Germany, Oktoberfest, Mountains, and Northern Italy: "Where is the Kahlua?" and Other Questions Never to Be Answered

Finally, an update? I've been super busy/sick, so a lot has happened. Beer, pretzels, pizza...errm, I mean, history, cobblestones...frescoes...?

Basel, Switzerland

Basel is stupidly pretty, and I kind of wished I could stay another night so I'd have the chance to sit on the steps by the river drinking a beer. I love drinking convenience store beers in exciting places, it's at least as good as drinking beers in brewpubs. I didn't think the prices were toooo unreasonable. I mean, it's not a cheap place, but I had three Swiss francs left and I managed to cobble together breakfast/lunch from the supermarket no problem. I was feeling good about the amount of money I took out at the ATM at this point.

Then when I went to buy my train ticket to Freiburg, I used a ticket machine that accepted both euro and Swiss francs. Since I didn't have any francs left and no ticket machine in Europe accepts my debit card apparently, I paid with some euro. And...it gave me francs back as change! Aaahh no! I was so close to having no leftover money!






Freiburg, Germany

I chose to go to Freiburg because it is nearby the Swiss/French borders and I could buy a pretty cheap bus ticket to Munich from there. It's known for its university and proximity to the Black Forest. Shortly after I arrived, it started pouring down rain. I'm not in the habit of checking weather forecasts in case anyone was wondering.

I climbed up a hill to an observation tower to get a view of the city and surroundings. I meant to go hiking in the Black Forest, but as I was on my way to the tram (called the VAG, make of that what you will), it started raining, so I went to a cafe and ate a slice of Black Forest cake instead. It's almost the same thing.


Oktoberfest - Munich, Germany

I took a very comfortable and strangely empty bus from Freiburg to Munich, where I was camping at a place called the Tent. I didn't go to Oktoberfest the first day I got there, since by the time I got settled in it was 7 pm. The Tent has been around forever and has bonfires every night, which was nice, because I was damn cold. I slept in my sleeping bag fully clothed with my coat on every night I was there. It was actually not as bad as it sounds, although camping alone in a 3-person tent is as lonely as it gets.

Inside the tent

I met three Irish guys and a Canadian guy who I went to Oktoberfest with the next day. We went to the Hofbrau tent, one of the biggest tents at the fest where loads of foreigners go. Here is how it works: you must have a seat at a table inside a beer tent to get served beer there. If you don't have a reservation (reservations require like 10 people), you go early to get a seat at a table and hold on for dear life. This is not difficult at all on the weekdays, which is when I was there, and my group spent a lot of time wandering around not at our table without issues. A waitress is assigned to your table and serves you all  your beer/food, and she is also only paid in tips so you better tip well. Beer is served only in steins and each stein is almost 10 euro. Lots of people are wearing lederhosen/dirndls, but not me. Sad face.

Oktoberfest is one of those things I, like so many others, just had to experience at least once. It's like fairgrounds, with the many beer tents among rides and stalls selling food and souvenirs. When I first walked into the Hofbrau tent, I thought, "This is what heaven must look like!" Is that blasphemous? Every once in a while, someone would stand up at a table and try to chug a full stein: if they succeeded, they were cheered. If not, they were booed. One of the Irish guys I was with decided to chug, and though he did succeed, he instantly got a nose bleed all over the table.

After two days spent at Oktoberfest, I woke up ill with an awful cold. I packed up my wet tent (it had rained, of course) and made it to the train station just in time to buy a pretzel before jumping on my train to Innsbruck.

Innsbruck, Austria

I decided to go to Innsbruck because it was not-Munich and it was on the way to Verona, where I was meeting Steve. It is a truly stunning city, with a beautiful old town set against a backdrop of mountains. I meant to do some hiking, but did some napping instead before hitting the old town for serious sight-seeing at the Swarovski store (the company originated in the area and they have some exhibits there).

Even though I really liked the city, I felt so, so sick by about 7 pm that I had to go to bed. I spent most of the night delirious/hallucinating, with my nose running nonstop. I'm sure I was very pleasant company for my dorm mates.

Verona, Italy

I did almost nothing but nap by the time I got to Verona. I had booked an actual hotel so that was nice. When Steve got there, we went for a little walk around the city and had a nice dinner. I'm sure it would have been very romantic if I wasn't still ludicrously ill. It was a really bad cold.

Bolzano, Italy

Cable car view

Lago di Carezza

Bolzano, in northern Italy in the Dolomites mountain range, is somewhere that Steve wanted to go. Like Innsbruck, it's a very scenic city with lots of hiking nearby. Our first day, we took a scenic cable car ride up to a town with views of the mountains and surrounding areas. The second day, before we left for Venice, we took a bus to Lago di Carezzo, a small lake famous for its bright blue/green water, and did some hiking around there.

We stayed at a pretty nice hotel in Bolzano with a great breakfast--fruit and yogurt bar, pastries, cheese--and now we are done with hotels and staying at hostels. Sad face. Happy face?

Venice, Italy

We didn't arrive until 8 pm or so and quickly drank a beer before heading out for a little walk. We got pretty lost in a non-touristy part of Venice that was mostly deserted and we were very reminded of the movie Don't Look Now. It was pretty great. Eventually we ran into a German guy who gave us his map of the city since he'd been there "about 30 times" already. 

We decided to go on to Slovenia next, and before we left, we walked to St. Mark's Square and then spent about an hour looking for a take-out pasta place that was actually only 2 minutes away. It was fresh pasta and really, really good. After that, we had some good gelato at a place called Alaska run by a nice old man--I had peanut and cinnamon and Steve had chocolate hazelnut. I feel the need to mention these places because there are SO MANY awful tourist traps in Venice.

Venice is understandably touristy--there's really nowhere else like it. However, the slow-moving crowds get old fast. After you're stuck behind the 800th 80 year old couple of the day hobbling along looking in each shop window, you're ready to go to Ljubljana.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

We took a train from Venice to Trieste in eastern Italy near the border with Slovenia and bought a bus ticket on to Ljubljana. It was easier than we expected it to be...until the bus broke down 45 minutes into the journey. We waited about an hour before a different bus came along and picked us up, and between that and the abnormal traffic, we got in about two hours later than expected. Still, not so bad. Ljubljana is a very nice, small city with a romantic old town. We went on an interesting walking tour today where they pointed out a dispenser at the market where you can get raw milk. Steve jokingly said we could make white Russians out of it, which prompted an hour-long search for Kahlua. We couldn't find any, which is probably a good thing....