Return to Riga

Day 195
I woke up around 6 am. It was so incredibly cold that I couldn’t sleep any longer. Apparently sleeping in a tent in September is not such a hot idea. After grabbing breakfast and packing up I headed into the city center. I made a quick stop at the post office before heading back to an internet cafe. I still had loads more blogging to do and I wanted to get as far as possible before my flight.

I can’t stand middle of the day flights. I would rather they be early in the morning or late at night. A 2pm flight just sucks away the whole day, plus I was working with a time change that further stole away the day.

The flight was fine, not a bit of a bump the whole way. In fact, I think that I slept through most of it. When I got to Riga I knew just what bus to take and how to find my hostel. At one point though I thought that I had missed my stop and got myself together to get off at the next one. Luckily, the next one was my stop after all!

By the time I reached Franks it was time for dinner. I went out and found the Hesburger. There was a publ crawl that evening at the hostel but I decided to skip it. There wasn’t a very large group and I still can’t get the crappy pub crawl in Rome out of my head. After writing in my journal I simply called it a night.

Beeeerrrr

Day 194
I woke up later than I had hoped. I was definitely feeling the day before. I decided to not go to the second parade and took a break while Karen headed out.

At noon we headed over to see if we could get into a tent. This was impossible without a reservation the night before. The tents were fabulous. If I ever come back I will definitely be reserving a spot in one of them.

Everything opens up at 10 am. There had only been two drinking hours when we got there. Still, there were some incredibly drunk people around. One guy was trying to eat a pretzel and could chew just fine, he just didn’t have the swallowing part down and it was all over his shirt. Other people were being held up by their slightly more sober friends. All of this after only 2 hours.

We decided against squeezing in and just checked out all of the tents. We then went for one last lunch at a much less crowded beer hall. Afterwards we grabbed our stuff from the hotel and then headed to the train station. This is where we said goodbye. Karen was headed to Vienna to visit family and I had one more night here and needed to get to my hostel. It was sad saying goodbye, it had been so much fun to reconnect with a friend. But, I must keep traveling on.

After dropping my stuff off at the Tent, the same hostel I stayed at when I was here 6 years ago, I headed back downtown. I had a lot of blogging to catch up on and spent the evening doing that. When the internet cafe closed down I headed back to my hostel.

The tram was full of extremely drunk people. At the hostel’s stop there were guys from the Tent standing around to help the severely inebriated.

I had just enough time to grab a beer before they shut the bar for the night, I was the last person they served. I sat down and read my book for a bit. After about 15 minutes a very drunk Aussie came over and asked me if he could have a beer. It took me a minute to decipher his slurred accent and to realize he thought that I worked there. As I was translating drunk Australian he started saying beeer very slowly and pretending to drink. I tried not to laugh as I said the bar is closed and I don’t work here in a clear American accent.

It was too cold to hang outside very long though and I went to bed quite early.

Beertopia

Day 193

The alarm went off at 8 and we were quick to get ready. We had to find a spot to watch the parade from quickly. I'm glad that we got there early as well. Today was the first day of Oktoberfest.

About 150 years ago the kings son (I think) was getting married so he threw a big party and invited everyone. It was so much fun that they decided to do it every year. The parade was pretty good, I took loads of pictures and some videos. Each of the different breweries had horse drawn wagons with beer barrels on them. I think they were bringing the beer. These were followed by a cart full of people drinking beer. At 10 am that was pretty adventurous.

There were several marching bands. The cutest was a group of kids dressed up as toy soldiers. I just wonder if kids should really be involved in a festival about drinking.

Once the parade was over we headed to the tents and somehow managed to get a seat next to some French guys. We were drinking Spaten. The whole thing was just nuts. Right from the beginning (about noon) people were acting crazy. The only people who seemed to not be enjoying themselves were two older Asian woman who split a beer between themselves. I was amazed at how many people were wearing lederhosen and traditional dresses. Not only were Germans dressing up but I heard plenty of other accents wearing costumes as well.

Karen and I spent most of our time talking to the French guys, Daimeon and Bertram, as well as some Italians at the other side of the table. When we were done with beer for the evening we headed back to the hotel, both tired, but excited to have been part of Oktoberfest.

Modern View

Day 192

I woke up before jet lagged Karen and headed downstairs to get some breakfast, it wasn't long before Karen came down as well. After organizing ourselves, well, Karen organized, I shoved my stuff in a pile in the corner. My bag just vomits every where whenever I open it and I can't do the repack several times a day, that would be all I ever did!

We headed off to the Museum of Modern Art. I had been in Munich 6 years ago but had not been here. This could have been because it was completed in 2002, it might have not even been here.The museum was much like the other modern ones I've been too. There was a selection of furniture, grotesque pictures, strange movies and some Picasso's. I'm not a huge modern art fan, I really just don't get it. Despite this there were some interesting things to look at. I quite liked the odd neon lights. I don't know if that was really art, but it made for a fun picture.

After the museum we did a bit of shopping. I had been freezing cold in Eastern Europe and had to get a winter coat before returning. Luckily I found a cute one that wasn't to expensive very easily. Staying with the beer and German food trend from the night before we headed to the Augustiner beer hall for dinner. We sat next to this odd woman who told us that she was Arabian, but had been living in Colorado. We both thought she meant Saudi Arabia. She then said no, beneath there. I asked if she was from Oman or Yemen. She seemed a bit surprised and replied Oman, I told her that I had been to Muscat and Nizwa. She then told us that she lived in Egypt. I think she was very confused.

Tonight had to be an early night, there was a long and early day ahead of us.

Reunions

Day 191
It was time to put Eastern Europe on hold for a few days and head back to Germany. I was headed to Munich to meet up with one of my former co-workers, Karen. We were going to Oktoberfest!The bus ride to the airport was a bit odd. I couldn't figure out how to buy a ticket so I just got on. Then a woman approached me, I thought, crap I'm gonna get fined. At closer inspection I saw that she had tickets pinned to her sweater and that I was meant to buy one from her. She seemed to stand there patiently while I figured this all out.

At the airport I got some food and went through security. They second they saw the American passport I got the pat-down treatment. I don't really care though, as long as they let me through!By the time I actually got to Munich it was just about time for dinner due to the time change.

Karen was already at the hotel room waiting for me. It was really fabulous to get to spend a few days with one of my New York friends.We headed straight out to the place you have to go to in Munich, the Hofbrauhaus.

After some good beer and German food we tried to do a bit of shopping, but there wasn't really much time left for that. We finished the night off at the hotel bar. I gave Karen some of the behind the blog secrets (don't worry, nothing juicy) and she updated me on the work front.