One way to the UK?

Well, the ride from Salzburg to Munich was really quite short, except for the traffic, but we still got into Wombats in good time – and right in the first week of Oktoberfest too! We all got wrist tags on check-in with the Hostel name, address and room number (if you asked for it!) so that you would be let in and so that others coudln’t sneak into the Hostel! Apparently it happens A LOT around Oktoberfest time due to SO many people going there and not enough accommodation, as it gets booked out so quickly every year!

After making the beds, we headed out to get some food – Mara headed down to Kaufingerstrasse (sp?) the main shopping street to get another… winter jacket and then once we’d eaten some pizza we left, in the rain, for the Oktoberfest Grounds! Short walk, about 12 minutes, but pissing down rain made it annoying! By the time I was about 30 metres inside the grounds, my shoes started leaking!!! Damn the mesh parts on top of them! It was like I had walked through a lake in my shoes! You know the squidgy feeling of wet socks and water inside the shoe? Yup, that was it. Mara soon joined me as her shoes also have the mesh top hahahahha.

We walked around the food and rides area, then headed to some tents including Augustina, Lowenbrau and Hofbrauhaus and we never ended up finding the damn Wine Tent! Is it a myth perhaps?? Anyway, inside the tents we got let in the doors fine (group of 3 females, easy done), however the problem once inside is that there are Thousands of people in each “tent” (7 million attend Oktoberfest each year between 22 Sept and 6 Oct this year) and you need to be seated to get served by one of the Wenches (who carry up to 9+ Litre Steins at a time!)…. so trying to actually find a table/benches with space on it was harder than finding a dry patch of floor area, hence why we went though three or four tents, then finally decided we had absorbed the atmosphere and my shoes were now swimming pools, that we headed back to the Hostel to the Wombar to meet up with Guy, Steven and Mark to then go for dinner at a Thai place! Tried following instructions to get to the first one, which failed, so instead we walked back towards Wombats to a little Thai/Vietnamese restaurant on the next street. It proved to be one funny evening…

When we got inside, there was one guy sitting on a 4-table, and being six of us we needed bigger tables (the restaurant was quite busy and small), so the guy moved, and then we just asked him to join us – why not? He was British and said he’d just stay for a beer as he was waiting for a friend… ohhh a date? haha. Had some good banter (happy Ali!?) about how the date was an older lady, from California, with lots of plastic surgery and a huge fake chest! Naturally we all stared when she walked in, poor woman!

Anyway, the food was great – and after a while Ian’s mates (the Brit guy above is named Ian) all came in… quite drunk after a day at Oktoberfest, and it was also Bad Shirt Day, so they all looked hideous! And most were on the father and son trip, so there was 12 of them in total – so they joined onto our table (as we’re nice obliging Aussies) and also took over this other guys table… and after these Brits were all loud etc, the guy whose table they took over, finally spoke, and turned out he was bloody Scottish!!! He’d been sitting there quietly drinking his jasmine tea all night without a word hahaha and gosh the Brits bagged him for it! Uh well. Funny funny guys,,… we ended up sharing (giving?) some of our food to them before they ordered (we’d eaten well enough by then with entrees and mains) and noticed the guys were wearing GIRLS underwear – Lis HAD to notice one of the young guys Andy had ‘white lace’ above his jeans. so off came the jeans to show us hahahaha. Even the Aussie guys at our table were amused. The Brits all had girls undies on for when then went into The Pigpen inside an Oktoberfest tent – when you go in there, you come out with NO underwear on!!!!!  Umm so that was well interesting, and then we got to see some photos of something nasty the guys did to one of the other guys at the table when he was passed out drunk… can’t believe many of them were father and son and they lets things happen like that…. ahhaha it was funny nasty, but still Eww and I’m not mentioning it on here! Almost scarred for life!

Anyway, the whole dinner evening was great fun! After which we headed back to Wombar where we met up with Jeremy and Josh (who we first met in Amsterdam and who borrowed pants from Lis and Mara…) and we drank with them a while at the bar, and also Josh’s brother Craig and his flatmate Rowan – all great guys. Craig and Rowan were pretty damn drunk after steins all day – and even after Josh had returned the steins and tokens and gotten his deposit back (you’d be surprised how many get stolen during Oktoberfest!) the guys still ordered more and just paid another deposit for theirs! Then around 11pm once the Oktoberfest ground “tents” had closed, everyone else staying at the Hostel ended up back in the Wombar too – so we once again met up with Bryn, Ollie, Nathan, Duck and Michael – plus some others and our guide Renee who was to take us to Venice the very next morning — as I said to her about 0300am, if she’s still out there drinking then I knew I was ‘safe’ too to make the morning bus! Ended up having quite a good chat to Nathan for ages before heading to bed.

Apparently most of our London flatmates were also there at Oktoberfest, but we only saw Ado in the flesh, and then he was also on our Busabout bus from Munich to Venice, although he got off in St Johan (whatever for?!?).

Well what can I say… Mara was in her element here! Lis and I just went along for the ride haha.

On arriving into Yoho Hostel in Salzburg, we got setlled (ie made beds), then grabbed a map and headed into town as we were booked on The Original Sound of Music tour for the following morning. After walking a little while we realized it was Sunday and so everything would be closed… so we headed back to the Hostel to move our tour to the afternoon (ie Sunday afternoon). Our guide on the bus had told everyone to be in reception at 1410 for the tour pickup…. luckily when we changed our tour day I checked the brochure and noticed it leaves at 1400, and on asking the receptionist she said it picks up at the hostel at 1330!!! Argh panic mode, well not for us as we knew, but the receptionist had to call the company to reconfirm, and then run around banging on doors of Busabout people to let them know the new time, as many people had booked the tour for that afternoon!

The little red bus arrived about 1350 and 10 of us squeezed in (illegal? perhaps not over here) and then drove around the block to the Big bus. Haha I was cacking myself laughing… seriously a pick up? We could have walked to where the Big Bus left from!!! Anyway we were LAST to board, so some of us had to sit next to oldies, or japanese tourists, or young people from Australia (where one was fat and took up 1/2 of wizzas seat grrrr). So anyway – we headed off on the tour! Ummmm I don’t know what to write about it – Sue the guide was verry enthusiastic and the driver was interesting (in an Odd Austrian way) and some people on the bus shouldn’t have been there as they were dragged along…. the tour was good, and informative, I especially liked learning about the original Trapp Family and the basis for the books (written by original Trapp), which then turned into movies in Austria, when then turned into Broadway, which then turned into a Hollywooded movie. The Austrians only saw THE WESTERN VERSION of The Sound of Music in the year 2000 and couldn’t believe what they saw apparently!

At this point, I’ll just tell you to go onto the link to Mara’s blog and read about the tour in detail there, as I am positive she will write ALL OF IT out!!!

We took the photos at the sites and took in the great sights and even sang along on the bus back to Salzburg! I had thought the tour would be smaller (not 63 people) and a little more fun and light hearted, but hey, it was still worth it! And the Apfelstrudel that I FINALLY got to eat, up in the village of Mondsee was very nice indeed!
Salzburg, even without The Sound of Music is a gorgeous place and just really pretty to be in. The main shopping street isn’t exactly all too exciting, but the seafood was nice! And we got to see parts influenced by Mozart (… the whole city?!) and the main street has actually been preserved in that there are NO neon signs for shops, and even the Maccas has a wrought iron M hanging outside it! Quality.

Met some great guys in Salzburg too; Guy, Steven and Mark. Steven is now known as Frauline due to him being the only male going on The Sound of Music bus tour hahaha ;o) But hey, we’ve all mostly grown up with the movie so why not!? We hung out with these guys, and on the last night headed out to Augustina Brewery as they wanted to drink beer from real original ceramic massts (sp?) which is the other word for Stein. Also at that Brewery you pay the barman and then pour your own drink – Yay! You also have to wash your own Stein… uhh well, people continue to flock there so it must be a fun activity (unless you are the barman, how boring!).

Actually, the final afternoon in Salzburg, Lis Mara and I plus Sarah (lovely Aussie girl from our dorm) headed up to the Castle and saw all that it had to offer, plus the fantastic views (i know, castles everywhere in every city!) and we also bought some Mozart Chocolate (dark outer plus flavoured marzipan inside) and then we headed to Supermarked (Spark) near the Hostel and stocked up on bread, crackers, cheese and wine before heading to the Mirabell Gardens (which feature from The Sound of Music the do-ray-me steps, the fountain and the long vine covered archway they all run through) to have an afternoon picnic! The wine bottles were small and even had a thumb groove on the side, hence to be drunk without the need for a glass!!! haha now that’s quality!

Oh a funny thing about YoHo Hostel, they have a farm and give tours, which includes going to the Austrian town of Fucking – for some reason the town sign is the most stolen sign in the world!!! IT is a real place – can google it if you don’t believe me. The other funny thing at YoHo is the washing room… two washers and two driers and a hell of a lot of graffiti! The walls’ writing warned us that things turn blue and the drier eats your clothes (ie won’t give them back!) HOWEVER we didn’t really believe them all until we got our washing done!!! The Machine took 1 hour to wash (starts at 25 mins, then jumps up, then finally timer goes down), and then the drier took 1.5 hours!!! Lis and I had read ALL the graffiti in the room by then, and were begging the machine to Please Give Back Our Clothes!!! My pajama shirt went pink… her white and yellow undies went blue hahaha and so on – all the stories are true!
So yes… next morning we all headed from Salzburg to Munich – and fun fun we got onto the bus and on it already were Nathan, Duck and Michael, who we thought we’d never see again! Pity Dave and Adam stayed in Vienna but uh well, hopefully see them again someday probably in Australia! Oh two others who I’ve forgotten to mention are Bryn and Ollie – from the UK and both are very nice and Bryn is fu***ng funny – likes his ‘magic’ tricks he does! haha can’t really mention them on here but yeah, interesting guys and as Bryn works 2 days/week in London some of you reading this might even get to meet him. I could write something else about him too hahahha, but no, not really fit for online journal but Mara and Lis  will know the story I’m talking about :o)

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