Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany, 2007

Oktoberfest was on my mind, but not on the initial itenary. The travel agent mentioned that all hotels were booked and anything we can find would be extremely expensive. So, when we had one extra day after the bike tour, we jumped on the opportunity. About 40Euro, 70 minute train ride, we are in Munich. Another 10 minutes walk, we are in the middle of Oktoberfest, 2007.

The sound and the smell on the fairground reminded me of a traveling fair; hotdogs, pretzels, ferris wheels, puke inducing rides. But, beyond the usual fairground staples, massive tents poked through. Tents, more like giant wooden barns with local brewery names and colors occupied majority of the fairground.

It's took some doing to get into one of the tents. We gave up on finding a seat within the second we walked in. The humanity that filled that tent. Men and women, beer and more beer. Of course, we had to join in. Even though the beer cost twice as much. But, gosh darn it, we drank a beer at the real Oktoberfest!

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Vienna, Austria

Vienna is the first stop of our Bavarian trip. We flew from NY JFK to Vienna, with a stopover at Frankfurt Germany. Red-eye flight, my favorite. Getting from the Viennese airport to downtown Vienna was extremely easy. A quick 4Euro trip on the CAT and we were in the center of town. I don't think we had to pay the 4Euro since no one came along to collect our ticket.

We stayed at the Hotel Goldene Spinne (Hotel Golden Spider) near the center of town. The hotel was about 5 minutes walk from the main tourist area, Stephanedom. With its proximity and cleaniness, the 65Euro a night was a good deal in my book. The bathroom in that establishment was awesome. The bathroom was almost worth the money.

First meal in Austria, horse goulash and beer. Yes, horse. I ate horse meat. Tasted a little like lamb and beef. It was good, and it was cheaper than beef goulash. Go figure. One thing I never anticipated or warned by the guide books, pushy Mozarts. Everywhere we went, someone is dressed like Mozart handing out pamplets or coupons for the night's Mozart concert. Mozart and Vienna, sure. But pushy Mozarts in every corner? That's worst than cheesy souvenir shops.

The best food in Vienna was the "hotdog" from the sausage stand. The only similarity between the Viennese "Hotdog" and the dirty water dog in NYC has a sausage in a bun. That's where the similarity ends. The stand is a permanent street structure, like a newpaper stand in NYC. There were at least 10 different type of sausages. I picked the spicy one. The vendor cuts the top of baguette, inserts a heating rod into the baguette. The rod creates the hole for the sausage and toasts the baguette from the inside. He inserts the cooked sausage into the freshly toasted bun, poured some cheese in the hole, and voila!. Hotdog. It was the best thing I have tasted yet. And it was cheap. Perfect as a quick snack or cheap dinner.

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