Czech Hockey Adventure: Salzburg and Oktoberfest

Last weekend we have off from hockey, so in my world as you probably know by now that means I’m traveling somewhere. This time it was Oktoberfest. We had talked about going awhile back in September on this weekend, but as we started looking most things were completely booked up or the hostels that were left were a little too expensive for our tastes. We talked about sleeping in the car, but then when Adi and Marie were here they other weekend, they offered us a place to stay at their house in Salzburg and suggested that we just take the train up to Munich. It’s only a two hour train ride that cost 10 Euro each there and back, pretty much the right price for us!

The drive to Salzburg was pretty nice, granted it rained most of the way so you could not see the mountains. Luckily the drive home on Sunday was sunny and the views were just amazing, with mountains and rolling hills everywhere! Upon arriving at Adi and Marie, we hung out with them in their flat for awhile and then went on a little tour of Salzburg in the rain and cold. Even though it was raining, the city was beautiful. It’s pretty picturesque almost fairytale like in the setting. There is a river running through town with old buildings lining it and on top of a hill overlooking the whole city is an amazing castle! You can see from the pictures below how beautiful it is!

A park in Salzburg where they filmed the Do-a-Deer song in the sound of music.

Roomies on the step...this is after Arielle and Chelsa renacted the song from the movie.

A view of the city on a Sunday, when it was not raining outside!

So beautiful!

Hanging out in the park

Picture of the scenery on the drive home.

After walking around for awhile, we then headed to the St. Augustine Monastery to eat and try some of the best beer there is, according to our friends. It was a pretty cool experience as the place is like an original beer hall. There are a couple of huge rooms full of tables, then outside a couple of hallways where you can buy different types of food, mostly Weinersnitzel and Knudel type of foods. Upon coming in you pick your size of glass...1 litre or half litre, then rinse it out from this big tap and then get it filled up from one of the many wood barrels full of beer. I’m not a beer lover at all, but mixed with Sprite or lemonade, also called a Rattler, I don’t mind it. And yes this was really good! Afterwards we took a long walk through the town at night looking at all the sights. It was pretty awesome at night as everything was lit up. Unfortunately I didn’t see everything in the city, nor explore all the places but I’ll definitely be going back.

The girls picking out their cups...

Hanging out at the beer hall...I woke up with an eye infection that morning - awesome!

A view of the beer hall

The next morning we took the train to Munich. Pretty much our whole train was full of people heading to Oktoberfest wear all the traditional garb. It was pretty crazy to see people drinking at 9am, but then again that’s normal on football game days in Wisconsin. We got to the Oktoberfest grounds at about 11am and things were pretty crazy by then already. It was a Saturday and the second last day of Oktoberfest so things were packed. We walked around for awhile taken in all the sights, then tried to head to a beer garden. Well they were all full, only a couple of areas outside were open. Would not be too bad if it was a nice day, but it was raining on and off all day, so we were looking for someplace with shelter. I ended up finding a side gate that was open so just walked right in to an area outside one of the beer gardens, with a bunch of tables and heaters set up outside. We found a table and sat down only to look back at a huge line of people lined up just to get into the overflow area where we were. We were all pretty excited to be in that area under some shelter and enjoy some beers, or rattlers, and German food. I really enjoyed meeting other people, mostly a German guys that we talked with for a long time, who enlightened us on the beginnings of Oktoberfest and all the traditions. It was a pretty awesome day hanging out with Chelsa and Arielle (Jeni was in Vienna) and enjoying the festivities, and eating the German food as you can see below...