Oktoberfest plus

HIGHLIGHTS:
Thurs--> weird but delicious indian food dinner buffet
Fri--> planes trains and automobiles to Munich, south african friends
Sat--> Oktoberfest activities
Sunday--> planes trains and automobiles back to stirling, pork buns
Monday--> hiked an oncampus hill for a group project
Tuesday--> first radio show! and school and naps and international friends
Wednesday--> field work for class

Picture link: http://picasaweb.google.com/106047267595190685755/GlasgowAndMunich#

Hallo! Yet another late night post, so I apologize in advance on the typos that will probably occur. In the style of Frauline Maria, let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start. When you read you being with ABC when you sing you begin with Do Re Me. When you go to Munich you begin with a bus at 6am. Quickly before I move into the Munich Oktoberfest weekend, I want to talk about our Thursday night dinner. We had heard that UK-ers love Indian food, so we went into town for an indian dinner buffet. Someone recommended a place to us, but we accidentally went to the place across the street. We came in to an empty room with semi trendy decor, and one indian man with highlighted hair sitting across the room, half asleep with a fork in his hand. As soon as we came in he told us to come sit by him. creepy. we didn't detect any immediate threat and so we sat in the booth next to his. Pretty sure he was drunk, or maybe just really tired, it was hard to tell, but he gave us his business card (which included his mobile number- naturally) and signed the back with a 10% discount for take-out orders in the future. We happily accepted and spent the rest of the night stuffing our faces with indian food. We were the only ones there so the waiter gave us a tour of each course on the buffet before we ate. the food was really good!

After our feast we packed for our trip and tried to get some sleep for our big adventure. Friday morning we woke up really early to take all the public transportation needed to get to Munich. This started with a bus that we picked up on campus that took us to the train station in stirling. I tried to buy a bus ticket with a 10 pound note and the bus driver threw it snarkily at the front of the bus. rude. should have known it was a foreshadow for the rest of our traveling endeavors that day. The bus was late by the way, and it took us all around Bridge of Allan before taking us through Stirling to the train station. We hurried off the bus and ran to the train station, with just enough time to miss the train. Luckily the next one was in 15 minutes so we got a quick breakfast and waited at the platform. We took the train to Edinburgh, where we caught a bus to the airport. At the airport we made it to our Ryan Air gate. We were totally early and one of the first people there. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for, and Ryan Air was totally disorganized and inefficient. There are no assigned seats, so you get on the plane in the order that you are in line. Unfortunately for us, they arbitrarily picked where the line started and it wasn't near where we were waiting so we weren't at the front. After about 1o minutes they told us the flight was delayed an hour. Not wanting to risk losing our spot in line, we decided to just take a nap on the floor in our spot in line. We woke up 45 mintues later to people trampling us. We got decent seats on the plane after all, and everyone clapped when we landed, as it was something we were all surprised happened so smoothly. We flew into Memmingen, a city outside of Munich (that's how RyanAir keeps their fares low) and when we were landing I couldn't see the airport and i actually thought we were just landing on a farm field. During the decent I saw sooo many solar panels! I knew Germany was big on solar power so it was fun to actually see it. They had hugggeee solar farms. So once in memmingen we took a bus to the train station, where we took a train to Munich, and a subway to the town where the hotel was. On the bus to munich, the bus driver was selling beer out of a cooler so we bought one to share to kick off oktoberfest right. The hotel was in a part of the city called Solln. It was really pretty and not touristy at all. Apparently it used to be an artsy district and now is more residential. Cute bakeries galore. Perfect for chocolate croissants for breakfast. We had to sneak into the hotel room because we had a single room under my name for 3 people. Char and Calla snuck upstairs while i waited to check in, and then after the lady went back downstairs they snuck into the room. It was nice to be in a non-touristy part of town, but we quickly discovered that it meant that less people spoke english. Charlene whipped out some really awesome quickly learned german that got us through enough to get solid directions, but it was challenging.

We checked out the map and decided to get some dinner down town. We took a short bus to the subway, which they call the S-Bahn. Public transportation there is very curious- it is all on the honor system. So you don't actually have to pay. But they have people who go around every once in a while and check tickets and you get a fine if you get caught. we didn't run into any of those people, but we played it safe and bought tickets. It was only 5 euro for a whole day of any type of transportation so we figured it was worth it. So after navigated the subway system, we emerged from the damp staircase into Marienplatz square. Epic. We had no idea the famous glockenspiel was going to be the first thing we saw. It was beautful. It was rainy and dark so all the lights reflected off the streets.

We walked around for a little bit, purchased a bigger bag with a good zipper that would fit my camera, and then settled on eating food at Marienplatz to people watch. At this point we were pretty starving because we had been travelling all day and never really had any proper meals. We sat down at an outside table under an umbrella because it was raining. We ordered 'drei beirs' and received 3 1Liter mugs of weisn beer. So big. We ordered 2 dishes to split between the three of us. We got macaroni and cheese with crispy onion straw type things (recommended by the waitor- we didn't know what it was going to be until it arrived) and some sort of german meat combo dish. It had Bavarian white sausage, sauerkraut, other sausage, and what tasted and looked like hotdog loaf. It was all pretty delicious (though we would have eaten anything at that point) except for the Bavarian white sausage. It was a disturbing color and texture, and to make matters worse, no one gave us the memo that you are not supposed to eat the skin. grotesque. Some oldish dudes sat down at the table next to us and so we made friends with them. They were from South Africa and spent the week in Germany. We were talking about how germany is so into solar power and they were saying how the environmental science in south africa is kind of fucked (pardon my french). They said how they aren't allowed to sell energy back to the grid, which is one of the great things about solar power when there is a surplus. They were friendly and interesting and we had a good time.

After we finished our meals and beers we walked around for a new place. We found a place tucked in an alley with a tree covered in string lights. Inside it was warm and filled with locals all drinking and having a good time. This is when we noticed how prevalent leiderhosen and drindl (beer maid dress) were. Not just the oktoberfestians at the train station, but even the locals were all decked out. We thought it would be stereotypical to assume people would be wearing that kind of stuff but it was everywhere! We enjoyed the atmosphere, got a half liter of beer this time, and got some apple streudel to share. We made our way home after that to prepare for Saturday's events.

Saturday morning we left the hotel (very sneakily) around 830, got some chocolate croissants at the nearby bakery and set out for the oktoberfest grounds. we opted for a cab because it was raining and we wanted to get there early (we heard the lines start reallly early and if you want to get into a tent you have to get in line). Luckily just saying 'please take us to oktoberfest' worked well enough (char's awesome german skills came in handy again) and we waltzed right in. At 930 am covered in rain we couldn't really see everything, but we saw people in a line/clump so we joined them. Before no time we were in a tent and seated! Turned out it was the traditional tent, and as it was the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest, there was lots of fun traditional music, dancers, outfits, and decor. As the tent filled up, we found out our table was reserved for a party later so we joined forces with the people next to us and made some friends. They were from germany and australia and were finishing up their oktoberfest experience. We ordered some food with our beer, because I saw something that looked like matzah balls. Turns out it was some sort of weird gelatinous potato ball. crazy germans. We wanted to experience some of the other tents, but people recommended we wait because when they fill up they don't let anyone in. So we hung around and drank liters of beer, had some food and enjoyed ourselves. Around 3pm we made some moves to walk around and see the rest of the grounds. We took some weird pictures, accidentally stepped in horse shit, and ate some delicious crepes. We tried to get into another tent but it was filled and so we sat outside at a table and made friends with some people who had room. That is pretty much how things worked at oktoberfest. If there is an open seat, become friends with the person nearest to it and BAM you have a place to enjoy the festivities. One was swiss, one was french, and the others were too far away for me to talk to. We got some water (which we got made fun of for-RUDE- we need to hydrate) and then walked around a little more.
After some souvenir shopping and a stop at the tourist information center at the train station, we made our way to nymphenburg, another part of the city. Apparently it is a really nice part of town, but it was dark by the time we got there so we didn't see much. With full bladders and hungry stomachs we found our oasis in the rainy mess that was our day. Sushi. A miso soup, and 3 sushi rolls later we were mended and ready to head back to oktoberfest. At night the grounds are more carnival-y, with rides and souvenir stands etc. Above is a picture of these cookie heart things that the girls wear and the boys buy for their lady loves. They say cute german phrases on them like i love you and cheers.

All of the rides were pretty extreme and barfy so we rode the ferris wheel and took some fun pictures from the top. We made our way to one of the beer tents that was still open and after roaming the entire perimeter, finally found a table. It was nothing like the first tent we went to. Everyone was standing on the benches or tables, singing german drinking songs and waving their beers. If you're pretty sure it is a bad idea to stand on a bench, with wet shoes, surrounded by drunk singing people, you are right. we witnessed 1 bench collapse, and 2 wipe outs. and that was just in our immediate vicinity in about an hour. It was quite entertaining. We met some french dudes who were kissing each other. Kind of adorable. The tents all close at 11 so we made our way home. We got kind of lost and stopped to pee at a burger king (terrible decision- some girl almost puked on me), but finally made it to the hotel and crashed.

Sunday we spent nearly the whole day traveling. Nine stages of transportation i believe. A bus to a train to another train to a bus to a plane to a bus to the terminal to a bus to a train to a cab. exhausting. We ordered chinese food, which i spilled the majority of on my floor (my room still faintly smells of chowmein) but did manage to find and devour pork buns!

Monday was back to classes, and after lectures charlene, me, and our 2 other group members set out to work on our project. The project is for our environmental techniques class. The subject is Balancing biodiversity and productivity in managed broad-leafed woodlands. Our field work involves taking assorted forestry measurements of 10 10x10 plots in different wooded areas on campus. So monday afternoon we took a walk to determine where our 10 plots would be. We got to go to parts of campus charlene and i didn't even know existed. It was quite a hike though! about 4k, and a lot of it uphill. The grounds are so beautiful. Streams, fields with sheep, stone walls and gates, wet trees, fuzzy moss and droopy ferns, and the view from the top was incredible.
Monday night we had indian food from a bag from the grocery store. A complete delicious meal with 4 types of chicken, naan bread, rice, and fried onion ball things.
Later we met with Aristea, the girl who we are doing our radio show with. Turns out there was a mistake in the schedule and our shows were put at the same time but we decided to just join forces. She is from Athens, Greece and is really nice. As it turns out, our taste in music blends really well, and so I think the show will go smoothly. She came over to my place and we talked about how the first show was going to go.

Tuesday morning, bright and early at 9am we met Aristea at the radio station to start the show. Of course we had trouble- the key didn't fit so we were late to start, but we purposefully didn't tell anyone about our first show because we knew we would run into problems like that. Other than that the show when really well and i am looking forward to more. I am still trying to figure out how to download the show. When I do I will let you know.

Tuesday I also accidentally took a 4 hours nap. It was only supposed to be 1.5 hours but I accidentally set my alarm to non-army/24 hour time. It felt good though. We met up with some friends later, and then called it a night after the karaoke we set out to do was closing up and the place we wanted to go after was closed entirely.

Today (wednesday) we did the actual field work for the project. We worked from 1030-12, and 1-4:00ish. It was a long day of rainy field work.
At the end we were cold and wet and hungry, but we felt accomplished. If we did everything right we are done with the data collection part of the project and all we have to do is analyze and present. The word analyze reminds me- they spell things different here, and I knew that they would, but the American way is starting to look wrong. Like the word colour or programme.

I think I am going to start a running list of all the fun wildlife i have seen here because while walking on campus one morning I saw a stote! http://www.wildlifebritain.com/images/pht/weasel_ssm.jpg

That's all for now folks. Thanks for reading!

Love and leiderhosen,
Amanda