We were sad to see our time in Croatia end, but we were looking forward to the next leg of our trip as we were meeting up with our friends Michelle and Daniel. Our Airbnb host drove us to the bus stop bright and early so we could catch a bus to the Split airport which ended up being 25 minutes out of the city center. We got the last seats on the bus and ended up getting to the airport too early to even check in for our flight. But seeing as things had seemed to run a little late in Croatia thus far, we decided to give ourselves some extra time.
Our flight from Split to Salzburg was just over an hour. Check in and check out went smoothly and we arrived at our hostel pretty quickly after landing. Even though we only had one night in Salzburg, we felt we made the most of it! We stayed in a 4-bed hostel room with a couple from Australia although we didn’t spend much time there. We checked in early afternoon and after settling, immediately headed into the center of the city. The streets were quaint, clean, not too crowded, and had quite a bit of construction going on. We lucked out and it wasn’t raining so we got some pretty views of the hills, and bridges. We got some Pho (one of the cheaper options), walked across the bridge with locks, and watched the sunset from Kapuzinerberg park. We were also stopped by a guy from Algeria while walking in the park who asked Al to take a picture for him and send it to him since his phone had died. So now Al has some nice pictures of his friend Doghmani from Algeria.
The next morning, we took a bus to Untersberg mountain and took the cable car to the top. We figured this was a quick way to see a lot of Austria. The views from the top were beautiful and you could even see parts of the alps. We hiked a bit to another peak, ate some snacks, and then took the cable car back down. We then went back to our hostel, grabbed our things, and caught our train to Munich. Had we had more time in Salzburg, we probably would’ve done a walking tour and I would’ve been interested in seeing more of the Sound of Music sites since it was filmed in Salzburg. But for the time being, we feel we got a good grasp of the city and culture.
Our train ride to Munich was short and sweet. Pretty much the entire way, people bombarded the train in Oktoberfest clothing. Al and I stuck out because we were in normal clothes. It felt like we were in another time period. So once we arrived at the main train station in Munich we immediately searched for our own Oktoberfest apparel. Since all the outfits we saw in Salzburg were between 100-200 Euro (which we weren’t willing to pay) we had researched and read that there were stands in the train station. We found one pretty quickly and within 20 minutes, Al had some lederhosen and I had a drindl. We made our way to our hotel, which was around 25 minutes outside the city (hotels were super expensive and sold out due to Oktoberfest) but we managed to get free breakfast out of it which was nice. We settled in and then walked to a nearby restaurant and grabbed some food to go and we took it back to our room and ate. We played cards for a while as we waited for Daniel and Michelle to arrive. Seeing as we had spent over a month of 24-7 time together, Al and I were looking forward to having some outside company and some close friends join us.
After staying up late catching up, we woke up the next morning and decided to head to Oktoberfest! I didn’t know much about the festival or what to expect but boy were we blown away! On the way, Michelle and Daniel stopped and got traditional clothing so we all looked the part. We arrived mid afternoon and were overwhelmed as the venue was quite large. There were tons of vendor stands selling rotisserie chickens and sausages, decorative gingerbread Oktoberfest cookies (we tried one and they weren’t very good), pretzel stands, popcorn stands, carnival rides, bier gardens and several big beer tents. The only name we had heard of beforehand was Hofbräuhaus so we went there first and were immediately taken to seats by a waitress and delivered a round of beers. Supposedly we came at an ideal time (3 PM) - the morning drinkers are all wasted and leave but the people who work aren’t off work yet. Walking into the tent felt slightly like walking into Hogwart’s Great Hall with long rows of tables, people dressed up, and a live band playing. The ambiance was so fun with tables and tables of people, locals & foreigners, standing on tables and chugging beer, singing, chanting. There were ladies walking around selling pretzels, cookies, pizza, kind of like in a sports arena. They also sold this white, cocaine-looking powder which we later learned was something like a smelling salt that supposedly helps you “sober up”. We also saw some of the table waitresses carry up to eight beers at a time - and the beers only come in 1 Liter mugs so they were heavy! We learned that these waitresses actually purchase the beer with their own money and then sell it to the people at the tables for a slight profit. So a waitress carrying eight beers has about 100 Euros in her arms and won’t hesitate to boot you out of her way if you’re drunk and oblivious. We made friends with the other people at our table, three older German guys who Michelle primarily communicated with since she can speak German and then three American guys around our age from Pittsburgh. We had our seats until 3 PM since they were reserved after that point and so we went and walked around for a while and grabbed some food which of course was overpriced but delicious in the moment. As a group, we agreed to go back into the tents for one more beer, but somehow we got lucky and found seats (it got very crowded) and we managed to stay for a couple more rounds and didn’t leave until 10 PM. We aren’t quite sure how time passed so quickly and how so much money was spent, but we all agreed the experience itself was so worth it! It was a blast and none of us got injured or lost so we considered this a win! (Except for Al’s GoPro housing, it fell out of his lederhosen while he was dancing and the plastic tabs broke off.)
The next morning, we got up (a slight struggle after the previous day’s beer intake) and did a walking tour of Munich. It ended up being more about the German culture and history of Oktoberfest rather than history of the city itself but we still learned some interesting facts: In past times, women were the brewers of beer and wore pointy hats (like in witch costumes) to designate themselves as beer sellers. Over time, men took over and saw these women brewers (who often had cats and used cauldrons to brew their beer) as evil and tried to push them out of the brewing business. Interestingly, this is how the image of the “witch” originated. We also learned it takes three or so months to build all the tents and that Oktoberfest started as a festival celebrating the wedding of German Prince Ludwig, who got married in October. The celebration included horse races and later an agricultural component, and of course beer. Over time, the only thing that stuck was the beer drinking. Oktoberfest this year is expected to see around 7.5 million visitors! Wowzah! A couple other fun facts - women wear Drindl dresses (check photos) and you are supposed to tie the apron on the right if you are married and to the left if you are single, this is how men are supposed to know your status. You must also make eye contact as you clink your glass and say “Prost” (Cheers in German) or else they say you will have seven years of bad sex. During our walking tour, we ended up running into a couple of my past co-workers at AMN twice while walking around the city which was pretty coincidental. We had a low key last night in Munich going back to our dinner spot from the first night and packing up as we were leaving for Switzerland the next morning. As a group, we vowed to come back to Oktoberfest again in 35 years (We learned the older German guys had their same lederhosen for 35 years) with our same outfits. Here’s hoping they will still fit! Prost!
On to Switzerland!