We got up this morning to a breakfast, that we didn't realize,costs €4.50 per person (not the slightest bit cheap and they barely had anything to offer! Such a rip off). I ate regularly and Jeff had a bun. It was only afterward that we realized there was a cost, whoops. No one had said anything and everything was in German and I just forgot to ask. Afterward though, I asked if we could pay €5 in total instead of €9 because Jeff didn't have anything but a bun and a little butter, not even remotely close to €4.50 (you could have bought half of their spread or more for €4.50!! Urgh). Anyway, I asked for a favour because Jeff is so sick and one of the girls made a big stink about it, that I had "booked" breakfast for two people (not true, you don't "book" anything) and so we were supposed to pay the full amount. Long story short, I only paid €5 for us both, which is still a ripoff but better than €9.
Then we headed off to the doctor's office and found he was out of the office so we were given directions to another place. We saw a nice German man who prescribed the same stuff Jeff is already taking (we only found out at the pharmacy afterward) but told him to take more and that things should improve by tomorrow, if not, to another doctor we go.
After all that we headed off to Oktoberfest because no matter how sick, Jeff was going to have at least one beer (7 months of anticipation will do that). We went into a different hall than yesterday and easily found a seat. (Jeff read later in the day that, that hall is where the official keg tapping happens to kick off Oktoberfest and the first mug goes to the Bavarian prime minister. I think it's also the second largest hall too.) The area was reserved but only at 4pm, so we had lots of time as it was just after noon. We each ordered a beer and enjoyed the music and festive atmosphere, then decided to get something to eat. Now, let me tell you, reading a German menu is very difficult! We had no idea what anything was, okay, that's not true, I did recognize apple strudel... But everything else was unrecognizable. Eventually we just pointed to what someone else was having and got one of that, lol. However, the mashed potatoes we thought we were getting turned out to be a "potato ball" which was kind of like mashed potatoes but much stickier... I would have preferred mashed. Along with our potato ball I got a huge leg of duck and a quarter chicken AND some bread soup! Jeff had the soup and a little taste of everything else. I have to say, this was the best German meal I've had so far. Who knew I would like duck? lol
Once we finished our meal we headed off to another festhall, this one was enjoyable too. We shared a beer because by this point I was pretty much "beer-ed" out... (I was full) and Jeff had to be careful with how much he had. The hall was festive with lots of people singing and swaying, standing on their seats and dancing along to familiar songs. It was fun to watch and to participate with "Ein Prosit" whenever it started, which seemed often.
Not only are the beers different at each place but the theme (I think.... One was crossbow hunting) too. Our servers all wore differenf outfits as well at each place and they were quite different from each other.
Once we finished our beer, I picked up a chocolate covered banana on our walk home. It was good :)
We headed out again a short while later to get our train tickets for tomorrow, we even navigated the automatic ticket machine! We picked the cheap train at the fixed time of 9:06am (a little early for us as we'll arrive early to the next place and again won't be able to check in, unless by chance they have a room ready). On our way back from the station I wanted to see how much a blouse and drindl would cost and as soon as I tried one on I had to have it! lol. I just looked so darn cute and very German! It was about half the price than at home which made it that much more enticing; I can pull it out every year at Oktoberfest at home and say I got it in Munich! :). Jeff looked at the leider hosen but it was quite expensive and he couldn't bring himself to get it, but he sure encouraged me to get mine (I must've looked good! lol).
Here's a drindl that is very similar to mine; my blouse comes off the shoulder which I think is a little younger look :)
http://lederhosen4u.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/07.194223552_std.JPG (copying and pasting the link works)
On our way home we picked up some dinner, I got sausage and potato salad and Jeff got half a small chicken.
I immediately put on my blouse and drindl and got Jeff to go for a walk around the fest area with me. It was super busy since it was the end of the day! The festhalls close at 10pm (very unlike home where they close around 1am, I think) so the evenings here are packed. We didn't even try to get into one of the halls so we just walked past all the rides and food and games. It was pretty to see it all lit up, which is why I wanted to go when the sun went down.
I think Jeff and I went at the perfect time for Oktoberfest, in the middle of the week and in the middle of the day as we had no trouble finding seats. It would have been nice to sit with some other people who spoke English though, oh well!
We've packed up our things in preparation for tomorrow's early morning. Jeff is already asleep and has been for a little while (it's 9:30pm) as he was pretty tuckered out.
I'm nearly ready to hit the hay too, maybe read for a bit first.
I'm glad we got to enjoy Oktoberfest the best we could with Jeff being sick, we'd definitely come back for it...we've got high expectations for home now! :)
We're off to Nuremberg tomorrow so I'll update from there!
Much love,
Amanda xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment