Spetmeber 30 - Oct 5th

WOW... WHAT A WEEK!

I don’t think this is going to be short, but let me reassure you that it was one Heck of a time with a ton that happened!

I guess we will start off with the school topic again. Well, I went to Class on Tuesday and Wednesday, and have a couple of tests next week.

Good thing we got the boring stuff out of the way! Now onto the good stuff, OKTOBERFEST!!!

As I am sure you are aware I spent last weekend travelling through Germany simply to enjoy one of the greatest, if not the greatest, festivals of all time! There were 5 of us that were Travelling together: Marc, Javier, Ismael, Daniel, and me. Instead of spending €300+ to fly directly to Munich, we flew to Frankfurt which is about 3.5 hours away by car and very near where our friend Daniel is doing an Exchange program (Wiesbaden). We arrived Thursday evening and Daniel met us at the airport. After about an hour and a half of trains and busses, we made it to his dorm, and old U.S. Military Barracks. We left our luggage there and went to the downtown area to find some authentic German cuisine! We went to a nice little restaurant and all enjoyed cold local beer and some schnitzel. After a lovely dinner, Daniel gave us the grand tour of the whole city at night...cathedrals, Palaces and the famous Casino in Wiesbaden. Apparently it is an area where many wealthy people live just outside of Frankfurt. Touring the city at night gave an interesting perspective, and let’s be realistic here, we wouldn’t have wanted to waste time on Friday when we could be at the Oktoberfest!

Saturday morning we picked up our rental van at about 10:00 a.m and began the drive through Bavaria to get to München (Munich). I was not quite sure what to expect of Germany, being that I had never been there, but the drive through the countryside to get to München was absolutely beautiful. The whole way the basically we had rolling hills covered with trees, pretty little towns along the way, oops and did I mention the Autobahn!!! It is something else driving at 140Km (about 85) and having people BLOWING BY YOU!!! Lots of German cars, BMW, AUDI, MERCEDES, PORSCHE, Etc that were nearly flying!

We arrived in München around 4:00 p.m. and battled through traffic to find the Oktoberfest. We had to ask directions a few times but surprisingly we made it there quite quickly. There was one trick once we got near the Festival, finding a place to park our rental van so that we could sleep in there (NOT PAY FOR A HOTEL, DON´T WASTE MONEY YOU CAN SPEND ON BEER!), without being bothered by traffic or hassled by the Police. We were lucky enough to find an older side street with mature tress and a few motor homes and vans where it looked like people were sleeping.

We had no trouble getting to Oktoberfest from where we parked, it was less than a Kilometer and you just walked to the main road and followed the mass! The first day we kind of walked around and took in all the sight s for a little bit, then tried to get into one of the tents (this being much more difficult than it sounds). We waited at a few of the bigger tents and then decided to go to one that was not as crowded, meaning it wouldn’t take more than an hour of waiting to get in! I can’t remember which tent it was, but we found a side entrance where there were only a few hundred people waiting to get in and waited. I was maybe a little more forceful than my colleagues in line and ended up inside without them. I then begged and pleaded with the bouncer, and talked him into letting them in, they still had to fight there way through the mass and the bouncer had to hold the others off that were ahead of them trying to get in instead! The first night was awesome; we sang and danced until closing enjoying a couple of fine liters of beer. We all had a good time and made it back to the van without any problems. I ended up sleeping in the front seat of the van, where it was a little snug and uncomfortable with the seatbelts and break in the seats, but I would guess better than Ismael who slept on the floor between the front seats and the first row of seats!

We woke up around 8:30a.m and wandered down the street to the Café before going to Oktoberfest, there was some talk about going to buy outfits to wear, but that was shot down and we decided to get to the tents early and get a seat at a table. We decided to go to the Schottenhamel tent which is a tent where many young locals go. We arrived just before 10:00a.m. and the inside of the tent was already full and there was a huge line at the front to try to get seating on the patio. Once again we found an entrance that was a little less crowded and got in after about 15 minutes. We were seated at one of the last empty tables, and luckily we were seated with a few local German guys. They were extremely nice, taught us a few different songs and toasts and we stood on the tables, sang and drank all morning long! We could not have had a better day to sit on the patio; it was sunny with a few scattered clouds and about 18 C. We stayed on the patio from about 10:00 till 3:30 and then decided to go out to ride some roller coasters and have a bite to eat. Whoops, almost forgot, we had the typical grilled chicken at the Schottenhamel tent and it was delicious, moist with a great herb seasoning!

I have to admit I didn’t take part in the Riding of the roller coaters, but the braver Marc, Ismael, and Daniel did. After fooling around for a while it was round two of trying to get inside the tent. We were let back into the beer garden because they had stamped our hands; we then went from entrance to entrance trying to see if there was one that we would be able to get into. Unfortunately we had no luck. To get into the ten you really need a reservation or to be there hours before waiting in line. I saw that the people getting in had little reservation cards and had an idea. At another one of the exits from the beer garden the bouncers were giving out cards instead of hand stamps, they didn’t look the same, reservation cards were white, and exit cards were blue, but hell it was worth a shot. We all took the exit cards, went back to our original entrance used our hand stamps and all made it back in without giving the bouncers the little cards. We then found a door that was only an exit where there was only one other person waiting to try an convince the bouncers to let them in, I would have guessed that she would have had the upper hand because she was female and all the bouncers were all guys, but apparently she was not as prepared as I was! We waited for the bouncer to open the door but nothing happened for a little while, I went up to knock on it and the girl standing there waiting told me not to, blah, blah, blah, but of course I did! The bouncer opened the door, she stepped up and started to talk to him in German, he pushed her back I pulled my card out, started walking in like I was supposed to be in there, waived all my friends in and before the bouncer could really question us we had all shoved our cards in his hands, smiled and walked on by while he held the girl out of the tent!!! Makes me laugh every time I think about it! It was apparent why it was closed to new people, the tent was shoulder to shoulder FULL of people, sitting at tables, standing in the aisle ways, and dancing where there was a little room. As we wandered around I saw some people getting down from a table, promptly went over there asked if we could join the people that remained, and got us a seat at a table right smack in the middle of the ten and close to the band!!! Again we danced, sang, and drank the night away!

We made it back safely Saturday night and again woke up relatively early Sunday morning. Sunday was our day to get back to Frankfurt for our 7:40p.m. flight. We toured downtown München for about an hour and a half then made our way up the road. We stopped on the way at Dachau, one of the main concentrations camps during the second world war. Parts of the camp have been preserved and made into a historical monument. It was a strange feeling being in a place that was truly a beautiful part of the country, with trees and small brooks running near the camp, with such a dark history. The dormitories were meant to hold 200 people and at times the held upward of 2,000 people each. There were rows upon rows of them. You read about people dying in the winters while standing at the role call area, infection, torture, experimental medicine, etc. It made me feel a bit sick to my stomach. After touring the grounds where the prisoners lived and were held, we went to the SS camp which was a mere 500 meters from one of the exits from the camp. It was there that I really started to feel sick. This is where there Gas chambers where built and where the Nazi’s had the crematoriums they used to dispose of the corpse. There was an old crematorium that only had two ovens and a newer one that was built later by to prisoners when the camp grew larger and the other one could no longer keep up with the death toll. It was sickening to see the thought that went into the operation; the whole facility was built like a production line. First, there were three chambers where the prisoners that were going to be gassed clothes were put to be burned. Next, there was a waiting room where all of the prisoners would be gathered before their supposed shower, After that you had the Gas Chamber itself where it looked like a huge shower stall, and then on other room for the bodies to be piled before they were taken to the final room which housed the four ovens they used to cremate the bodies. There are no words to describe the feelings of walking through there, and being in all of the chambers, looking up and seeing the fake shower heads seeing the crematoriums, walking through the gardens behind the building where there were firing lines to execute the campers and now headstones remembering thousands of unknown people that lost their lives at Dachau. After a wild weekend it was a sobering moment, but it was something that I wanted to see, and experience.

Well, on a lighter note we finished our long drive to Frankfurt in extremely heavy traffic, road construction, and poor weather. We had budgeted 5.5 hours for a 3 hour drive and when it came down to it, it was a race against the clock...THE CLOCK WON! We arrived at the Airport at 7:05 for our 7:40 flight and the gal at the counter would not print us boarding passes...we thought of renting a car and driving back, but ended up getting rebooked, thanks to the help of Javier’s Aunt who work for Iberia and her contact with the most senior representative in Frankfurt for Iberia that both pulled some strings and made it work out!

We spent the next day touring Frankfurt, which was not that impressive. It is the business capital of Europe, and is where the European Central Bank it, but apart from that, a few churches and some nice little plazas, I don’t think it is really a touristy vacation spot...I could be wrong didn’t do much reading up before we toured but I was far more impressed with the smaller towns in Bavaria and with München.

Well, I am back safely in Madrid again, I have to go study for a couple tests this week, and get the pictures ready to post...sorry the Italy ones aren’t up yet but they all will be by this weekend. Should be a good weekend, staying home but Domingo’s is coming to visit a friend here and will be staying at my place!

Well as always hope you all enjoyed, wish you could have been here to go on the trip also, and most importantly I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Much Love Always,

Philip