Munich in September + October

Rather than writing about everything we've been up to I figure people enjoy photos more anyway.

Here's some of the fun September and October brought our way...

September

visitors decked out in their Bavarian best at the Oktoberfest

brotzeit

plenty of pretzels and beer

Münchener Kind'l street art

October

views from the Gaisberg

Auer dult

Autumn leaves

incredible weather

... as for November, we were once again traveling and trying to decide where to spend Christmas. 

Augustiner Oktoberfest Beer Ice Cream

The natural choice for beer ice cream is Munich's Beer: Augustiner.

Augustiner Oktoberfest Ice Cream (adapted from Antoine Westermann's recipe) has the sweetness of ice cream with the lingering hops and beer flavor. The difficult part is putting enough sugar in to make it scoopable, yet not so much that it overwhelms the beer. My friends Jeremy and Emily have the tip to blend it up before putting it in the ice cream maker to add some air.

If I was in Ohio I think it would pair perfectly with a pretzel cone from Graeter's, but for now I just have to eat it with pretzel sticks. I'll have to bring some cones back on my next visit home.

Cheapest Oktoberfest Maß

If you're running low on cash or simply want to experience another of Munich's great characteristics head towards Haidhausen and make a stop at the Muffathalle Biergarten (S-bahn Rosenheimerplatz).

It's likely the least expensive Maß of Oktoberfest beer and costs just 4.80€ for one liter (from Hofbräuhaus).

The atmosphere is charming -  right near the Isar River and it's open later than normal biergartens. On weekends they often have live music, too.

The hours are Monday - Thursday (15:00 - open end) + Friday - Sunday (noon - open end).

Maybe I'll see you there!

Kowloon

(This post is a follow up from our trip around the world. I will be writing a recap for each place we visited during our 4 month trip. Prior to Hong Kong we also visited India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam).

As a rather large city Hong Kong is split by Victoria harbor into two areas - Kowloon + Hong Kong Island. They are slightly different from one another, although both impressive. There are countless skyscrapers and it's an interesting mix of Chinese meets Western culture. It is densely populated with a very capitalistic mentality, which is so different from China.

- While many of the buildings do have lit ads on the top, it seems to lack billboards and ads that you'd expect to see in a city of this size. The building height in combination with the proximity to mountains and water make the city so visually stunning. It's been given the title of 'Most vertical city in the world', which is easy to understand.

- Something we enjoyed was staying in various areas of the city. For the first few days we stayed on the Kowloon side. We took a short trip to Macau and then came back and stayed on Hong Kong Island. It gave us a better idea of what Hong Kong was about by having a base in various areas of the city.

- Much of the city seems to be underground. Once again it's mall after mall and many of them are connected underground. It's a shoppers paradise, although I'm not sure who is buying everything. Many of the stores are higher end and after seeing our third Burberry store in 10 minutes we no longer batted an eye at it. Brands are evidently the way people here demonstrate their status. After seeing everyone plastered in Louis Vuitton and the like it felt rather trite.

- We ventured down to the Harbor / touristy area called Tsim Sha Tsui (TST). Of course a large mall was waiting in the midst. Thankfully they not only contain shops, but also restaurants and grocery stores. One quick walk through the grocery assured us that anything and everything we could ever want would be attainable.

- A few unexpected Autumn surprises came for us. We were able to meet up with my friend Jeff who was studying in Hong Kong and we celebrated at - Oktoberfest!

- We were a bit disappointed they were serving Löwenbräu, especially since there isn't a shortage of German beer... but that didn't ruin our fun.

- Their Oktoberfest is filled with more games and odd songs. Some of the band was from Rettenberg in Allgäu, while other members came from Munich. I'm not really sure what their streaker pot dance was about, but the crowd was certainly hysterically laughing.

- Although we are partial to Oktoberfest in Munich, we have to give it to Hong Kong for giving a full hearted attempt with one stunning background. It's funny to think I've celebrated Oktoberfest in Cincinnati, Chicago, Hong Kong, and of course Munich. This was said to be Asia's biggest Oktoberfest.

- The Kowloon side is busy with shopping, restaurants, and markets oriented towards electronics, gold fish, and jade.

-We even stopped by the night market to see the city awaken. All of our thoughts about being able to obtain virtually anything were reiterated. It's amazing how international the city is while still retaining it's Chinese spirit.

- The array of foods, goods for sale, and smells in the air is immense. It's a bit of sensory overload, but in a good way.

- If the smells and sights aren't enough stimulation there is also a spectacular light show along the harbor with lots of lights and colors every evening.

- The light show is most dazzling from the Kowloon side, but it's definitely worth checking out.

- Jeff gave us several tips that we took to heart, including a restaurant for dim sum, which was a really great meal. I was enamoured with their fish tank and all of the little ones that would come up to check out the fish.

- There were a few interesting things outside of the lack of ads, that we noticed around Hong Kong. One, was that the money was issued by different banks and had different apperances. There was even a $10 coin and a $10 note. Strange. Another thing was the free internet in the public parks, which we greatly appreciated.

Oktoberfest details

Here are some statistics from this year's Oktoberfest:

6.4 million visitors (I went 5 times)
7 million Maß (7 liters were mine)
100,000+ hendl chickens
117 oxen (we saw Hubert)
62 fights with Maß krugs
140 bodily harm offenses

Lost and Found:
1450 pieces of clothing
770 passports
420 wallets
420 mobile phones
366 keys
90 cameras
37 children
1 pug
1 rabbit
1 tennis racket
1 leather whip
1 tuba
1 hearing aid
... and a pair of dentures.

Oddly it seems as though it's turning into a costume free-for-all with people dressing in ridiculous outfits. Outside of the Winzerer Fähndl tent we overheard security telling a man, 'This is not a carnival'... and he 'would not be allowed to enter dressed like that'. I was surprised, but happy to hear that.

Here are a few of my favorite things throughout:

kitschy München lights, obatzda, the 50m ferris wheel (I rode it twice!)

lots of brewery horses

wooden kegs, an Augustiner Maß, + Käfer's Brotzeit

lebkuchen hearts...

while edible and wonderful smelling, the taste is a disappointment

special postmark + the memorial to the 1980 attack victims

over partied guys

We had such a great time with so many friends coming to see us. Hopefully we'll have just as many next year! Thanks to my friend Cait, who joined me on the ferris wheel where I was able to take the beautiful photo at the top on Friday evening.

Oktoberfest Tents

This year I visited every single Oktoberfest tent and took photos of the interiors + exteriors for those that weren't able to make it.

Here they are in order of appearance on Wirtsbudenstraße + Matthias-Pschorr-Straße from the main gate up the right side and down the left:

Hippodrom

Armbrustschützenzelt

Hofbräu-Festzelt

Hacker-Festzelt ('Himmel der Bayern')

Schottenhamel

Winzerer Fähndl

Schützen-Festhalle

Käfer Wiesen Schänke

Weinzelt

Löwenbräu-Festhalle

Bräurosl (Hacker-Pschorr)

Augustiner-Festhalle

Ochsenbraterei

Fischer Vroni

Oktoberfest 2010

Going to the Oktoberfest is always fun. I love seeing the different tents, decorations, and small details. It's also nice to go at various times of day to see the way the light changes.

The second week looks to be much chillier and with a bit of rain. That is one change I could do without, but I'm glad we were able to enjoy it with bright blue skies and the last of the summer sun.

Cat + Beth brought their dirndls along, so they were set and ready to go. Our first Wies'n visit was opening weekend, but thankfully with reservations at the Schottenhamel tent.

Reservations typically include vouchers for 2 Maß + 1/2 of a chicken. Even though the vouchers come with a tip for the waitstaff it's wise to give them at least a Euro extra for prompt service. It's easy to understand how the workers make a fair amount of money during the Wies'n, but they definitely earn it.

Stefan joined us after running a half marathon and looked dashing as ever in his lederhosen. We had a great time singing our hearts out. Perhaps I haven't visited enough this year to pin the 'Wies'n Hit', but the band's rotation was really great and included crowd favorites that you can download for your own celebrations:

'Das Geht Ab' - Frauenarzt + Manny Marc
'Ein Kompliment ' - Sport Freunde Stiller (the local favorite)
'Skandal im Sperrbezirk' - Spider Murphy Gang
'Hofbräuhaus Lied' - Wilhelm Gabriel
'Anton Aus Tirol' - DJ Ötzi
'Anita' - Costa Cordalis
'Country Roads' - John Denver
'Er Gehört zu Mir' - Marianne Rosenberg
'Viva Colonia' - De Höhner
'Fürstenfeld' - S.T.S.
'Hände zum Himmel'
'So ein schöner Tag' (Fliegerlied) - Tim Toupet

We'll be visiting several more times as friends and visitors arrive. I'm hoping to get up the courage to ride the sky swings or ferris wheel at dusk, because I'm sure the photos would be incredible.

Vintage Oktoberfest

Since Oktoberfest began 200 years ago it is more of a celebration than ever, although this is a photo of the calm before the storm. Vendors were finishing their set ups and Theresienwiese was relatively quiet.

The old-fashioned area with old rides, costumes, animals, and horse races opened the day before the actual kick off, so we were happy to take part in the festivities. It costs 4€ to enter, but it's definitely worth checking out. After all Jubileumswiesn was 200 years in the making!

The animal area is very impressive. They have sheep, cows, horses, rabbits, turkeys, and freshly hatched chicks.

Keeping with the Oktoberfest theme there is plenty of beer, but the beer in the Jubileums area is slightly different. All 6 breweries got together to help in creating it the old way straight from the wooden kegs and it's available at the Festzelt for 8.80€ / litre. It's a bit stronger in taste and alcohol.

It appeared as though many tourists didn't realize it was happening, because there weren't as many people as I would have expected.

On our way over I was talking to our cab driver about the supposed controversy between several brothels in the area. One is said to give the cabbies 120€ / person they bring, so the other brothel is complaining. He said since he's a day driver he doesn't know too much about it, but he did say he had a Turkish business man that wanted a 'typical German woman'. He wasn't sure what that meant, so he took him to several brothels to check out the ladies. The cab driver said the Turkish man found one he liked, but she was the cleaning lady and her services weren't for sale. Cab driver stories are always so random.

Amazingly we were his first trip to Oktoberfest this year.

In the Festzelt there were traditional Goaßlschnalzen whip crackers and locals with their festive costumes and kitted out tracht.

It makes me love our city that much more - they definitely know how to celebrate and incorporate tradition at every turn. They also make things so family friendly.

This is a great site to buy Oktoberfest decor and celebrate yourself if you're not able to make it.