Munich – Rain, Robbie Williams and Wombat thievery

If you had said to me before I left Australia that sometime in the next six months I would drive 300km through pouring rain to drink beer while listening to Robbie Williams songs being sung by a 14 piece polka band and end the day almost getting into a fight with a drunk Frenchman then I would have said to you, “you sir are crazy!”.  However...

Let’s make one thing clear straight up.  We did not plan to go to Oktoberfest.  Oktoberfest, I thought, will be full of drunk foreigners, especially Australians, and given that I don’t drink, and Tash doesn’t drink much the idea didn’t really appeal.  However, we did want to see Munich and we really wanted to catch up with Alex and Clafre, our friends who were there.  Alex is German and went to University in Munich, so he’s an old hand at the whole Oktoberfest thing.

  So off we went.  Firstly, accommodation was impossible.  Especially with the car.  So we ended up staying over 100km away.  No big deal, not with autobahns most of the way.  Except for the torrential rain that made driving something of a case of ‘point car straight, avoid the large black blurry things speeding past, hope you don’t have to brake suddenly’.  This is why Tash does the driving!  Anyway, we decided that although we only had a day in Munich we wanted to see a little bit of the city, which we tried to do.  After spending a few hours wandering around the sights in the rain we got sick of it and met up with Alex and Claire instead.  Alex organised us with typical German efficiency and after feeding us ham, cheese, bread and lebkuchen, off we went to Oktoberfest.   The next battle was getting into one of the beer halls.  Inside was raucous German singing.  Outside, lots of miserable wet English and Americans trying to argue their way past security.  It took a bit of negotiation, a bit of patience and a bit of running in the door while the security guard was dealing with an unruly punter but we got in eventually.  It’s strange, as it is just like the clichés in one sense.  There are hundreds of Germans (mostly Germans, despite what I had expected �" the foreigners were mostly stuck outside, hanging around together in one of the other halls or scared away quickly) wearing Lederhosen and dirndl dresses,  singing, drinking huge beers (or shandies, which are totally acceptable here) and listening to polka music.   The bands play almost non stop for hours.  Some might consider it their personal version of hell but it’s awesome fun.  Seriously, I just wish I a) knew the words and b) liked beer and I would have enjoyed it.  If I ever need a career change, I’m joining a polka band.  Especially as they throw the odd Robbie Williams song or 80s classic (obviously 99 luftballoons!) in as well.  It’s funny how Munich, supposedly one of the most stylish cities in Europe, is quite happy to don the Lederhosen and get traditional at the drop of a hat.  Mind you we noticed the odd concession to modern living with one of the guys near us snorting cocaine off a nearby lady’s cleavage...     

Oh yes, as we were leaving there was a small incident with a drunk Frenchman who snatched my toy wombat (our travel mascot!) out of my hands and ran off.

  I had suspected something like this would happen and chased him, and I must have looked mean as he stopped, gave the wombat back and started apologising profusely in a variety of languages (or possibly just babbling because he was drunk) and hugging me.  I’m glad he did this.  Firstly, he had friends with him so I don’t think I would have done well in a fight and secondly there were cops everywhere and I don’t know how to say “he stole my wombat” as explanation for fighting.  It would have been embarrassing. Anyway, the wombat was restored to our possession, the Frenchman and I made friends and everyone parted on good company. 

Alas we couldn’t stay long: the downside of having a hotel 100 odd km away, so we returned along the autobahn.  Lots of fun though! 

And that was it for Germany.  We’d been in and out of the country a grand total of 7 times on our journey up to this point, so it was a momentous occasion.  Next: Switzerland...