipasti store. It was a beautiful day. I finally met up with Maria and we decided to have a picnic. We headed back to the market to buy some cheese and antipasti things. Wine seemed a little expensive here so we chose to buy beers instead. 

We found ourselves at a park surrounded with buildings. It was like a patch of green in the middle of the city. Large group of people was here napping. The Germans do know how to enjoy life. Here we settled ourselves for the next few hours and enjoyed the sun. We talked about anything and everything. We ended up speaking to these drunk Italian men. They were here for Oktoberfest. It's amusing to me to see ourselves struggle to communicate but it was something I enjoyed too. They were heavily intoxicated but in an appropriate way. We all decided to meet later on and do something. 

Maria and I really had no plans. We went to buy coffee and dessert. Again we found ourselves back to that park. It was now out new best friend. It also had free wifi which made it easier to stay. We met up with the Italians as headed towards Hofbrauhaus. A world famous brewery house. We weren't hungry but it was out last night in Germany and we needed to German ourselves up one last time. The Italians ended up paying for us. I guess this is the perks of being a woman. We walked around the city one last time and then bided farewell to them. They were nice people. We couldn't tell what their intentions was though. We exchanged details and would definitely hit them up if we were ever traveling to their city. 

Day 68

Today we head to Sicily. We took out time to the airport. We said goodbye to Steve. He told us he was planning to dump his van in Paris once his ready to go home. I reassured him again that we were interested in his van if he was really planning on dumping it. Maria and I had been scheming this for the last few days. Anit we dodgey? He was a nice guy in the end and I do think we can be friends for a long time. 

We stopped by the city one last time. Maria had to do a few things. She abandoned me with all our bags at our best friends place aka that park. It was so peaceful. It's a pity we needed to leave today. I could again stay in this park forever. It is now time to head to he airport. 

I will see you all in Sicily!

Ciao!

xo 

Calafati