Jess has a lot of beer and sleeps with 200 people – Munich

Well despite having my wallet stolen, Munich was a lot of fun! Well I should really say Oktoberfest was a lot of fun, since I really didn’t see anything of Munich other than the Theriesenwiesen (that’d be the Oktoberfest grounds), and my hostel, The Tent. I planned to.. but despite staying an extra night due to previously discussed incidents (i.e. my wallet being stolen, and needing to wait for my mastercard to arrive), I didn’t!

So to start out I’ll explain my hostel: it was a giant tent (at a campground with personal tents too) with about 200 bunks in it. So, yes, one of my roommates probably stole my wallet (from out from under my bed while I went to the bathroom in the night. My own stupid fault? Partially.)… but they also do a campfire every night (unless it rains! Which it did 2 of the nights I was there), and a delicious breakfast (you pay for what you take), and the price was super low. But.. it was colder than I had planned! They gave me 3 big thick wool blankets, and despite the tent being “heated” (Giant tents don’t take too well to piped in heat), I slept in about 10 layers of clothes, including my coat and gloves. But… it had a great atmosphere, and it was easy to meet people!

On my first night I planned to have a tea at the campifre and then go to sleep (ridiculously early – note, at this point I was ridiculously sick), but then I met some cool people and ended up staying at the campfire for another 4 hours or so!

Monday morning I felt decent enough to head to the tents. (The Oktoberfest tents that is!), and I tried to meet up witha couple of girls I had met in London or my Couchsurfing meetup, which were arranged fgor the same time and same place. Instead… I ended up alone (some confusion here or there I think!), so I bravely headed to the Hofbrau tent (not to be confused with the Hofbrau beergarden which is around year-round in Munich), which I had heard was the “crazy tourist tent”, and I hoped to see people I knew!

I nearly immediately found people, 2 American guys and a group of Aussies I had met at The Tent (hostel)… and ended up hanging around with them, 2 Italians, a Belgian, 2 guys actually from Munich (who were the most extreme guys I had pretty much ever met, and preceded anything they said – especially Prost (“Cheers”) with “Mother£$%ing”), and a Kenyan (who I most definitely sang the song “Where can you find lions? Only in Kenya” to).

Tuesday my Couchsurfing meetup succeeded (due to good prior planning), and I met up with Carlos from Mexico and Dimago from Israel, and we hit the Lowenbrau tent (with a giant lion that roared “LOWENBRAU” outside), and then the Paulaner tent where we sat with a bunch of cool Germans around our age. Dimago suddenly became a magician, with some very impressive tricks (like he “loses” a coin and it appears under somebody else’s watch band)… and afterwards it was seeing the fest outside the tents – playing some games, eating some soft ice cream…. but not going on any rides!

Wednesday was D-day. Or Day of Death, when I discovered my wallet was taken and dealt with it all day.

Thursday though, instead of moving on to my next location, I was waiting for my mastercard. Luckily, there were 2 Aussie guys, Matt & Lloyd, at the Tent that I had met back in Berlin, so I decided to follow them I mean join them at the Fest. We did a bit of tent hopping, a bit of food eating, and then met up with some other Aussies, after which I promptly got lost, and met some nice Americans as well.

Hm.. other than the celebrations, not too much in Munich. Not even for the eating part! I had soft ice cream from the fest pretty much every day, but my appetite was so off (note: I was sick the entire time I was in Munich), I didn’t really have dinner, other than some awesome “happy pig stew” I had back at The Tent (hostel)… sausages and fish sandwiches (apparently the core of the Oktoberfest diet) really didn’t have any appeal… so I didn’t eat them.

But… no worries…. I won’t waste away, because I’ve made it to Italy, where the food is as good as they say. Stay tuned for more of me talking about the food. Next episode: Venice.