Oktoberfest in Munich

Oct 4th, 2008

Got here in Munich and to the hotel around 5 yesterday. Pawan and his friend david were here shortly thereafter. We headed out to Oktoberfest with a lot of anticipation, and as we approached the grounds, it was one huge fair. People in the traditional Bavarian dresses, roller coasters, food and of course, beer. David quickly guided us through all this and to the HB tent.

There were queues outside the tents, and though there were people having beer all over, including beer gardens outside the tent, it seemed that the real experience was inside. After waiting a bit, David realized we probably weren't going to get in this way. He went to the security and told them he had friends from India just for Oktoberfest. The guards obliged and let us in.

This has to be the biggest party in the world! There were thousands of people in this one tent alone. There was live music, and there was a lot of beer. Most importantly, everyone was just having a lot of fun - people chatting up with total strangers and making friends, everyone singing along with the band, the party went on. In the two days that we went to Oktoberfest, I was almost driven to not write about it - it is one of those things that cannot be described - it can only be experienced. The first day, we would have ended up with more than 5 liters of beer each, and when the party winds up at 11, the action shifts to the bars around the city. No wonder everyone is a zombie by the next day, ready to hit the fest again by evening!

Today was much harder to get in, and we spent 3 hours trying from one tent to another, and even the regular city beer halls. Finally, when we were about to give up, A decided to give another shot through the guard route, and got us all in with a lot of persistence. In fact, at end of oktoberfest today, we got chatting with a guard, Renee, who wasn't letting us in earlier, and he promised us entry the next day, though we were flying out and won't be back there.

Today, we also took a city tour - it talked about the Oktoberfest having started as a wedding party - now more than 5 million people come from outside Munich during these two weeks, consume 6-8 million glasses of beer, which accounts for 30 percent of all beer production here annually.

The tour also talked about Hitler and WWII, and origins and stories relating to the same. Its astonishing that a city which was totally destroyed in the war had been built back in such a fine shape - not only in the buildings, but also in character. The guide, Travis, also showed some of the subtle memorials of the events - a golden line on the ground, remembrance of a Jewish shop before WWII and the likes. However, during this time of the year, beer is what occupies Munich and millions of visitors.

Go experience Oktoberfest once - it has to be the biggest party in the world. Like God, it can't be described - it can only be experienced.

Oct 3rd, 2008

Woke up at 8am and got ready and breakfast at 9:30. Called our friend, Mustafa, to return the car at the airport. When the car had originally broken down at Gallipoli, he had told us that he would refund one day's charges - now he said that he couldn't do that because Meriam (his boss) wouldn't let him do so if he picked the car at the airport. We told him to talk to her again and called back after half hour - now he said he wouldn't refund even if we returned the car at his shop! We told him to meet us at the airport and we will talk.

We shopped around for a while and then drove to the airport. Mustafa was there shortly. A's first weapon was senti. He took the three useless CDs we had bought and told Mustafa that this was a gift for him! The guy was already in guilt! However, he refused to refund us the amount. We told him that in that case we weren't going to return the car and went inside the airport - now he seemed under real pressure. He seemed to be trying to reach Meriam but apparently couldn't - said he had no cash that he could give us. We went inside security and then he came up and offered part of the money. That was relieving! We could have been in a soup if he had complained to local police that we were taking his car keys. And it felt good to not walk away ripped off!

Oct 2nd, 2008

This was one of the better hotels we had stayed in so far, and very hospitable. By morning, all the staff knew about us (and foosh story), and was throwing hellos. We checked out of the hotel and headed for Travertines.

Travertines are warm water springs with high calcium content. As the water flows down the hillside, calcium gets deposited, so the entire hillside is white. They have also made artificial water holding pools to assist in calcium sedimentation, thereby getting relatively cleaner water at the base. Walking through the calcium floor was interesting. A lot of people had come there as they would to a beach, and were bathing in the spring water, which is also supposed to have medicinal properties.

At the top of the hills, there are ruins of the ancient city (3 AD) of hieropolis. These seemed to be on similar scale as Ephesus, though the number of buildings was lesser. The amphitheater was huge and in good restored condition. We took a bunch of pics, including some where A claimed I had suddenly moved outside the frame at the last moment!

We came down by around 1pm and started off back for Turkey. Its a 650km run to Istanbul, and we wanted to get there by night, perhaps get to a belly dance and some nightlife in Taksim area. Started finding a restaurant after a couple of hours and there was nothing for miles. We decided to halt at a bus station, and no one seemed to have veg food. Finally, located a real small place which had some veg food - had to be the cheapest we were going to have on this trip.

The drive was long and on the way, we thought of booking a hotel - nothing seemed to be available for a reasonable price - looked like the whole town was going to be packed for festivities of Ramadan. We figured land up there and find something. As soon as we hit the last stretch on E80 motorway, a big traffic jam struck us - this was going to be one long ride. Some patient and some not-so-patient hours later, we finally reached Taksim at 11:30 - over 10 hours of drive what should have been 8. We randomly parked on a street and saw a hotel nearby. Given this was a busy day, the chances were slim - A went in, inquired, and bargained to get a decent price.We checked in and soon hit the main street.

The hotel owner told us all belly dance would be finished by now, but he could arrange for a "russian dance" - hmm, what's a russian dance? "good dance, and drink". This sounded fishy - we were not in a mood to go to a strip bar. After some digging, the guy came up "they dance and then sometime they remove bit of cloth" - that was that. It was a lively night even at 1 - we went into a couple of bars with live music and mostly local people. The music was great and people were singing along and dancing. Lovely atmosphere. Came back at 4 and went through a round of cards before hitting the bed, with three alarms waiting to get us up at 8 to make our flight to Munich tomorrow.

Oct 1st, 2008


At around 7 am, I was woken up by thumping sounds on a wooden floor above me. Breakfast time at Odyssey. We all got ready and went up to the terrace for breakfast - it was a lovely view. The red basilica was in full sight. The owner was very courteous and had even arranged a laptop with internet access. He told us that he had two houses here and ran 26 beds all by himself.

We finished out breakfast and headed for red basilica, and then to the ancient city of Akropolis. The ruins of Akropolis were on top of the hill, and fortunately, our car was doing fine. Akropolis seemed much grander than Troy - the central temple of Trajan was particularly impressive. We toured around a bit, and then headed out for Ephesus.

We thought of picking some juice on the way, and KJ went out asked a shopkeeper,came back "no, they don't have juice, its a holiday here". Hmm, ok. Next shop "they don't have juice".
"I can see the juice in there!"
"No, they don't have fresh juice"
"Fresh juice!!! Dude, let's go get a few cans!"

The drive to Ephesus was about 3 hours. Ephesus is a site of an ancient city. We decided to get an audio guide. On the shop, there was a paper with nine languages mentioned on it. KJ goes to the attendant "Do you speak nine languages?" "No, Audio guide nine languages!" "Oh, I thought we could talk to you in nine languages" - ok, that would have been interesting. Another shop selling clothes and watches proudly displayed "Genuine Fake Items" - salesmanship meets truthfulness. Its another item that A kept insisting it should have been "Fake Genuine Items" instead - go figure.

The ruins of Ephesus were the most magnificent and expansive here - the place was also very crowded. The whole route was about a kilometer long with meeting rooms, shops, baths along the way. There was also a grand theater which could seat over 25000. There were also gyms all over the place - looks like all these guys did was to have a bath, go to the gym, pick up babes and go watch the theater!

We finished at around 5 and headed for the Pumacuk beach - nice place, but not much of a crowd. Checked out a couple of camping places to see if they'd rent a tent for the beach, but didn't find takers (i.e. givers) - a guy running a restaurant offered us his tent, but it just seemed a bit dirty so we decided not to take it. Just as well, after a while, we saw three dogs playing inside!

I had just had enough of A and KJ not wanting to have lunches and dinners, so we decided to go to a restaurant and landed at one called Jimmy's Place. Great guy, very helpful, speaks english, and has great food! We also had a few games of backgammon - midway through the last one, A insisted that I should resign, and then the tables turned - this game has some ability to swing.

The drive to Pumakkale was smooth. We had picked up a few CDs and they all turned out to be crap - someone was particularly fond of Beatles and had a tribute album - unfortunately, they were not as talented as they were fond! At Pumakkale, we checked in into Artemis Yoruk hotel, which Jimmy had recommended. The guy at the reception, Servet, was in a high mood. Not sure if he was drunk (guess will find out tom) but he kept dancing and saying "no problem" to everything. Played turkish music for us on his phone when we checked in! We asked him if there was a bar or nightclub, and he pointed down the road. We had checked this one on our way in and it was empty, so we told him we were looking for something with people in it. "No problem", and he asked us to follow him, took us to a bar/restaurant he knew of. Inside, it looked the same - there was disco lights but no one dancing, some people on 3 of the 40 odd tables in there - it actually looked more like a banquet hall where tables had been put. We told him this looked pretty deserted. Pat came the reply "No, you see those girls over the next table - you can foosh! 80 liras". "Foosh!?". "Yes, foosh, take to room there, foosh" - holy cow! This guy had walked us into a prostitute hole! "No, we don't want this". "No problem".


We darted out, Servet kept playing cellphone music and dancing on the road - good fun(ny) guy. Took us to the calcium fountains - looked good, we will come back here tom. Whiled some more time on the road, and then came back, retired.