Gooooooooooooooooooool!

Urinal at Drei Königinnen in Augsburg, Germany.

Tags: Bavaria, Germany, toilet humor

Oktoberfest 2009 day 6: Bavarian Heaven

Thanks to its charming decorations and lively atmosphere, the Hacker tent (Himmel der Bayern) makes it onto lots of people’s list of favorite Oktoberfest tents. The walls are painted up into a fairytale-like Bavarian town, and the ceiling is a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Today (a Thursday) we decided to go for lunch, and had no trouble scoring a prime table at around 11:30am.

The tent finished filling up pretty quickly, and there was constant competition for the extra seats at our table. We were joined by an adorable old Bavarian man for part of the day; he was thrilled to death by all the attention the bedirndled foreigners were giving him. I think we made his week.

It’s actually quite easy to get a lot of attention in Bavarian Heaven: just stand up on your table and chug a liter of beer (or better yet, have your friends hold the table in the air while you stand on it, like the guy in the photo below). The whole tent will cheer you on, and celebrate your inebriated victory. But be warned: if you fail to finish they will boo mightily, and never forgive you.

We had lunch (merely so-so food) and a couple rounds of beer in the tent. Around 5:00pm we got kicked off of our table due to an evening reservation, but by that point we were ready to move on anyway. It was time for some rides.

Tags: Germany, Munich, Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest 2009 day 4: itty bitty tent

Last year I don’t think I even noticed the tiny tents interspersed amongst the big Oktoberfest tents, but there they are. Most of them have names which describe what kind of animal they most like to kill and cook up for your dining pleasure. We spent yesterday evening in the Heinz Wurst- und Hühnerbraterei, a tent that holds fewer than 400 guests. The largest tents, in comparison, hold around 10,000 people each.

When we first arrived at our tiny little tent, I was skeptical. It was about half empty (reserved tables which hadn’t been claimed yet) and the band hadn’t started playing. It felt like a sad little imitation of the real Oktoberfest. When the entertainment for the evening took their place, my skepticism grew: visually, the duo resembled a certain Will Ferrell SNL skit.

But as the tables filled up and the music got going, I grew fond of our little tent. Turns out it had a lot going for it. The seats were more comfortable than the backless benches typical of a big tent, and the open windows made it not as hot. There was more drink choice than in a large tent, with weißbier and wines on the menu in addition to Oktoberfest brew. Everyone in our party agreed the food was fabulous. Plus as someone who is mildly uncomfortable in large crowds, I appreciated the smaller scale.

The musicians were great and really got the crowd going. There was plenty of dancing on the tables and singing along to Oktoberfest classics. And I never had to wait in line at the bathrooms. All in all it was a very fun night at the Wiesn, and a nice change of pace from the big tents.

Tags: Germany, Munich, Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest 2009 day 1: Ochsenbraterei

Ozapft is! Munich’s mayor tapped the ceremonial first keg at noon yesterday with two brisk swings of the mallet. Bring on the drunken revelry.

We spent the first evening in the Ochsenbraterei tent. We had a table reserved, which is the only reason we even considered going opening day. All the tents were full, and some very forlorn tourists practically begged us for our armbands as we headed towards the door.

The tent was sweltering hot, much hotter than I remember being last year. Dirndl-skirt-sticking-to-your-ass hot. Perhaps it was because of the heat that the beer* tasted particularly good.

The music was particularly repetitive, and not particularly good. Not that Oktoberfest music ever really qualifies as “good”, but still… Achy Breaky Heart? Come on, people.

After a couple hours we couldn’t take the heat anymore, so we headed out into the cool night to ride a ride and head home. There’s nothing more fun than spinning around upside down in the air after two liters of beer.

Luckily we didn’t see too many guys walking around in these.

* Spaten is served in the Ochsenbraterei tent.

Tags: Germany, Munich, Oktoberfest

The Oktoberfest answers you’ve been searching for

As is to be expected, this week I’ve had an explosion of hits from people googling their last-minute Oktoberfest queries and questions. Why don’t we take a stab at helping out these folks, shall we?

oktoberfest reservations
A little late for that, buddy.

cheap dirndls
Try Ebay.

oktoberfest munich first time advice
You’re in luck, I wrote a whole post about that.

is there sex at oktoberfest?
Hmm. Probably?

oktoberfest regensburg 2009
You’re close, but actually it’s in Munich.

where to buy lederhosen in munich
These days you can buy them all over the city, but I’d recommend heading out to the Loden Frey outlet store or the giant Wies’n Tracht & Mehr on Hanaurstraße. Both are near the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum U-bahn stop.

oktoberfest reservations tents
Yes, Oktoberfest reservations are in tents.

oktoberfest munich without a reservation tent
No problem. See my tips.

oktoberfest sex stories
Well, there was this one time… not. Perhaps Penthouse should put out a special Oktoberfest issue. Or feel free to leave your own story in the comments.

oktoberfest pictures with lederhosen
Here’s one of my favorite Oktoberfest lederhosen pics, taken at an after-hours party across the street from the Wiesn.

oktoberfest peeing
There’s no peeing at Oktoberfest. You just have to hold it in. OK, I guess you could use one of these.

how to get a last minute beer tent reservation oktoberfest
Call or go by the tents’ offices. Check the tents’ websites (Oktoberfest.de has convenient links to all of them) to find out where the offices are and how/when you can reach them. But don’t get your hopes up too much – it’s probably not worth the effort.

training for oktoberfest drinking
The jury is out on how to best go about this.

oktoberfest signs
Signs that it is Oktoberfest: 1) more drunken lederhosen-clad hordes on the U-bahn than usual; 2) puke at your tram stop.

oktoberfest waitresses
…have mad beer-carrying skillz. And are usually grumpy. But you would be too.

nudity oktoberfest
Yes, there is nudity at Oktoberfest, most of which is of the unfortunate, pale British variety.

what are the waitresses called at the oktoberfest
Hmmm. Any ideas?

expat dirndl oktoberfest
They let us wear the same dirndls as the locals, actually. Here’s mine. It’s the tourists who have to wear the funny ones.

drink as much as you want 10 euro munich
You can totally do that at Oktoberfest. I mean, assuming you only want a liter. That’s enough for anyone, right?

preparation for oktoberfest drink water
Nah, then you’ll just have to stand in that godawful bathroom line even more often. Instead, prepare by 1) going out and buying some tracht and 2) getting a lot of cash out of your bank account.

Tomorrow’s the day…

Tags: ask the expat, Germany, Munich, Oktoberfest

A long night of Berlin’s museums

Our recent trip to Berlin included the Lange Nacht der Museen. Long museum nights are popular in many cities around Europe (we’ve also been to them in Zurich and Munich). Berlin has two a year, with 100 museums around the city opening their doors from 6pm to 2am. Special events for the evening include concerts, demonstrations, and things like the opportunity to destroy your evil things with a special machine (after first attending the Dinge-Sprechstunde, during which an expert will evaluate your thing for evilness).*  » Read the full post

Tags: art, Berlin, German culture, Germany, musems

Dopplr keeps trying to send me to Canada

As a frequent traveler, I’m always on the lookout for ways to make travel easier. There are several websites out there that claim to do just that, but my patience for trying out every new thing to hit the interwebs is low. But this year I’ve been trying out two sites which claim to help out with travel planning and organization, and there’s a clear winner between the two.

On the surface Dopplr and Tripit are similar – basically you tell the site about your upcoming travels and it will tell you when any of your friends will be in the same place as you are at the same time. It also organizes your travel info into an itinerary which it supplements with other info such as maps, weather, and things to do. You can decide who has access to your trip information and add other users as friends.

Both sites allow you to enter trip information manually, or you can forward your confirmation emails for flights, hotels, etc., and have the site extract the information itself. This feature is key, since I have no desire to perform data entry in order to use a site that is supposed to be making my life easier. TripIt does an infinitely better job with this feature than Dopplr does.

Dopplr seems to be more popular with other bloggers I know, but I’m not sure why. It has done a horrible job of interpreting travel emails. For example, I forwarded it my plane reservation for an upcoming trip to Dublin, and instead Dopplr decided I was going to From, Norway, for almost a year. For another trip Dopplr has me in Night, Canada, one day and Armonai, Lithuania, the next, when in fact I’ll be in Bavaria the whole time. Dopplr also thinks I spent a week in More, England, when in fact I was in Toulouse. Tripit got all those bookings right the first time.

I really like the itinerary presentation on TripIt. It includes vital info about flights and hotels, plus weather and maps for your destination. Flight listings include a handy button which links to the airline’s online check-in. TripIt also has an iPhone app which my husband loves.

Dopplr seems to focus on giving you other information about your destination – restaurant reviews, hotels, sites, etc. – and it encourages you to add your own reviews. Dopplr doesn’t present your itinerary in as useful of a format, but it does keep a copy of confirmation emails handy in case you need to look up information.

The only clear advantage I see to Dopplr is that as of now more people I know use it than use TripIt. This is important for the second big advantage of these sites, i.e. their ability to let me know when friends and I will be in the same place at the same time. A site needs a critical mass of users for this to really work. The easiest way for me to check to see if most of my friends will be in a certain place at the same time as me? Announcing an upcoming trip in my Facebook status.

I’ve been using both sites for about six months now, but I think I’m about to ditch Dopplr for good. Now if only I could get all my friends to sign up for TripIt.

Do you use any travel websites like these? What’s your opinion on them?

Tags: travel, websites

The quick brown fox flies over the lazy Olypiastadion

After more than a year and a half in Munich, we finally made it out to Munich’s Olympiapark. What finally got us there was the flying fox they have up for a few months. We decided to do it together with the Zeltdach-Tour (tent roof tour), which made for a good yet expensive couple of hours of entertainment.

The architecture at the Olympiapark is quite striking, and the roof tour focused on the history of the structures as well as their unique features. It was surprisingly interesting. There was no mention of any tragedies that may have been connected with these particular Olympics.

We were put into some pretty serious safety gear. It seemed quite excessive for the roof tour part, but like just enough when it came to flying across the stadium hanging from a wire.

The step off the side of the roof is a big one.

Reservations are recommended for the Zeltdach-Tour, but it sounds like you can do the flying fox without calling ahead. Instead of doing the combination tour like we did, I think I’d recommend reading up on the architecture of the Olympiapark on your own and saving €40 by doing just the flying fox. You still get to go onto the roof for it.

Tags: Germany, Munich, temporary insanity

There’s a new lady bag in town

German Company Invents Pocket Toilet for Women

Lady Bags became sort of a conversational leitmotiv during the Whiny Expat Bloggers Meet-Up. We think they should market these at Oktoberfest by handing them out to bedirndled women waiting in long bathroom lines. Except they’re going to have to make them bigger, first, since I believe most women pee around once per Maß, and the gel can only absorb half a liter.

And I thought these Lady Bags were weird.

Have you ever peed in a yogurt cup during a road trip? Yeah, me neither. I guess it’s a German thing.

Tags: huh?

Munich: So many bloggers

Whew, what a weekend. We Munich bloggers had the honor of hosting this year’s Whiny Expat Blogger Meet-Up. Bloggers from the far corners of Germany descended upon us for a weekend of eating, drinking, wandering around, and lots and lots of conversation. We tried to give everyone a glimpse of our city with some unexpected twists.

One stop on our walking tour involved watching the famous Eisbach surfers. Urban surfing at its best.

Another fun stop was the Anglia English Bookshop (Schellingstraße 3, near the Universität Ubahn stop), which has a nice selection and reasonable prices compared to what you’ll find at other English bookshops in Germany.

While we were tempted to require everyone to consume Bavarian food (washed down with liters of beer) for every single meal, in the end we opted for a delicious Ethiopian dinner at Blue Nile on one evening. This was a nice break for those who are not so skilled at peeling Weißwurst.

Dinner was followed by That Queer Expatriate’s Queer Expedition, an annual tradition of sorts. This time it was held at Mylord, an absolutely charming little bar in the middle of the Glockenbachviertel (Munich’s gayborhood). The furnishings are just like those at your grandmother’s house, assuming your grandmother has been a chain smoker for the last 60 years and has a penchant for erotic lesbian art.

Sunday morning started with a stroll through the Theresienwiese to catch a glimpse of the Oktoberfest tents. Looks like they’re almost ready to go.

And as a grand finale, we went on a little pilgrimage to Munich’s very own public shrine to Michael Jackson (to be found on Promenadeplatz), which was skillfully scoped out by the HeidelbergerInnen. Notable features included a creepy drawing of a little boy cowering in a corner and a panda bear humping a mattress spring.

Even though I failed to talk anyone into buying lederhosen, the weekend was a blast. It was such a great group of people who made me laugh harder than I have in a long, long time. Posts from other bloggers about the meet-up:

• That Queer Expatriate’s first impressions of Munich
• Christina G’s favorite photos from the weekend
• Cliff practically begs me to post embarassing photos of him on the internet
• Mandi gives us a WEBMU Saturday play-by-play (minus TQEQE)
• Snooker had fun here, too
• Mausi absolutely loved Munich

Tags: bloggers and the people who love them, Germany, Munich