Salzburg & Munich (Ich Liebe Dich!)

The weekend after Budapest, the first weekend of October, I traveled with Olivia to Munich for the last weekend of Oktoberfest. On our way there, we stopped in Salzburg for the afternoon/night. While on the train to Salzburg, I checked the map of Salzburg to figure out what I thought was the subway schedule that would take us to the closest location near our hostel. However, what I was looking at was actually a bus schedule! There are so many transportation systems (train, tram, subway, bus) that it gets a little confusing sometimes! We made it to Salzburg just in the nick of time for me to hop on a bus from the hostel and catch the Sound of Music tour. Olivia decided to stay in the hostel and rest before going shopping while I went on the tour. While the tour was a little overpriced and "touristy", I am glad that I decided to do it. Since we barely made it, a van from the tour had to come and pick me up as well two other girls (from Australia) who were also stopping over in Salzburg on their way to Oktoberfest. The tour took us to all of the famous sights shown in Julie Andrews' classic film "The Sound of Music." I saw the original gazebo, which is located in Hellbrunn park, a lovely area with gorgeous flowers. Also visited were the Leopoldskron-Palace (nestled by itself in a quaint little meadow across from a picturesque pond), The breathtaking Basilika Mondsee church (where the wedding scene of Maria to the Captain was filmed), and the beautiful Mirabell Gardens. Salzburg is a breathtaking city, one of the cleanest cities that I have visited so far. The small cobblestone streets, lit at night by illuminating streetlights, is quite romantic. The town, as the birthplace of Mozart, has so much rich musical inspiration. After the tour, Liv and I met up and had dinner at a quaint Indian-inspired restaurant called the Saran Essbar where we enjoyed a lovely meal or chicken, rice, and curry. Believe it or not, the girls from the Sound of Music tour met up with their boyfriends for a meal at the very same restaurant (funny coincidence!)
The next morning, before heading to Munich, I got up early before the sun and took a brisk morning jog along the Salzach river. After breakfast, Olivia and I caught the train to Munich and arrived around lunchtime. We met Sean, Olivia's good friend also from BC who is studying for year in Berlin. The three of us spent the next couple of days exploring the fabulous city of Munich, the capital of Bavaria. After checking into our hostel the first day, we spent the afternoon walking around the Old Town area and along the main shopping street. Everywhere we walked we saw checkered flags in the colors of Munich (black and gold) and Bavaria (light blue and white). Next we headed to Hofbräuhaus, arguably the most famous beer hall in the world. The atmosphere of this beer hall was really neat- with large wooden tables lined up back to pack, arched doorways, and massive steins. It looked like a scene straight from Shrek. Liv and I only ordered 1/2 liters of Weiß beer (which is my favorite beer so far) while Sean ordered a full one. That night we headed to the Oktoberfest festival, which looked like a carnival on crack. With lights and dressed-up people everywhere (not to mention incredibly elaborately decorated rides), the view was something unlike anything I had experienced before. Since most of the beer halls were packed, we somehow managed to get a spot for three outside. The next day we walked around the town before heading back to Oktoberfest in the afternoon. We ran across a LEGO festival and joked that we should take a bunch of pictures and say that we thought that LEGO fest was the real Oktoberfest! We laid down in a grassy park to relax as the sun peaked around a church on the corner, creating a beautiful twinkle through the window of the church. Later at Oktoberfest we miraculously ran into Gimi, a Korean exchange student who made the trek to Oktoberfest all by himself. He joined us for a ride on a massive swing and accompanied us into a beer hall, where we spent the evening singing to (gasp gasp) American songs. Our last day in Munich was probably my favorite. We rented bikes at Mike's bike rentals and spent the day exploring the city on wheels. We saw some windsurfers practicing their sport in the tumultuous section of the river, listened to an extremely talented old man make music with a finger flute under a bridge painted with the shadows of the sparkling waves, and made our way along the winding river to the Englisher Garden. That morning I couldn't get the song from Mary Poppins "Let's Go Fly a Kite" out of my head, and what do you know, there are several families flying kites in the garden. We parked our bikes in the grass and thrust our bodies onto the cold but refreshing ground to take in the fresh afternoon air and relish in a beatiful October afternoon. Liv spotted some people balancing on a rope tied between two trees, and decided to try her luck at the trade. We even made it in time to see a parade of houses make their last few rounds around a sandy arena as a few nude residents lay in the middle of the ring. After dropping off our bikes, we grabbed some grub before heading to the train station. Ich Liebe Dich, Munich!