Nate Comes to Visit! aka A Trip to Oktoberfest

I apologize, first and foremost, for my perfidy in not updating in over a week now. Best intentions aside, things....got in the way. Such is life. But here I am, back with more German tales! 

Most recent piece of news is that my boyfriend, Nate (who most of you know is currently living in Sofia, Bulgaria studying on a Fulbright scholarship), came over to visit for the weekend (that being Saturday through Tuesday). This being the first time we'd seen each other in just shy of two months, it was truly a fantastic weekend with lots of sightseeing and fatty food and tourist-y-ness and really just a lot of fun. We did, of course, drink plenty of (read: too much) beer, including a trip to Oktoberfest (that deserves its own paragraph), have a lot of good food, and made the most out of his three-day trip. A few highlights include:

Watching the surfers in the Eisbach of the Isar River in the English Gardens

Visiting the Chinesischer Turm biergarten in the English Gardens. (Though we got our beers elsewhere to avoid the incredible lines and jacked-up prices.)

Actually getting beers at one of my favorite cafes Augustiner am Dom, right next to the enormous Frauenkirche. 

A comment in regards to that last photo: German pretzels (Brezen) are some of the most delicious things known to man, and taste even better when dipped in senf (mustard), preferably spicy honey-mustard. Also, this cafe is wonderful for keeping prices down. Though the beer's €4 for half a liter, the side dishes are quite generous and cheap!

Also, German restaurants are super sneaky and trick you into eating their bread. Not at like a nice restaurant, per se, but relaxed outdoor cafes like this one put a basket of rolls and pretzels on the table, chuckle snidely as they watch unassuming Americans used to gratis bread chow mindlessly away, and then when it's time for the check, charge them per piece of bread consumed. It's not cool. Fortunately I was forewarned as to this concept, so our pretzel consumption was with the knowledge we'd be forced to pay. 

Paid a visit to the beautiful Frauenkirche in downtown Munich

More Frauenkirche

And of course, a traditionally tourist-y picture in front of the Rathaus (City Hall) in Marienplatz. (Sorry Nate, disgusting to put this up, I know.)

Oktoberfest

I contemplated making this its own entry, but that just seemed like too much work and I don't have that many stories, so bear with me on the length of this blog and take it as my apology for not writing for a week! If you'd rather hear some more mundane stories, skip down a few paragraphs.

Nate and I headed out to Oktoberfest on Sunday night, not really knowing what to expect. The trains have been full of people in Tracht (dirndls and lederhosen) since the fest began, but actually seeing the festival itself was something else. The subway takes you right to Theresienwiese, the huge meadow where the festival takes place. We arrived at about 8 PM, so it wasn't terribly packed, but there were definitely a LOT of people, mostly wearing aforementioned traditional clothing. It really is a lot like a huge state fair; there are rides everywhere, from bumper cars to swings to terrible swinging rolling dizzying rides that seem like a terrible idea at a festival dedicated to beer. There are haunted houses, magic shows, and food EVERYWHERE, from pretzels to rolls to grilled corn to huge hunks of meat. The highlights of the fest are the tents. These are where the magic really happens. 

For beer to be served at the fest, it has to be brewed within the Munich city limits, so there are only a few types of beer that can be found, and each tent only serves one kind. (These include Augustiner, Spaten, Paulaner, Hofbräu, Löwenbrau.) There are fourteen of the big tents at the fest, and each can hold about 5,000 people. To throw some Wikipedia statistics at you, just for the heck of it, last year at Oktoberfest there were 6.4 million visitors who consumed 7.1 million liters of beer, 522,000 chickens, 104 oxen, and leave behind about 1,000 tons of trash. Delicious. You can also only get a liter of beer (called a Maß), so no being a wimp! This liter costs about nine euro at any tent you'll go to. 

We had basically no foreknowledge of this going in, so it was all really confusing. Having been given the heads-up that none of the tents were full and which were supposedly the best, we headed first to the Hippodrome, which is by far the most popular. With no seats to be found and drunken people screaming everywhere, as well as a loud band playing traditional music and waiters and waitresses who'd smash into you with their platters and steins if you stopped moving, we left, bewildered, in search of something we understood. We walked around the Fischer Kroni tent, realizing upon entrance that the name comes from the fact that the only food they serve there is fish, and boy does it smell like it. We finally made it to the Armbrustschützenzelt, one of the huge Paulaner tents, and found a seat outdoors in the smoking section.  We got our hands on a beer apiece and sat awkwardly for awhile amidst hordes of--pardon my obscenity--utterly shitfaced people. We managed to befriend some Australians for a bit, then headed off in search of something else. At the Augustiner tent we got a liter between us, chatted with a German couple sitting with us, then were told the tent was closing and to get out. (The fest closes at 10 PM; seems ridiculous, but it also opens at 9 AM....) Our new friends told us they know of a tent that stayed open later, and we managed to get into the Käfer beer garden, apparently one of the most exclusive places at the fest. The place was utterly packed with people, but we found a table and drank...enough beer, certainly. A couple photos:

Inside the Augustiner tent

Nate with our German buddy at the Käfer tent

Augustiner tent. We're actually standing on a table post some song everyone stood up for. No idea what.

Finally left the fest at about 12:30. By the time we realized we were lost and took a cab to the train station, it was past the time when the subways run, so we took another cab to another train station to catch the bus. Unfortunately for us we missed the night bus by literally one minute, and those only come once an hour, so we shivered in the cold until 2:57, when we finally got a bus back to my house and stumbled home. Quite a night.

End Oktoberfest//

We also spent some time with the kids. Anne gave me as much time off as she could, so yesterday all we had to do was pick Kilian up from his playgroup, take him to tennis, then entertain Cliona for about an hour. Despite way too much walking, the day was beautiful and it was a peaceful afternoon. Kilian started out being very suspicious of the idea of Nate (he doesn't understand what a boyfriend is and generally thinks I'm being very selfish to only have one; he has lots, why don't I?), but warmed to him instantly and had a lot of fun talking about Porsches and Audis with him.

Nate headed back to Bulgaria at 5 PM this afternoon (and is in the air as I write, I hope), so naturally the rest of the day was a bit mopey. After quite some excitement with getting him headed off (to make a long story short, after he barely made it on the train to the airport we realized I was carrying one of his backpacks...a train station rendezvous and two missed shuttles later, he was finally on his way. Having not talked to him yet, I'm going to feel like a total idiot if he did end up missing his flight, so fingers crossed!) I'm awful at goodbyes in the best of situations, and though we've been doing a lot of goodbye-ing lately, it really never gets any easier for me. I'm eating a chocolate bar right now though, and that's helping.

Picked the kids up from school and talked them into going to the grocery store so we could make a fruit salad for dinner. Unfortunately for me, Cliona's (probably) getting her last molars in, so she screamed pretty much non-stop from the time I picked her up until the time she went to bed. She ate maybe a bite of her dinner and threw most of her fruit on the floor, howling the entire time. I was so not in the mood today. Fortunately her father came home, packed her sobbing self off to bed an hour early, and I could relax, which consists of watching Simsala Grimm with Kilian sitting on my lap (an animated kids fairy-tale show) and then sneaking off to my basement room to contemplate the rest of my week. 

Other stuff has been pretty low-key. Managed to set up my checking account Monday morning (with a rather hungover banking representative who typed everything wrong and said "Oops-a-la! Ugh...Montag" when she noticed). Plan for tomorrow is to get signed up for a language course, hopefully starting next week! 

I'll leave you with a photo of the kids from the park last week. They are incredible goofs, basically.

On a lot of stuff

Life has become somewhat too complicated to give a super in-depth update, so I'll settle for some highlights for this entry. (You can translate that as, yes, I have been meaning to update for like four days but have failed miserably. Oh well.) I've also been accused (falsely, of course) of copying other people's blogs, so I'll do my best to be completely original in this post.


Things of Interest in the Last Week:


Kilian started (and ended) fußball:
       Probably everyone who has any knowledge of soccer knows that it's basically a religion in Germany. Kilian's been looking forward all week to having his first football practice. He got his new schienbeinschützer (shinguards) and of course has been wearing them around the house every day. When Thursday night rolled around, however, Kilian started crying to his mom about how he didn't want to go to football because he wouldn't be able to score any goals and his team would lose. His mother of course assured him that it didn't matter, it was about having fun, and he was somewhat relieved. His dad came home early from work the next day to take him to his football practice (good father-son bonding, of course).
      Interesting comment: Kilian was very concerned all week that Cliona not be told about his playing football. (Her obsession with the ich auch coming into play.) Therefore, whenever anyone brought it up, Kilian freaked out, hissing "Not in front of my sister!!" and would say to her, "Nein, Cliona, not playing football! Papi and I go to the store!" Which is super cute but does rather encourage dishonesty...
     Anyway, off Kilian and his papa went to football while Anne and I stayed home with Cliona and made dinner. They returned about an hour later with a super grumpy Kilian who refused to talk about football except to say he was never going back. Michael explained to us that he didn't understand that in football/soccer, you had to go get the ball yourself because the other kids weren't supposed to pass it to you. He apparently just stood on the side the whole time, angry because no one would give him the ball. It was super sad. His parents are trying to persuade him to go back next Friday to give it one more try, but we'll see what ends up happening...

Construction continues:
      But I finally have a bathroom! It's lovely to not have to stumble up the dark, steep stairs to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I also got to take a shower, which was incredible (literally no shower in the house for three full days....ouch). However, the banging continues, and more than the banging, the drilling continues. They're really doing a full bathroom re-do: knocking down walls, taking out tiles and plumbing. It's quite an incredible job. Long story short, the kids are utterly terrified of the sound. (I admit I am a bit too; when it was in the basement it was bearable, but when it's on the second floor, it shakes the whole house. Working in the kitchen just under where they're doing the drilling is terrifying.) So Thursday, when I got them home from school, we made some sandwiches and went to have our dinner at the park.
        Interjection: These workmen are ridiculous. They arrive at the house promptly at 7 AM and often have to be asked to leave at 7 PM. Last week they finally left the house at 7:57 PM one night. (Bear in mind Cliona goes to bed at 7 PM, so this really doesn't work.)
        Anyway, park time. One would think taking kids to the park would be very straightforward, but it requires a lot of attention-giving. Cliona will fall down the steps at the slightest provocation, so I have to be there with a hand under her bum most of the time. The bad part about having a helpful au pair to catch you whenever you fall is that it's easy to stop paying attention. At one point I was pushing her up the slide (she insists on being able to climb up it but definitely can't do it herself). This slide is metal, quite steep, and about three feet taller than I am, so though I can push her up, she needs to hold on to the bars and pull herself up at the top. This isn't too much to ask; she's almost three and is certainly capable. This time, however, she got distracted by boys on bikes or something, let go of the bars, and fell backwards. Fortunately I grabbed her before she could hit her head, but it definitely scared both of us, and at that point I refused to help her do any more slide climbing, which made her shriek. She's quite an excellent noisemaker and the whole park stared at us. Awkward.

Cliona--tree-climbing girl!

         About ten minutes later, Kilian ran up to tell me he had to use the toilet. Public restrooms in the park? Not on your life. The house is about a seven-minute walk from the park, but he said he had to go now. So we retreated to the woods that surround the park, and I held Kilian by his shoulders and knees in my arms while he "macht Kaka." I tried so hard not to be utterly disgusted by it, but really, holding someone in your arms while they poo on the ground? I don't make enough money to do that. Oh my goodness.


Some experience with German bureaucracies and cafes:
       I went last Thursday to attempt to get my visa. I was pretty nervous doing this alone; my German's good but words like "residence permit" and "registration" and "health insurance verification" weren't really covered in my German classes. I made it to the place with no trouble, got through the first line to get a number to get into an office, and sat and waited.
       Germans are not only very efficient, they're smart. This office was incredibly well-organized, and about every twenty minutes and woman would come through the room with a cart of coffee, tea, soft drinks, muffins, and brezen (pretzels) for sale, at quite reasonable prices. Imagine if the DMV did something like that!
      When my number was called, I went to the room on the board, but opening it a crack, I saw people already in there so I didn't go in, assuming (sillily) that the machine was broken and the room number was wrong. My number kept blinking as I waited outside the door, and finally they called the next number, and a woman went in. I followed her in, confused, finally realizing that there were two desks in each room to attend to two people at a time. The woman looked at me frostily, informed she had "dreimal Ihre Nommer geruft" (called my number three times), and told me angrily to "Warten Sie draußen" (wait outside). I nervously sat outside the door for like twenty minutes, on the verge of tears (I am not a typical crier but being yelled at by authority figures sends me back to kindergarten), with visions of being deported from the country/denied a visa because the lady didn't like me. I was almost glad when she finally called me in and we discovered I was missing a form that my family needed to fill out. So I'm back to the visa office (Kreisverwaltungsreferat) probably tomorrow.
      Not wanting to waste a trip into the city, it being a beautiful day, I headed into Marienplatz to do some sightseeing. I wandered around a bit, looked in some old churches, and settled down at an outdoor cafe to have some lunch and enjoy the day. I was seated quite near the register, so figured it would be quite easy. The waitress brought me a menu, left for a bit, came back, and I ordered a cappuccino. My cappuccino arrived and I sipped it for a bit, assuming she would come back soon to ask about my food. An hour passes. My cappuccino is long gone and my stomach is growling. Every time the waitress comes by I try to catch her eye, but look back down at my book so I don't seem rude every now and then. Not sure if I was supposed to raise my hand? Call out something loudly? Other people were getting service, but I never noticed them doing anything to get it. Finally, the time drawing near that I needed to be back to pick up the kids, I got the nerve to shyly squeak out an Entschuldigung, kann ich einen Baguette haben...? (Excuse me, can I have a baguette?) Clearly there's still something I'm not getting.

College parties--the same everywhere:
       Friday night a friend invited several of us English-speakers to a party she and her roommates were having. She lives in a student housing area with mostly students, so it was a good chance to go and meet some people at any rate. I met the other girls I knew outside and we went in. Sadly, the news that it was a white-T-shirt party had gotten lost by the time it got to me, so I was the loser in a brown shirt. Awkward. The party was only about 20-25 people, mostly Germans, and the easy thing to do was hang out in the hall with the English speakers, but I awkwardly persevered, stood like a loner in the kitchen where everyone was for like twenty minutes, then finally got up my nerve to talk to some of the guys there. Before I knew it, we were all chatting away in German about college, music, choir, Munich, differences in German cities, anything. It was tons of fun to actually talk to people! Definitely the most German speaking I've ever done.
      Germans take their toasting very seriously. The traditional toast is Prost, which you've definitely heard if you ever watched "Beerfest." Which I highly recommend, incidentally. But toasting is nothing like in the US, when we haphazardly call out cheers and clink a couple glasses. In Germany, it's incredibly rude to not look the specific person you're toasting in the eye as you do it. (The legend is that if you don't, you'll be cursed with bad sex for seven years.) And if someone wants to toast with you and your glass is empty, you'd better find whatever is near you to fill it up. This happens very frequently. I see why Germans drink so much--they're just trying to toast properly!

Oktoberfest begins:
     No, I haven't gone yet. I will though, fear not. The madness started on Saturday with a parade through the city. Lots of Bavarian pride; the mayor taps the first keg! I, sadly, was on babysitting duty with some very crabby kids, angry they were being sent out of the house so their parents could paint the bathroom.

With the kids at the library (that's Kilian in the background)

I went into the city at about 1:30 to meet up with some new people. Had coffee with a girl from London, and it was one of the most boring experiences ever...we had nothing to talk about, whatsoever. The couple sitting next to us were fortunately quite nice and glad to practice their English on us, so that helped a bit. After that, I walked around a while, went to the post office, and sat down in the sun next to the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz to await the arrival of another girl I was supposed to meet up with.

Glockenspiel on the Rathaus in Marienplatz

     German weather is impressive mainly because of its variability. I woke up that Saturday to cold, pouring rain. By the time we were finished at the library with the kids it was warm enough to go get ice cream for them. And by the time I was reading in Marienplatz it was about 85 degrees and I was feeling like an idiot in my long-sleeved shirt and scarf. The Glockenspiel goes off three times a day, and one of those happened to be at 5 PM, when I was sitting there. From what I've heard, it's really a pretty boring Glockenspiel, so I didn't get up to watch, but it was pretty funny watching the crowds watching the Glockenspiel. They all ooh-ed and ah-ed everytime something changed and it was pretty funny to watch.  The city was full of people wearing dirndls and lederhosen (and carrying beer bottles, surprise!).

Jolly drunken dirndl girls

       The girl I was supposed to meet finally showed up at around 5:30 and we walked around for a while talking and then went to get a beer at a cafe right near the Frauenkirche called Augustiner am Dom.  The beer was delicious and the people there were hilarious and drunk, occasionally bursting into song, and we passed a lovely three hours or so chatting about au pair-ing and Harry Potter and boyfriends and Germany.

Good touristy photo

       After paying for our beers, we headed out to walk around. It seemed like it was starting to rain, amazingly after such a hot day. After a short walk we encountered some very drunk Argentines who wanted to know where the English Gardens were. After trying to explain it to them, we agreed to walk them there, and off we set on our mission. Feeling a little weird about heading off into the darkness with these drunken fools, we took a train up to a closer station to where they wanted to go, but when we got off, the rain had gotten a lot heavier. We walked about half a kilometer to where I'd thought the entrance was, but we went the wrong way...oops. When it suddenly started pouring, my friend and I looked at each other, yelled a goodbye to the confused Argentines, and ran pell-mell back to the train station, arriving out of breath, soaking wet, and laughing like crazy.

      The train ride home was fairly disgusting. Not only was it incredibly cramped, full of wet, sweaty, drunks wearing sodden lederhosen and chanting at the top of their lungs about FC Bayern, there was an impressive amount of vomit on the floor of the train, which mixed with the rainwater people tracked in to make really an impressive soupy mess on the floor. That was a long ride. Seriously.  

The pouring rain continues:

      And it's supposed to until Tuesday! Ouch. It's also about 44 degrees right now and I am cold. Headed to the movie theater today with a couple of friends to see "Friends with Benefits" (in English, fortunately). It was actually really funny, if you're looking for something to see/it's still out in the US. We then treated ourselves to dinner at a Mexican restaurant with another friend, and the fajitas and mojitos were actually quite authentic and delicious, accompanied by a mariachi singer who serenaded us throughout the evening. All in all, a lovely way to spend a Sunday. Now back in my pajamas, listening to the rain outside!

Have a lovely rest of your weekend, all!