Berlin - 10/02/13 - 10/07/13

Dearest Berlin,

I did not realize how much I loved you until I left you. What a whirlwind, especially the last day.

Our drive from Prague to Berlin was a little less eventful than the trip to Prague, but still featured beautiful countryside. We took a pit stop in Dresden where a mini-Oktoberfest was occurring and had some more MEAT (though I finally had a decent salad - praise his name, amen). When we got to Berlin we dropped the car off at the Tegel airport and were introduced to the transit system which was a little less straight forward than Munich, but this is because Berlin is a much larger city.

The penthouse apartment Dustin zeroed in on did not disappoint in any way. The pictures did not do it justice and like many places in Berlin, it had automated/mechanized features, such as the sky windows that would close if it started raining. I guess the only downfall, if there was any, is that we had to walk up a large set of stairs over and over again. I think it was something equal to 9 flights since each apartment was 2 stories high. Anyway, it was well worth it and it helped me work off all of those meat calories.

Our first full day we headed to Checkpoint Charlie and to see one of the last remaining standing parts of the Berlin Wall. I have to admit this is the first time I was somewhere historical where I literally had chills just imagining what it used to be like.

At midnight was DUSTIN'S 30TH BIRTHDAY (so ollld) so we went to a "gay" bar nearby (in Berlin it seems the line between gay and straight bars is very fuzzy depending on the location) which was packed and covered in fuzzy red walls with distinctive lighting. We had a few drinks, and decided to take it easy.

The next day, "officially" Dustin's 30th birthday is also a national holiday, German Unity Day, celebrating their reunification in 1990. We didn't realize what a popular holiday this was and we went to Parliament (Reichstag) to try to get lunch, as it's the only Parliament building in the world where foreigner's can have a meal. It also offers spectacular views. Once we got to the area we realized that this was an impossible feat - there were thousands of people crowding into a closed off fairground area for celebration. We poked around and had some fair food, where I discovered currywurst and I don't get along.

As I noted on Facebook, it turned out the owner of the apartment we rented is a famous German voice actress. She was sweet and left Dustin a bottle of champagne for his birthday with a card in the fridge so we enjoyed the bottle, and I proceeded to break a champagne glass while I was getting ready in the bathroom. Thanks, Claudia, for not docking us on the Airbnb review for that. We headed out to a bar for gay night - it was packed to the gills so Darryl and I didn't last long and left Dustin to enjoy himself. :)

The next day was Darryl's last day so we spent some time one on one as noted in my previous sad Sally post. We tried to find one of the leftover watchtowers from the Berlin Wall and ended up in the wrong spot at the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park. Traveling is all about flexibility so we weren't disappointed and I could not believe the size of the most famous statue (36 feet tall!!), which is of a Soviet solder holding a German child, standing on a broken swastika.

We then went to one of the top rated restaurants in Berlin - a burger joint! - which was amazing. Burgermeister did not disappoint, and the bacon was actual "real" AMERICUHN bacon. I am often saddened in other counties/regions when I end up with a plate of ham or their interpretation of bacon. We stayed up really late as I booked Darryl a 6am flight (mistake), and said our goodbyes.

The next day was pretty much a wash because I didn't sleep well after staying up with Darryl, so Dustin and I stayed in that night with some Spanish red wine and had an evening full of laughter that was much needed.

Our last day... wow. We went to a late brunch - brunch outside of America can consist of a variety of foods, like 'traditional' breakfast food, then chicken wings, pasta salad, spaetzle, lasagna.. you never know. It was delicious and then we went to try to get into one of the most exclusive clubs in Berlin - Berghain.

Some clubs in Berlin are a 24 hour deal so we headed to the club at 1pm, which was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. We got in thanks to a connection through a friend and worked our way up the floors of the (pitch black except the top floor) club where crowds of people were dancing their faces off. I wont go into detail about what else is offered at Berghain, but we did not participate. :) Except in the ice cream bar! We danced and hung out for a few hours and then headed back out into daylight.

We made a reservation for dinner at Parliament after we were unsuccessful the first time, so went back for a fancy dinner. I unfortunately have to equate dining at the Parliament to dining at the Space Needle - overpriced and not good. But we were able to get into the dome and take some cool pictures.. at which time I broke my camera. I sent it home with Dustin for repairs and am really happy I brought a back up camera along.

It was time to pack :( and Dustin had a 7am flight, so we said our goodbyes. Next stop - Thailand!

-Erin

Drive from Munich to Prague - 09/29/13

Because Dustin is awesome, he decided to rent a car to drive from Munich to Prague, where we stayed for a few days, and then dropped the car off in Berlin.

A fantasy of mine from our previous Prague visit was to get to see the countryside. I was really excited to get out of the cities and see how people lived outside of the major metropolitan areas.

Dustin wanted to drive down the "castle road" which would take us via many German castles to Prague, but as an outdoor enthusiast, I made a request to go to the Bavarian Forest to see the world's largest tree tower walk. Unfortunately we didn't realize how long our detour would take us so we did not get to see the castles Dustin requested - sorry Dustin - but sometimes that's just how travel works when you deviate from a plan!

The countryside of Germany is perfectly manicured and spotted with picturesque towns and red thatch roofed homes. It truly is something out of a Disney movie (as was Munich). Thankfully we had a (confusing at first) GPS in the car - without that, we would have certainly been more lost. Either the GPS or German roads are insane, though, I am not sure which, as it took many windy, tiny roads to end up at our location.

While on our way, I was surprised to see signs for "Grafenau" - the second of many sightings involving my last name in some way or another - so requested we pull over for a quick photo:

Shortly after, we arrived at Baumwipfelpfad - the tree walk. The pictures only ALMOST do it justice - the only con was that it was extremely cold and windy, but that didn't stop us!

One lovely thing about Baumwipfepfad is that it is accessible to almost anyone - you can push strollers or take wheelchairs almost to the very top. Dogs are not allowed unless you put them in a box (which they provide for you - this would not work well for Axle.

A few trees grow in the middle of the structure, all the way to the top. This was only built in 2009 so I felt lucky that it was ready for us to explore.

The view from the top was amazing and helped make up for the fact that I did not take enough pictures of the countryside while in the car.

Now onto the Czech Republic! We had our passports ready for the border crossing, but it was something like my experience of entering Mexico - there was no one there and no stopping.

Very anti-climactic. The Czech countryside is beautiful as well, but not perfectly manicured like Germany. As soon as we crossed the border it was very apparent that we were in a different country - a little bit more run down and there were strip clubs and bars at the first town past the border.

We decided to head to Pilsen (Plzen in Czech) before Prague because hey, it sounds like a nice beer town, right? No. It was run down and a factory town. We got some McDonald's because well, it's required when in a foreign country, and we were starving and looking for a quick bite. We entered Plzen about as quickly as we entered it, and then made the short drive to Prague.

Long, but beautiful day! Remaining set of photos here.

-Erin

Munich, Germany and Oktoberfest - 09/23/13 - 09/29/13

On a lovely Monday 2 weeks ago, Darryl and I made our way over to the country of my "people," as my father is German. I'm not sure if you've noticed before, but my last name sounds pretty commanding/German and translates to "Count". I used to think this meant something like Count Dracula or The Count from Sesame Street, but it still impressively is a title of nobility.

Our first night in Munich was fairly low key as we were the first to arrive, and it was nice to have some alone time before the festivities began. Knowing our diets would consist of meat, bread and beer over the next 2 weeks, we found a Pakistani restaurant around the corner. The menu was in German only, though, and as my one year of German in college was subpar at most, we helplessly asked them to choose their favorite dishes. We are so glad we did - it was one of the best meals I have ever had!

Once most of the group of friends from around the world (shout out to Mikki for organizing this!) arrived the next day, we headed to the Hofbräuhaus brewery in central Munich. The hall boomed with chatter and a live band, interrupted multiple times for traditional song and dance, including 2 American songs which we would hear on repeat the entire trip: "Hey Baby" and "Country Roads". It was a little surreal seeing Germans in full on lederhosen/dirndl jumping up on tables, chugging large beers and singing in English on and off.

By the way, if you ever go to Oktoberfest and are wondering if you will be an outcast dressing up - don't worry about it! Almost everyone, especially the locals, is dressed up.

The next morning we went on a unique walking tour of Munich where the birthday boys (Brian and Dustin's 30th birthdays were both approaching) pulled a wagon with 2 kegs of beer. Our guide provided us with a historical perspective of the city while enforcing drinking games. There aren't laws against drinking in the streets and the other folks on 'normal' tours were extremely envious. Our tour guide, Lenny, drank as well - I think he may have come up with the most genius income generator of all time, if he doesn't die of a heart attack or liver failure before making his first million. 

After the street tour, we had a beer tent reservation at the actual Oktoberfest grounds. On our way, it almost started monsooning and we were all soaking wet by the time we made it into our (tiny for Oktoberfest) tent. I think my shoes are still drying out. Each tent ticket came with 2 liters of beer and a half a chicken - the most delicious chicken of my life! 

The fairgrounds are huge and have multiple beer tents, food and souvenir vendors and carnival rides. I ended up on an awesome roller coaster and swing ride with Darryl, which both provided a spectacular view of the lit up grounds at night.

Kenny and Kristin on the swings before take off

We went to bed pretty early after a day of fatty meats (seriously, so much meat...) and beer as we had another tent rented the next day. We wandered onto the grounds that morning and I was finally able to get a picture of the main entry because we were not trapped in a torrential downpour.

It was time for one of the BIG tents (Schottenhamel Spatenbrau) that holds around 10,000 people, and we spent the next 3.5 hours there eating another half chicken each (not as good this time) and drinking more beer. We had 2 tables upstairs with a view and it was the one of the most intense events I have ever experienced - about 10 times as large and loud as Hofbräuhaus: drunken Germans singing, roaring and dancing with a HUGE band in the middle playing all of the German (and again American) classics. 

View of the tent from our table

Brian and Ryan getting the party started

The first of many of Brian's amazing dance moves

After our time in the tent was up, we headed to another outdoor tent and split up into a few tables as our group was too large to accommodate. This is where one of the the true beauties of Oktoberfest lies - meeting people from all over the country and world, and I made a few friends from New Zealand/Australia/England, which made me even more excited about who I will run into in Thailand.

The next day, Saturday, was our last full day as a group so we decided to try to take another waking tour through Munich (self guided), since we didn't make it very far with Lenny's beer 'cruise'.  We ate some delicious bratwurst in the park and perused the local outdoor market, which was full of fresh produce, cheese, meat and various knickknacks.

One of my favorite spots after this was the Englischer Garten, which is a park larger than Central Park in NYC!

Not sure what is going on here, but it was fantastic

It was (compared to previous days) a fairly lazy one in anticipation of the main event of the evening, which was a medieval meat feast in a basement cellar of Feldherrnhalle. The street level of Ferdenhalle is where a confrontation between Hitler's followers (in an attempt to take over Bavaria) and the Bavarian Police escalated and resulted in the arrest of Hitler, which made for a peculiar location.

The cellar was filled with large tables and designed for big groups, and was catered to German tourists (always a good sign!). Most of the information was given in German first, then relayed specifically in English to our subset. You were only given a knife, cutting board and large napkin wrapped around your neck for eating and the intent was to use your hands for eating as much as possible. 

As it was Brian's official birthday, they took him in the back and dressed him up as a friar (fake beer gut and all) and he came out and threw water at the crowd, much to the displeasure of some of the other tourists. The food was ridiculously good and filling... if you ever go to Munich, it was highly entertaining!

We had a lot of hardcore Husky fans in our group, so the trip to Munich closed with a 1am viewing of the Husky vs. Arizona football game. I passed out pretty quickly in and we said most of our goodbyes then.

In closing, here are some fun facts about Oktoberfest in 2011 - seriously, how does someone lose an electric wheelchair?!?!:

• 6.9 million people drank 7.5 million litres of beer
• 48 children were lost
• 226,000 steins were recovered by security as people attempted to steal them from the tents
• Police attended 2175 incidents and made 487 arrests
• Lost property items included: live 8cm grasshopper, viking helmet, crutches, an electric wheelchair, 1300 items of clothing, 520 wallets, over 1000 ID cards, almost 500 mobile phones, 370 pairs of glasses, 90 cameras and 425 sets of keys - not forgetting a set of dentures (every year there is at least one set of dentures!).

Full set of photos can be found here.

-Erin