My 5 Must-Dos on Oktoberfest

This year's Oktoberfest ended one week ago.

I've lived in Munich for 3 years (with interruptions) so I'm not an authority on Oktoberfest. But I can suggest 5 Must-Dos for an awesome day at the world's biggest festival:








1. Start partying in a tent at 10 in the morning:

Nobody will argue that the tents are where all the party happens.
Especially on weekends the atmosphere is awesome! However, getting into a tent and getting a table on said weekends can be pretty hard. Because let's be honest - if you're not a born Münchner you hardly stand a chance to get a reservation. So getting up early and standing in line, anxiously hoping to get in, is neccessary. But you will be rewarded with great beer, food and a lot of fun.

Standing in line at 8 am

Once the "Bierausschank" starts (they start selling beer around 10 am) you can watch the guys hopping onto the tables trying to down their first Maß (1-liter-beer jug).

Obviously, have one or more Maß is a must. However, downing it is your decision. If you try, be prepared to get booed if you don't make it.

And on how to spend the rest of your time in a tent I can only advise: drink beer, eat Hendl, sing, dance on benches and enjoy :)

Hacker Tent - Bavarians' Heaven

2. Drink'n'drink'n'drink and eat'n'eat'n'eat

Enjoy the fresh Oktoberfest-Beer and some delicious food like a "Brezn" (pretzel) or "Hendl mit Kartoffelsalat" (roasted chicken with potato salad).
Outside of the tents there are also tons of booth that sell sweets like caramelized almonds or the famous gingerbread hearts displaying all kinds of sayings or lovers' nicknames.

Maß and caramelized almonds...yummy

Jugs

"I love you"

No Euros at hand? Just pay with the old German currency D-Mark!

3. Get on one of the fun rides

Oktoberfest is not only for drunk party people. It's also a nice festival for families with all the colorful fun rides. So get on one! I advise the ferris wheel because the view from above is awesome.

View from the ferris wheel

4. People watching at Tobbogan

Of all the fun rides, Tobbogan is my favorite even though I haven't even been on it! I just love watching the people riding it, especially when they're a little tipsy.
Tobbogan is one of the oldest rides on Oktoberfest, it has been there for 80 years. It's a simple slide but to get up there you need to get on some kind of conveyor belt. Keeping your balance on this conveyor belt seems to be pretty hard because people tumble and fall all over the place. Women and kids usually get a little help by the staff but men mostly want to try it on their own. I've seen a lot of guys doing involuntary somersaults, guys being dragged up by their collar from the staff and I've also seen a lot of butts from tumbling people. It's hilarious!

Successful Tobbogan surfer

butt alert

5. Finish the night at an After-Wiesn-Party

If you haven't had enough party after a whole day of beer, tents and rides you can end the night at one of the many After-Wiesn-Parties. Really famous is the Wiesnclub right behind the statue of Bavaria. At Wiesnclub basically everybody will be wearing Lederhosen and Dirndl. The further you get away from the festival site the more people in normal clothes you'll find. But whatever you're wearing, you'll definitely have some fun at Oktoberfest!

Wiesnclub

Bavaria watches over everything

Of course this selection of Must-Dos is just a tiny part of all the stuff you can do on Oktoberfest and I guess there's not right or wrong way to do it. Just make sure you enjoy every second :)
But for this year, it's Good-bye, auf Wiedersehen and Pfüa Gott. See you next year!

La dolce vita at Lake Garda - Impressions of Peschiera del Garda, Italy

I'm sorry I've been AWOL for the past couple of weeks. But my fingers were already cramping from writing my bachelor's thesis, so I wasn't able to type anything besides that damn thesis. But now I'm back and I brought you some pics and stories from the beautiful Lago di Garda in Italy.

To celebrate the separation from our thesises, me and my three girlfriends from University spent a wonderful weekend in Peschiera del Garda at the south bank of Lake Garda.We started out roadtripping from Munich and stopped for lunch in Innsbruck, Austria. After all the stress of the past few weeks this was the perfect start into a weekend without any pressure and la dolce vita - the sweet life!

Munich's Cat Café Katzentempel - my new favorite place!

I found my absolutely favorite Café in Munich: Germany's first "Katzencafé" Café Katzentempel, offering hot coffee, vegan food and cuddly cats!
The principle of a cat cafés is nothing new, at least not in Asia. The Japanese had this great idea to put two of my favorite things together - coffee and cats! So of course I was deeply jealous when I read a feature on a newly opened cat café in Vienna (the Café Neko) a few months ago, thinking I would totally be a regular there if I lived in Vienna. Imagine my joy when I heard that a cat café just recently opened in Schwabing's Türkenstraße.

So I went there this weekend and these are my impressions:

Moving into a Brisbane Queenslander

As a backpacker you often stay in hostels or couchsurf a bit. But when you know you’ll be staying in one city for a while and may be working there it can be a good idea to look for a permanent place. So here’s a little story how looking for a place in Australia can look like:

So there I was, moving into the house of that “Wolfe Creek”-Murderer-Look-alike. It was a nice, though a little shabby Queenslander just a few miles out of Brisbane. How did I get there?

 

The famous Queenslander

One day in Salzburg, Austria

Usually I’m a big fan of foreign countries as far away from Germany as possible. But when I spent a day in Salzburg last summer I was hooked. Salzburg is the epitome of an idyllic city. The rugged rocks rising up behind the city form a great contrast to the picturesque historic center with its elegant baroque style buildings. And there are lots of nice things to do and beautiful places to visit. 
So here’s my little list of how to spend one day in Salzburg.

Free stuff to do in and around California

As you might have already read I've spent 3 months in California end of 2012 studying at the University of California Riverside.
I had lots of free time and tried to use every second of it exploring Cali. And I found a few cool things you can do in (or around) Cali that are completely FREE! (wohoo! - who doesn't like that?)

Bull Riding in Western Australia

When I'm feeling stressed (like now with 13 finals smashed into one week) I always think of moments when I was completely relaxed and envy my past self.

Like in 2008 when I had spent 4 months on the Australian East Coast and just left for the West Coast. I wanted to find the real Australia, or at least what I imagined the real Australia to be like. You know, red soil, lots of kangaroos and no tourists, a lonely road seemingly leading nowhere…that kind of stuff. That wasn’t exactly what I found, but what I found instead was pretty much as real as Australia can be.

Beautiful Perth

The Smell of Hanoi

Pictures and travel diaries are great, but what really takes you back to a place all of a sudden is the smell. That’s what always happens to me when I walk past that Asian food shop and little cookshop on Rosenheimer Platz in Munich. The hot, greasy odor always takes me back to Vietnam within seconds.

Like Being in a Disney Movie - Beautiful Germany Part III

Two weeks ago, on May 1st to be exact, I went to see the most famous castle of Germany (and probably also the most well-known castle amongst the Japanese): Schloss Neuschwanstein.

Walt Disney even modeled his Sleeping Beauty Castle after Castle Neuschwanstein.
Want proof? There you go:

Beautiful Germany Part II

So here's another load of pictures:
When I visited my friend in Hamburg a few weeks ago we took a trip to the Baltic Sea. Which seemed kind of stupid because it was 10° C (about 50° F) at the  most and the sun only showed sporadically. But I had never been the Baltic Sea before, so I didn't mind the weather. We went to the beach at Timmendorfer Strand which is about an hour from Hamburg.