Lichtenstein and Oktoberfest

The next morning after getting burning coffee poured all over me by some miami girl (she had herself labeled from head to toe as most Americans do... And she didn't even help clean up me or the mess.. Dumb) we took a crazy train combo to Lichtenstein! During the two bus rides in and out of the country capital, Vaduz, we drove the lengthy way through the country not missing too much ground.. After 2.5 hours we can safely say we saw almost the entire country. Lichtenstein is very clean, quiant and expensive like Switzerland... But with a little German twist to it almost. We headed across town to drop off our bags in a locker so we could fully experience everything Vaduz had to offer.. We started off with the stamp museum, the main attraction in Lichtenstein, two rooms on the second floor of a building... There were lots of stamps in cool little pull out drawers, some paper weighers, a few pictures, and that was it. Expectations weren't too high to start with, so it was good. Then we passed the town hall, art museum and strolled along the one street of the 'old district' before taking on the 20 min hike up the mountain to go visit the prince and the royal fam who still live in the castle. We got to the top and checked out the view of all of Lichtenstein and waved hello to the prince.. Too bad he didn't wave back... So we found some nice apple trees and ate some delicious royal fruit.. Some of the best apples ever actually.. But don't worry we didnt like jump the castle wall or anything.. They were just on the side of the road.. We walked a little further to what looked like a secret escape door for the castle buried in the woods.. It was just a huge metal statue-ish thing of Mary. Eh. Back in town we each bought our crazy expensive postcard and stamp because that's just what you do, and then jumped on a bus to a train to landau before finally getting to Munich. O gosh what a day.. We went through 4 countries in one day, stopping to see them all expect Austria! Lindau was just a 40 min train changeover, but it was actually this adorable little port looking town on bandsee? Lake with gorgeous flowers and happy colored buildings. We had plenty of time to stroll the little town before we got to Munich, where we somehow found this amazing deal online for a room for €50.. yes it was one star and in the red light district, but I've already survived that so no big deal. We stroll up to our hotel, tired from our 4 country journey, and the guy looks at me like I'm an idiot. I was like what? I have the confirmation right here.. And he says yea... For oktober 26 not September. Ooo. Shit. Too much Oktoberfest on the mind I guess.. And def completely. Screwed on a place to sleep for the night. So mere and I turned on our pathetic puppy faces and worked every hotel we passed... Nothing under €100was really even comin up if we were lucky to find a single bed.. About an hour later we stumbled in to a hostel at the end of town and after sounding so completely pathetic (I offered the girl €20 for a chair in the common room of the hostel) Susann offered us a place in her flat. Wow! So we went from a stingy cheap room, to premium rates, to a free stay! But then o wait... Where was Andrew goin to sleep? We took him back to a place where. Mere got an emergency room for one person down to €55 and we offered to help pay for part of the room. So we downed some delicious kebaps and met Susann back at the hostel where she lived and worked.. Then she told us to take the metro to her place... Hmm ok she doesn't live in the hostel like every other worker ok... This is a new adventure! We walked instead since we knew munich pretty well by now; and steering through all the drunk people in liederhosen on the street was easier than on any public transportation.. We got to her cute little flat and chatted for a bit.. She had actually just joined couch surfing earlier that day, so although we weren't her first set of strangers, we were her unoffical first set!

The next morning we jumped on the €44 hostel beds before they were gone... By far the most I've ever had to pay for a hostel, but we knew we had a bed and somewhere to dump our stuff and could easily walk to Oktoberfest! O yay what a great time! Ha. It's crazy and something not to be missed in life.. Even if only for a day. We did a day, and a day was plenty... Most people there were there for 4 or 5 days... Crazy soon to be poor people! Mere got our first round of €8.60 beers that are actually €10 with the tip.. If you don't tip they all conspirisize against you and won't get you any more beer... And if they do come back you get twice as much foam. So we enjoyed the first round of our liter steins with some new kiwi friends across the way from the rugby dudes who let us cut in line to make sure we got a seat in the cool tent.. I can't remember the name of the tent off the top of my head but it was big, and near the front to the right. Oktoberfest goes on and on for ages kinda like fairgrounds with booths of food, big heart shaped gingerbread cookies, every type of brautwurst sausage you can imagine, games, rides... The whole works. We thought we'd for sure go out to enjoy the sunny day and all the stuff goin on after we were kicked from our seats at 3 to let more people in on the fun... But we were having too much fun walkin around, doin the offical Oktoberfest German jig.. I can still hear the tune in my head but I'm sure my version and the real one are quite different.. And just meeting people from everywhere.. Few americans, old Bavarian dudes that loved us even though we spoke no German and them no English whatsoever, and of course the English and Aussies too. We even found an Asian in liderhosen... One of the highlights.. I don't know why... I think it just looked so funny. O gosh. So we stayed in the tent way past the 3 hour mark and make friends with the new people at our old table and kept the party goin for a bit. It's so crazy and colorful and festive and hard to explain unless you've been there to see it..