Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the morning

First sights of Oktoberfest

Sat 22-Sep-2001 We took our time in the morning, ate breakfast at our hotel, and sorted out my pack in preparation for the trip home on Monday. We were hoping to get the noon Munich walking tour, but much to our chagrin there wasn't one that day. However, there was a Third Reich walking tour at 2pm, so we decided to take that. In the meantime, we made a brief peek at Oktoberfest in the meantime. My first impression was that it looked like a glorified state fair, but then we saw the beer "tents", if you could call them that.

We got back to the train station to start on the Third Reich tour. The tour started and we got on a tram and the first stop was the Hofbräuhaus, where we learned was where the Nazi party was founded. Then afterwards, we saw the Haus der Kunst; the German Art Museum. Apparently during Nazi times, this building only contained art approved by the Nazis. The flip side, so called "Degenerate" art - or anything non-sensical, abstract or anything considered subversive would earn an artist a visit by the Gestapo. Now, the final irony is that the Haus der Kunst now houses mainly contemporary art, which would probably have Hitler rolling in his grave. Nearby, we saw the Resistance Memorial, which is dedicated to those who resisted the Nazi regime. Our guide then discussed the Order of the White Rose; a collection of students that reported on Nazi atrocities, distributed pamphlets and other things along those lines. After being discovered by authorities, they were rewarded with a beheading. Moving on, we saw the war memorial; dedicated to the war dead of the Munich/Bavarian region, and the (almost cliché) tomb of the unknown soldier. To avert contraversy, the statue for the unknown soldier is that of a WWI soldier. Near the close of our tour was the Square to the Victims of National Socialism, where an eternal flame lies in memory of the victims of the Nazis. After the tour drew to a close, our attention drew to more pressing matters, namely Oktoberfest.

Sights of the Munich third reich tour

Ahhh Oktoberfest... we did not have any idea what we were in for...

Our first (and would turn out to be the only) target was Hofbräuhaus (not to be confused with the Hofbräuhaus outside of Oktoberfest). We got there to find that they closed the doors, shortly before we arrived. Peering inside, we then gazed upon the largest and rowdiest collection of drunks that I have ever seen in my entire life. Gradually, a crowd started to accumulate outside, all in anguish due to being on the other side of a shut and locked door. At one point, a fellow on the other side of the door looked outside, and in a cruel moment, began to mock our pain. He walked up to the door, made a very slow pantomine indicative of drinking a large mug of beer, and nodding his head after a nice drink. Fucking asshole.

Eventually, a barmaid came out and let us in through a back door; apparently a portion of a table opened up and part of the crowd (including our group) was allowed in to occupy that space. We then proceeded to enjoy the revelry that is Oktoberfest, and partake in our share of the pretzels and beer.

I had a very curious drunken discussion with an Austrian fellow that was let in when we got in and was sat adjacent to me. He expressed the somewhat curious and obviously drunken opinion that if it was just the Austrians fighting in WWII, and not the Germans, gestering to a German guy that was across from us, they would have totalled us. The German guy across the bench seemed somewhat anxious with where this conversation could have possibly gone. I'm generally not a very tactful person, particularly after a few beers, but even I figured that a change of conversation was in order. I said something along the lines of "Well... I had family that fought in that war, I'm sure that you all both had family that fought in that war, but that was fifty years ago, and right now, we are here to drink beer!!! PROST!!!"

The German guy seemed quite relieved when I said that.

History does not record how many liters of beer that I drank that night, all I can say is that my gullet would turn out to be a "two way street". I also know that at one point, I backed into a fellow standing on the table next to us, who ended up drenching me in beer when he lost his balance.

Eventually it was time to go, and the three of us set foot to the Hauptbahnof in drunken stupors. Somehow, we made it there but with one major problem: We missed the last train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Undaunted, Corey then pointed at another train, saying that we could take that train. Corey and I boarded that train (Chris did not, but we did not realize this until later). After sitting on that train for a good amount of time, a German fellow on the train asked me where I was going and when I told him that I was going to Garmisch, he informed me that I was on the wrong train. I then woke up Corey (who was simply catatonic) and we got off at Kaufering train station. I prepared for a night sleeping on the station, and Corey walked around aimlessly, much like a zombie. The night turned colder than I thought, so I decided to look for someplace warmer and I ran into a fellow from Texas that attended Oktoberfest. He was going to go back to his hotel, so I decided to tag along with him. I tried to find Corey but he was nowhere to be seen. Since the taxis were no longer running, we had to hitch a ride to the place, in a small city called Landsberg. I ended up getting a room there (the Hotel Goggl). The place was actually quite nice (a three star hotel) and was nicer than anyplace that we stayed at before. Unfortunately, it was more expensive than any place we stayed at, especially when you count the fact that I was also paying for the hotel room back in Garmisch.

Knee deep in the snake pit...

A giftshop in the Munich Hauptbahnof selling American flags in response to September 11th. We Americans owe Europe a very large "Thank You" for their response to that fateful day.

Sun 23-Sep-2001 Got up well rested. No hangover, it pays to puke. However, since my stay in Landsberg was, to say the least, unexpected, I had to wear the same change of clothes, which was doused by a liter of beer the previous evening. I went downstairs to get breakfast, and met up with the Texan I ran into yesterday and his buddies. All of them were at Oktoberfest and I got to hear their misadventures as well. Apparently, they were all Engineers working as guest workers living near Lake Constance, just in the area for Oktoberfest. Their plans were to go back into Munich to get souvenirs but afterwards they were going back to Lake Constance. They kindly gave me a lift to the Hauptbahnof, where I began my quest to sync up with Chris and Corey.

I went across the street from the Hauptbahnof to the internet cafe to send them email. The "24-hour" internet cafe was closed for technical reasons. I started talking to a German standing outside, he expressed his condolenses about New York and talked about what in his words was the special link that Germany in particular has with the US. After I asked him what he was referring to, he talked about our actions after the Second World War and the Berlin airlift. The support that we (as in Americans) are getting over here is amazing. Then I went to another internet cafe and sent the others email. I decided that I had two options; go back to Garmisch or to hang around the Hauptbahnof. I took the latter option, and I ended up spending the next several hours just walking aroud, aimlessly.

Around 4pm, I ran into both Chris and Corey getting off a train. We then recounted our stories to each other. It turns out that Corey completely blacked out; the last thing he remembered was drinking beers at the Hofbräuhaus, and the next thing he remembered was waking up on a completely random train in the middle of Bavaria (mind you, not the train that he and I were on). On the other hand, Chris had the good sense to not get on the train that Corey and I got on (he actually had no idea where we went), and he ended up camping out all night at the Hauptbahnof, and was woken up by German police cleaning out drunks that did the same thing. Both ended up going back to Garmisch in the morning and slept all morning, and were wondering where I ended up.

With us all together, we went back to Oktoberfest. At first, we did not go to the beer halls; we just did the fair-type stuff. First time I saw a flea circus. Eventually, we did go to a beer house; this time the Augustinerhaus. It was pretty quiet when compared with yesterday, and we decided to take it easy (I only had two liters). Since we would have to get up early tomorrow to catch the plane, we couldn't afford another mishap. Around 9:30pm, we went to the train station and we were back at Garmisch at 11:30pm.

A tamer night at Oktoberfest (i.e. - no hopping random trains) at the Augustinerhaus

A very weird thing happened on the walk from the Garmisch train station to the Hotel; a police car pulled up along side me as we were walking, and the officer greeted me with a "Guten Tag". After I replying with "Ich nich sprechen sie Deutch", she said something and just drove off. Puzzling.

Mon 24-Sep-2001 Got up at 6am, and walked off to the train station. Took the train to the Munich Hauptbahnof and on to Munich Airport. We got to witness first hand the new security involved in the airport; we had to go through three different checkpoints and were patted down, had our carry ons searched. The security reminded me of when I went through Secret Service checkpoints when I saw Clinton speak five years ago.

The odd thing is that Chris accidently packed his utility knife with his carry on (doh!), and they caught him and he was told that he would have to check it in. Oddly, they neither confiscated the knife nor did they escort him back; he said that if he wanted to, he could have just walked to the gate area rather than check in his knife.

The flight was nearly empty, which was nice because we all had all the room that we wanted, and we arrived in Philadelphia around 4pm. Customs wasn't much of a problem, and we got back to Syracuse around 7:30pm. I didn't go to watch wrestling that night like we were originally planning; I was simply quite exhausted.