FRIEND OR FOE FRIDAY!!!!

     SOOOO many opportunities to make friends and foes where there is beer flowing.  Check out these people I met in Switzerland and Germany.  At my mother's request, I have changed the format for friend of for fridays.  I hope you enjoy it.  If not, please contact my mother.

1)

FRIENDS!  These were the two cool chicks from Cali that I met in Interlaken, Switzerland, accompanied by my amazing host, Toby. I’m the one in the cowboy hat.  Nothing like walking into a kitchen with these 3 pounding beers and encouraging shots at 3:00 in the afternoon!  So glad I met this crew.  They were so much fun during my first night in Interlaken. 

2)

FOE!  He wasn't a bad guy but was so jealous of this stranger that can surf in Munich’s self-made river wave. How cool is this thing? How random that it’s in Munich. How can there be so many surfers when it’s so land-locked?

3)

FRIENDS!  These are the faces of two brave cliff walkers in Interlaken.  Rayno was our trusted (and unexperienced) guide along the jagged cliffs of Murren.  I am not even half as adventurous as either of these individuals.

4)

FRIENDS!  Mark is my sister’s son’s teacher’s son.  Got it?  It was a distant but vital connection in Luzern, Switzerland.  These two took me to a nice roofdeck bar that overlooked the beautiful lake.  They were loads of fun and very brave for leaving their friends and family in order to gain an abroad working experience.

5)

FRIENDS!  Who doesn't like the Ricola guys??

6)

UNDECIDED- These two hosted me in Luzern and were really generous for doing so.  They took me for a kayaking trip down the river and were really accommodating.  There was something weird going on under the surface though.  They were fluent in English but spoke Swiss German, which made it really hard for me to participate in the conversation.  I got the cold shoulder from her about 94% of the time but then she'd surprise me by saying things, 'I'm really glad you came.'  There was just a weird vibe overall so I'm still undecided on these two.

7)

FRIENDS!  Tabia, Nicole, Kristina and friends offered me a hand when climbing up on their beer bench to join them in Oktoberfest celebrations!  Kristina’s generous dad had reserved a table and they were kind enough to share it with me for my last night in Munich.  What a fun group of girls!

8)

FRIENDS! These guys were awesome. I met them at the Neuschwanstein castle and partied with them at night. They perfected planking abroad- taking pictures of your body as straight as an arrow in random places with the help of your friends. Here’s my planking picture from Oktoberfest.


9)

 FRIENDS! These nice men were from the bachelor party that I crashed. I appreciated them taking me in to their group for a bit.

10)

FRIEND! Any guy bringing that many beers would be a friend but Clancy is even more special than that. He was part of the Aussie crew that I met at the castle and I admired his lofty list of travel destinations over the coming months. I was very lucky to meet this group of guys.

11)

FOES- I met these guys the second night when I was alone. They were hovering the line but I’m going to put them in the foe category just because one of the guys was overwhelmingly drunk.

12)

FOE! For the record, German girls in Bavarian dresses are adorable. American girls that dress up in skanky ‘beer wench’ costumes for Halloween are trashy. And American girls that bring their beer wench costumes to Oktoberfest are idiots.

13)

Kristina’s dad- FRIEND!  This guy was nuts!  But he’s still a good guy!  He was Kristina’s dad and had reserved a table in the HB beer tent for himself, his daughter, her friends, and randomites like me.  What a funny guy.

14)

FRIEND! Erik was one of my Munich hosts.  Here he is riding his kiddie scooter through one of the  main fountains of Europe.  He was a lot of fun!!

15)

FRIEND!  Thomas was one of my Munich hosts.  What a kind person!  He had such a communal sense about him and I felt so safe with him around.  He is a gifted, amateur filmmaker so look for his name attached to impressive films in the future!

16)

FRIENDS!  I LOVE Bavarian dresses!  I wanted one so bad.  These two girls from friends of Thomas and were the prettiest Bavarians in the beer tent.

17)

FOE- This Munich stranger shouldn’t be naked in a public park.  I mean, he looks good and all but it’s not right.  At least put on one of those European banana hammocks.

  

PROST from Oktoberfest!

MUNICH, GERMANY

This pic isn't blurry...it's just taken through beer goggles.

                













           
             First thing’s first- Oktobferfest began in 1810 as a royal wedding celebration.  To this day, German women braid their hair and prance around in their flattering (and classy!) Bavarian dresses while the men successfully look masculine in their lederhosens and wool socks!  Over 5 million people pack inside the enormous fairgrounds to enjoy the plethora of carnival rides, games, food and, of course beer.  There are 14 massive beer tents within the 103 acres of fairgrounds that people can enter…and stumble out of…freely.  There are roughly 7million liters of beer served each year….and the beer must be brewed within the city limits of Munich in order to be served at Oktoberfest.  The festivities begin in September….NOT October.  It’s a common misconception so absorb this and be the smartest amongst your friends.  Oktoberfest begins in September and rolls its way into the first week of Oktober.  The total celebration is between 16-18 days depending on the year.  The crowd is made up of 72% Bavarians, 15% foreign visitors and 13% ‘Other’.  I don’t know what ‘other’ is.  Animals, aliens?

                Ok, now that the scene is set, I can rave about the party atmosphere.  I’m a self-proclaimed controlled partier.  I love having a good time but I’m not an idiot.  I have been lucky enough to attend some of the best parties in the world during 2011- Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Stampede in Calgary and Oktoberfest in Munich.  Most people assume the worst in debauchery amongst these scenes but that’s not the case.  There is a reason why these events are so successful.  And that reason is: commitment.  Everyone who attends these parties is committed to having a good time!  They tune out their responsibilities and are given a few days of total freedom.  That doesn’t mean they all transform into Jekyls.  It means their focus is on fun…and not their blackberries.  They’re not interested in what the rest of their network has posted on facebook, they don’t care what TV show their missing- they don’t prefer to be anywhere else than where they are.  And that’s an incredible feeling.  Most of you have been at a wedding and said, ‘When are they gonna cut the freakin’ cake so we can get out of here’.  That doesn’t happen at these organized celebrations.  There is so much infectious merriment going around that I never saw any fighting.  That’s pretty impressive when you think of the amount of people plus the amount of beer present.  It should also be noted that any event that requires dressing up in costumes shows more commitment amongst its attendees and is destined to be a good time.

                On with the story already!  Ok.  I met up with 2 of my hosts named Thomas and Erik amongst the beer gardens and they were already two sheets to the wind.  They were SO friendly and welcoming!  I ordered my first Oktoberfest stein and learned my first (and most important) German word- PROST!!  That is the German phrase for ‘Cheers’ so I got very good at saying it!  We walked into the surrounding beer tent and I was immersed in the energy. Everyone was standing on their picnic table benches singing and dancing to the standard German drinking songs (as well as modern rock) being played by the band on stage.  The typical 2am bar sing-along you’ve seen in most places can be seen at any time of the day in Munich at Oktoberfest!  I was surprised to find the crowd poured their hearts out for ‘I’m Loving Angels Instead.’  I wish someone had told me to beware of the flimsy picnic table benches- it didn’t take long before Erik sent beers and bodies flying when he knocked us all over!  My first night in Munich was a ton of fun!

Let Oktoberfest begin!

Erik gets grabbed by the ear for knocking over the tables

                I made the most out of my days by planning small excursions outside of Munich.  I took the train 2 hours outside of the city to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Castle.  Even Walt Disney couldn’t resist its charm- it served as his inspiration for the design of Sleeping Beauty’s castle in Disneyland.  Awwww!  King Ludwig II of Bavaria used his personal fortune to build this magnificent retreat and homage to composer Richard Wagner in 1869.   Strangely enough, the country opened it as a museum only weeks after his mysterious death at the young age of 32.  I think a CSI team should head to the Bavarian mountains- there are far too many questions left unanswered.

Model of the castle

I would gladly be locked in one of those towers

                That evening, my hosts were too tired for another night of Oktoberfest so I went out alone.  It didn’t go so well.  The merriment was overshadowed by lots of drunken men acting inappropriately.  I met too many creepos.  After kindly telling some 20 year old punks I wasn’t interested, they threw food at me so I got in their face and let them know that American women don’t stand for that.  I met a group later that was ok but really wished I had my own crew that night.  I must have been in a protective masculine bubble the night before without even realizing it.

                I had a sobering experience at the Daschau concentration camp the following morning.  It was a very thorough museum and memorial but SO sad and terrible.  Surprisingly, I didn’t see anyone crying besides myself.  I can’t believe human beings are capable of treating other human beings like that.  And I don’t know how they were able to persuade so many people to follow. It only reaffirmed that fear can make people do terrible things.  How could this have ever happened in a mainstream, civilized area of Germany in the 20^th century.  Absolutely mind-blowing.  I spoke to many Germans about WW2 and commend the new generations for confronting their horrific 20^th century history instead of sweeping it under the rug.

                I enjoyed the third night of Oktoberfest with a bunch of Aussies I met at the Neuschwanstein Castle.  I’m glad it only cost me two steins to have a loosey goosey time in the beer tents.  At 10 euros per stein, the men dug deeper in their pockets.  Finally a female perk!  We bear children, receive less compensation by our employers and can’t go out alone without being harassed…but at least we don’t have to spend so much on beer.  Can I get a ‘Hell yeah’?!

Aussie, Clancy, arrives with steins

Can you find the four Aussies in this picture?

Sad, drunk and tired sing-along...

          I found myself on my own for the fourth and final night and am thrilled to report that it was AWESOME!  I visited the tent with the ‘Devil’s Wheel’, which is a disk that people sit and desperately hold on while it spins in different directions at various speeds until everyone is thrown off.  They need this tent at the Topsfield Fair!  They choose different groups each time by announcing ‘All men in Leiderhosens’ or ‘All women without Bavarian dresses’ and people race towards the middle of the disk.  I won a hulahoop competition amongst 6 German girls while the disk was spinning.  Then each girl had to climb on top of a guy and we all held on for dear life.  Here’s how that one ended:

Hula hooping!

"All men with lederhosens"

Then I crashed an older guy’s bachelor party, which was really cool.  The older men were running out of steam after 3 days at the festival so I gave them a small revival.  They were so impressed with my traveling but also so worried that I was doing it all on my own.  When I left them, I asked some guy to use his phone and it turned out he graduated from BC in 2010.  He had lost all of his friends so we went to grab a beer.  We met a whole group of great people who invited us up on their table and benches for the late night sing-along.  The BCer had to leave but I stayed with this exceptional group for the rest of the night!  Tabea, Nicole and Kristina were SO cool.  I wish these girls lived in the USA! 

PROST!

Kristina and Nicole

Since I began my travels in March, I have to admit that I love Germans more than any other travelers that I’ve come across!  My experience with my couch surfing hosts in Munich pretty much epitomizes Germans.  I stayed with 5 guys who were studying different types of engineering (since everyone in Germany is an engineer)!  They were smart, funny, open-minded and always looking for fun. One day we walked around the city and Erik found an abandoned kids’ size scooter so he rode it around for the day and ended up riding it through the fountains in the main square.  And then they had the idea of just trying to trade it with strangers for other things and see how far we could get with bartering. Just for fun.  And then they made one of the walls in their apartment a guestbook so all friends and couchsurfers wrote messages and quotes on it with a Sharpie. I left this one by John Lennon that I heard the other day: When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” 

Sightseeing in Munich on that kiddie scooter

               I liked that. And then they had a diary by the toilet that people could write in…just to express yourself while you’re taking care of business.  And they had a cleaning schedule on which they divided up the tasks bi-monthly and if the tasks weren’t done by Tuesday evening they had to buy a case of beer for the house.  Oh and they were so communal!  They just shared everything that they had with me (and each other) and it was such a good feeling.  I just really felt like they lived in such a healthy bubble of life.  It was surprising to see 5 guys work so well together.  They recycled everything (as all Germans do) and even kept compost!  I don’t think I know 5 other 25 year-olds that even know what compost is. It was just really cool to be around people like that. 

                OKTOBERFEST WAS GOOD TO ME!  Thanks, Munich!   Everyone should visit Oktoberfest at least ten times in their life. Oh wait, is that NOT the saying?

LUZERN, SWITZERLAND

The beauty of Switzerland continued in Luzern! More lakes, more mountains, and more warm & fuzzy feelings from this magnificent country. I’m just talking landscape, people. Not here to debate their political policies or banking systems. Luzern was much more of a city than I expected but at least it was a really pretty one. My couch surfing hosts were kind enough to bring me on a kayaking trip down the Ruess River that took much longer than planned. We ended up paddling well into the night and it was a little spooky at times.

Luzern Lion

  I explored the surrounding medieval town whose most impressive sight had to be the 14th century Kapellbruke, a covered wooden bridge that just took my breath away. I am such a sucker for flowers so you can understand why I couldn’t get enough of this bridge. Well done, Luzern. Another impressive site was the Lowendenkmal, a dying lion hewn out of a cliff-face to commemorate seven hundred Swiss soldiers killed in the late 18th century. Mark Twain once referred to it as ‘the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world’ and I couldn’t agree more. 

My favorite bridge

Covered bridge

Loving Switzerland still

             


overlooking Luzern from the fortress walls

              I was joined by my friend, Romano for dinner one night, which was a really nice treat! Romano and I met in our scuba diving certification class in Cairns, Australia. He lived only an hour away in Basel so he drove down to hang out, which was SO nice of him. We traded some great travel stories and I was so grateful for our reunion! I’ve met so many people in my travels and it’s weird to say goodbye because I’m never sure if I’ll see them again. I’m glad I got to hang with Romano in his motherland.

                 I also got to meet up with another local connection- Mark and Turi. My nephew’s teacher’s son lived in Luzern. I know- getting pretty far removed on the connections but it proved to be a great one! They showed me a wonderful time at a roof-top bar that overlooked the lake- they were very cool. It was great to hang with some ex-pats and get their perspective on working abroad. I feel lucky that I keep meeting cool people!


The Ricola guys!!

I'm on a boat!

Ferry ride

Ferry ride

                I woke up early to take a nice ferry ride around the lake to Vitznau before heading to a much-anticipated stop on my journey- Munich, Germany. I heard they have some kind of beer festival this time of year…Yup, I’m going to drink.

WAY too many great photos from Switzerland- check em out!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.942071963087.2369968.1611207&type=1&l=6867ab3b8c

FOODS I TRIED- Don Simon (cheap sangria from the grocery store- surprisinglyawesome!), chocolate, racquelette, bratwurst, beer, pork cordon blu

TRENDWATCH: SWITZERLAND

TRENDWATCH: SWITZERLAND

The green machine!  I'm thinking that the cows here are more fashionable than the women.

TRENDWATCH: SWITZERLAND

          Europe is so chic that even the cows have an eye for fashion! Here are two cows that I met in Switzerland sporting their massive bells as necklaces. At the end of the summer, farmers fetch their cows from the mountainside and lead them back to the farm for the upcoming winter. The semi-formal procession calls for festive bells, flower head dresses and even nose rings! The presentation was simply moooooo-ving!

Marry me, Switzerland.

INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND

Ahhhhh!!!  Switzerland

After much internal debate, I decided that trains would be my method of transportation around Europe. I booked my “Flexi” EuroRail Pass in Paris, which was anything but flexible. It was full of hidden fees, special restrictions and many French inconveniences. But damn those trains were nice! Each row of the immense corn fields across the French countryside flashed by rapidly yet the first class cabin was filled with serenity. I arrived into the cold and rainy town of Interlaken, Switzerland around 2pm and felt very much at home.

I followed my couch surfing host’s explicit directions to an apartment just past the train station and found ‘the door with beers and helmets outside’. Yup, that must be the place. I walked into the kitchen to find my host, Toby, drinking with two Asian girls from California. All were drunk and encouraged me to drop my bag and grab a beer. Whoo-ee! Toby worked as a canyoneering tour guide and was hosting an after-after-party with Jen and Eileen who had enjoyed the day by sliding down the natural waterslides of the Swiss Alps. They threw a cowboy hat on my head and mistakenly called me Ellen- they dubbed her my alter ego and the name stuck for the next few days.

Jen (special education teacher) and Eileen (nurse) were enjoying a 2 week European tour so we crammed in all the laughs we could in our one night together over some beer and Thai food. They were SO much fun- a huge (but far too brief) highlight to the trip! Although Toby’s apartment had spray paint on the walls and was less kept than any hockey house I’ve ever been in, I had my own room and awoke each morning with a gorgeous view of paragliders making their way down from the Swiss Alps. Toby was a very chilled out New Mexican that split his year between Interlaken and New Zealand and showed tourists a fantastic time. He lived life with little regret and little possessions- what a good combination, huh?  He was a good soul.

And he showed me a great time! His group of friends, roommates and housemates all worked within the tourism industry and shared the same unbounded spirit. He had warned me that if I sat around long enough, I’d probably get roped into doing something crazy. And that’s exactly what happened on the second day. I went downstairs to ask his South African friend, Rayno, for directions but got persuaded to go cliff walking for the day! Next thing I know I’m scaling the face of a cliff like Spiderwoman with nothing below my feet except a slippery metal rung. We took a couple trams up the side of the Jungfrau mountain range to Murren, a small village with nothing but tranquility.  No cars were allowed- the village was only accessible by tram or the old two feet and a heartbeat. We threw on some harnesses and attached ourselves to cables that allowed us to follow along the face of cliffs. This was by far the scariest part of my trip! And the most FUN. It was at about 3000 feet that I said, ‘I couldn’t feel more exposed if I were naked in front of my high school class.’  We were fortunate enough to watch some base jumpers plunge off the side of the cliff before we started! It was INSANE- now you see them, now you don’t! Cliff walking was nothing compared to that.  That’s been a theme on this trip- no matter how adventurous you think you are, there is ALWAYS someone who puts you to shame. 

Meghan and me cliff-walking

Rayno on the tight-rope

Swinging bridge

For over two hours, the surrounding Lauterbrunnen valley was disturbed by the sound of us clipping and un-clipping our carabineers around the edges. We encountered metal rungs, ladders, tight-ropes and a grand finale 262 foot narrow tower bridge that hung 1200 feet over a ravine! I had put so much trust in Rayno but was reminded at the end that it was HIS first time cliff-walking as well. What a GREAT day! An extreme feeling for such a neutral country.

That evening, Toby’s friends came together for a communal dinner of racquelette, a Swiss tradition similar to fondue. The meat and veggies were cooked on top while the cheese slowly melted on the bottom. Put them all together and you’ve got yourself a VERY happy belly. And the company was great. Toby’s network were all traveling, nomadic bad asses whose only agenda consisted of 5 months in one location, 5 months in another, and 2 months of traveling. They had no job set up in the next location- just the high hope that they’d find something once they landed. Their lives were based on short-term plans only. It was interesting to be amongst this extremely laid-back lifestyle. No one here griped about the economic doom that currently plagued the world. They had no 401k or stock options to worry about. They were happy, hard-working individuals that made enough money for living and traveling. I questioned how long one can go on like this though. Surely things would change once love came to town, no? Priorities had to change once kids came into the picture, right? I have to assume yes because there were no rugrats amongst the crowd.

Considering my surrounding landscape, I had no choice but to spend a lot of time outdoors during my time in Interlaken. I borrowed Toby’s bike for an arduous 30km bike ride to Grindelwald, which is situated between the craggy trio of the Wetterhorn (Virgin), Mettenberg (Monk) and Eiger (Ogre). I learned that the Monk is situated in the middle so as to protect the innocent Virgin from the Ogre- that’s the extent of my Interlaken knowledge unfortunately. I took the tram to the top of First peak and had a beautiful hike toward the twin reservoirs before forcing my knees to withstand the two hour walk down to the base. The mountain valleys of Switzerland were filled with the ringing of cowbells! And I’m not talking about my mom’s kind of cow bells that echoed throughout many a college arena. These cowbells were HUGE! The cows wore them around their necks so that the farmers could keep tabs on them while grazing in the mountains.  They had to be deaf though to withstand such bells all day.  I got a nice kiss from a cow while making my way down First.  It was very sweet….but their tongues are 10x more coarse than a cat’s!  I had to check for scratches.

Atop First

First hike

Grindelwald

            I gave my body a rest after the ride to Grindelwald by laying by the lake for an afternoon.  I had consistent 70 degree weather, which was perfect for lounging.  I gave my body the minimum amount of time to rest so that I could hike nearby Harder Klum.  And I ended up hiking it twice- both rain and shine just to marvel its beauty.    

Interlaken

Interlaken town center

            In conclusion, in case you haven't been able to comprehend, I LOVE SWITZERLAND! I LOVE SWITZERLAND! I LOVE SWITZERLAND! I don’t want to go picking favorite countries or anything but….Geez! I had visited Interlaken in 2002 but experienced such terrible weather that I thought it was deserving of another chance. And man, I was right! I want to buy myself one of those dark brown chalet houses, stuff its flowerboxes to the brim, stack my wood in a perfect line and live the rest of my life eating chocolate and cheese in Switzerland! Grindelwald to be exact.