The very next day I began the first leg of our Euro trip..bingo !! I already missed the breakfast after waking up late and was damn hungry so actually cooked the first meal by my self..well rice is pretty easy to make I realized and ready to eat packet are always faster than anything..the best part about traveling by a Eurail pass is you can just go any damn place at all the times. We had initially planned to visit Paris on Friday and then travel to Munich the other day…but being a weekend we just did not get any reservations for the Paris tarin..again a nice lady at Info point rescued us and made our itinery to reach Munich anyhow on the mad weekend…5 Train changes through 3 countries is what it took us to reach Munich after 11 hours of constant hop on and hop off journey through different trains..we traveled from Lille(France) to Liege (in Belgium)-Aachen( Germany)- Klon(Germany)- Klobenz ( Germany)-Munich .It was pretty amusing to get down one train then run and find the platform for the other to arrive..To do that whole night…we were just so excited that it did not even bother us..Man I can now write a critique on train services for different countries…French trains are expensive as they all require pre reservations..But TGV are still the fastest..Belgium trains took us back to India..Same rickety noises and similar seats..It was so Indian. My verdict goes to German trains..They don’t require reservations so you save that money in first place, secondly they are just so good..They have double floors and have a lot of space..Also they keep displaying all the important info like arriving stations and time..So finally at 7:30 we are their at Munich metro station. You can only be there in Oktober fest(I dunno y is it called Oktober fest...it happens in September man!!!) to feel the festive mood its pretty difficult to imagine people drinking Beer from 7am in the morning running like crazy in a mad hurry all dressed up in traditional Bavarian attire :) Guys were crazily dressed in leather half pants in pretty cold and gals were beautiful in traditional skirts & corsets, the sight itself is so amazing and the environment so charged up you get lost in the crowd..at the station itself people were arriving in hordes from whole Bavarian region in their traditional singing cheering along and of course drinking their beers!!
We had planned a get together for all the exchange students at Munich that day so we started our eternal wait as our other friends kept arriving at different times...After like 3 hours and pretty much everyone had come we joined the herd marching to the Oktober fest grounds...it was our first experience to walk down the streets of a city with beer bottles in our hand at 11 in the morning!! Now we are at the Oktober fest the madness reaches its crescendo…u just get lost in the sea of people and dats what kept happening to us through out the day. Neways all our meager attempts to enter a tent were all futile as people are crazy enough to have advance booking from a year ago..yeah that’s true :)
It was disappointing of course but the madness is enough to keep you busy and see people doing crazy things around and very soon we were also a part of them..So after gathering all our MDI junta till after noon and our spirits(figuratively & Literally) we started our own Oktober fest near a church :) on a street..after 4-5 bottles everyone was pretty much drunk and all of us were going crazy enough..I was teaching people techniques to delay Orgasm (I don’t know but this stupid thing has stayed with me from Delhi Times in a column by Dr.Sanjay chugh)..neways yeah it was pretty funny..then amidst all the hulllabaloo I just headed alone to the Oktober fest grounds all sloshed and got lost there..ha ha ha…man getting in was so easy and it took me more than an hour to find a way out. I came to station to check that our stuff was still lying in the locker and people and had not left me!! Then I finally met my friends near station and got nice sermons from them for my antics :) Neways all of us had gained our senses by night and plannings started for the next thing..I was not interested for staying back in Munich and try to get into tents early in the morning the other day. So as I had thought before I proposed that we shall leave for Austria to visit Vienna & Salzburg (Innsbruck as well)..And as it happens “too many cooks spoil the broth” everybody now had different plans..I was pretty much determined to even travel alone!!! Neways the train was about to leave at 11:45 and at 11:43 we were just 3 on 7-8 people left to go for Vienna (me, pondy & bala)..we dashed to catch the train and just boarded it on time..phew!! okie I mentioned good things about germany okie now the other one u can even travel in a full train!! Dats wat we did…first tried sleeping in the passage way..But drunk Bavarian people walking over us was not a very good idea..So kept looking for a place on the train..Now this is awesome..we found the luggage compartment the traditional Iron coach , no heating nd all but yeah the whole thing is yours as it was empty..As it is we were so tired we did nt mind sleeping on the iron floor..Only to be awaked by chilly air that some how escapes through your clothes and enter your lower back!! Still it was pretty awesome experience. There was also an Austrian guy I coach with us telling us his stories about his thing with a new gal he had come to see in Paris and what a bitch she was. He was nt drunk though but yeah I think you can just talk about anything & everything to anybody here!!
