traveling tales...

On June 15/2006 I set out on a journey across Europe. My truck was sold, my job was quit, and my room was packed...

Sunday, October 22, 2006

madrid, spain

We arrived in Madrid in the evening after a 4.5 hour train ride. We took the metro a couple stops and found our hostel, which is pretty nice! Our keys to the rooms and our lockers are these plastic watches that you just touch to the door to unlock it.. fancy! Yeah it looks tacky wearing a fake plastic watch, but it's nice not having to worry about misplacing your key!

In the morning we went to the Masters Madrid tennis tournament that we had gotten cheap tickets for. It was pouring rain, and we totally walked the long way around the entire stadium to the entrance. I really need to get a new umbrella (lost mine in Switzerland =( )The tournament was pretty cool! Mike was really happy about getting to see Roger Federer play, because we didn't know who we would be seeing until the day of the match, since it all depends on who advances. We watched three of the quarter-final games, a doubles match between players whose names I can't remember, and two singles matches; one between Safin and Nabaldian and the other between Ginepri and Federer. It was even cooler when Federer won! We spent practically the whole day there, and afterwards just got some food and went back to the hostel. That night we gave our running shoes a much needed wash by throwing them in the wash machine they have here. They just haven't smelled right since we got soaked at Oktoberfest and stepped in those huge puddles by mistake on the way home. They came out so clean and fresh.. it was wonderful!

In the morning we got ready and headed out to pick up our bullfight tickets that we had ordered online. It was a nice day, but when we got to the ticket office we found out that because it had rained so bad the day before, the match was cancelled. We were told we could move the tickets to the next day when they had rescheduled it for, which we agreed to. Instead we went on a bit of a walking tour from the Puerta del Sol (big main square) to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). We sat and read in the park for a bit, then walked around some more before heading home.

The next day (today) it was raining again, so we knew for sure the bullfight would be cancelled again. I know it's something so traditional here, but I almost didn't mind that we didn't get to see it. Before coming here I thought that during a bullfight the matador just dances around the bull with the red cape yelling Torro, Torro! But talking to other people and reading about it I realized it's not like that at all. First the amateur matadors come out with their lances and do their thing and stab the bull a few times, then the big main guy comes out with his cape and dodges the bull for a while, also stabbing it multiple times. The bull dies, EVERY time. It's awful and really gory and I don't know if I could have even sat through it had we actually gone. Instead we went to the Prado Museum and saw paintings by Goya, El Greco, Bosch, Brueghels, Carravaggio and a ton more. I really enjoyed it, and along with the Belvedere in Vienna it's probably been one of my favourite painting museums so far. I got the audioguide, which really helps with understanding the stories beind the paintings. After the Prado I got some deep fried bread things called Churros, with a yummy thick chocolate dipping sauce, and then went to see a movie. I saw the Devil Wears Prada.. I had read the book on this trip and had been waiting to see the movie. It was good! It was in English with Spanish subtitles. When you buy a ticket to a movie here, there is assigned seating which is kind of weird, and they don't let you into the theatre until like 5 min before the movie starts; they make everyone wait in the lobby, heheh.

Tommorow we are going to Toledo, which will be our last stop in Spain before heading to Portugal!

scoreboard at the masters madrid


federer after his victory


federer after his victory
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

walking around in madrid


walking around in madrid
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

cathedral at the royal palace


cathedral at the royal palace
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

puerta del sol


puerta del sol
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

a big square


a big square
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

churros and chocolate


churros and chocolate
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

barcelona, spain

From Carcassonne we woke up at 6:30 to get on the first possible train to Narbonne, where we would connect to Barcelona. Ok, it wasn't the EARLIEST possible train, that was at like 5:00, but that was a little too early for our liking! From Narbonne to Barcelona required another mandatory seat reservation, and because the ticket office in Carcassonne was closed when we had arrived the night before, we weren't able to make the reservation. Well, we tried in the morning and surprise surprise, it was full again. We thought about just getting on the train anyways and hope that some other people missed the train or didn't show up; reservations only cost like 1.50 and people probably miss them all the time.. Just for fun we asked about upgrading to first class, and we found out it would only cost 10 Euros! It was totally worth it to us for the time we would save because if we had missed that train, the next one would arrive in Barcelon 7 hours later than we wanted to get there! What a treat first class was! We had more leg room than we knew what to do with, and the seats even reclined..hehe. When we got to Barcelona the first thing we did was make our reservations for our next stop, to Madrid two days from then. We needed that train for sure and coulnd't take any chances this time! We booked a double room at Pension Palacio (cheaper than a hostel, with more security!) with a guy at the train station, dropped our bags and emptied our daypacks of any valuables and headed out to see the city.

Barcelona is the city we have been the most nervous about in terms of security and pickpocketing. All the guidebooks warn about it in seemingly every paragraph, and Rick Steves says you are more likely to be pickpocketed in Barcelona than in any other city in Europe. As soon as we got on the train TO Barcelona, we were on total alert, and reworked our warning code words for each other. Before we had one word, now we had upgraded it to three words for three levels of sketchiness, lol.

While we were walking down La Rambla, this huge pedestrain only boulevard lined with street performers, souvenir stands, and shops, we saw something that completely shocked us. We were standing, watching a street performer, and there was an outdoor cafe right beside us with a group of teenagers sitting down. They all had their backpacks at their feet, and were also watching the performer. This guy walked right in front of me, and stood between me the group sitting down. He eyed their bags and let out a couple of whistles. A few seconds later, his friend came over to join him. By now a larger crowd had formed around this performer, and the guy had his camera phone out and was taking pictures of the performer just like everyone else was. He kept looking at his friend and the bags though, and looking at me. By then we knew what was going on, but I really couldn't believe it. I wanted to keep watching to see if they would actually go through with it and steal the bags, but on the other hand didn't want to see these people have their bags stolen! I stepped forward, so the bags were practically right under MY feet, and just stayed really casual, talking and laughing with Mike about the performer. They kept looking at me and I looked right back, and after a few more minutes they left. I leaned over at told the people what we thought had just happened, then left. We we kind of worried that they might come after our bags now! We couldn't believe that we had been there for only a couple of hours and had already witnessed the thievery first hand. You can read about it all you want, but it really became real once we had seen it! It was a bit of a wake up call and reminder to always be on guard. The crime there isn't violent though, it's just thieves who prey on opportunity. There are SO many tourists for them to pick from. If you are careless with your things they will target you. We walked around for the rest of the evening, and headed home before it got too dark.

The next day, and our last day in Barcelona, we took a bus tour. It was alright, but kind of hard to hear the audio guide over the wind (we sat on top) and sirens and construction throughout the city. The bus does a 2 1/2 hour loop around the city, making a bunch of different stops where you can get off and on whenever and how many times you want. We got off at this huge church that has been under construction for over 100 years, Sagrada Familia. It was a project started by Antonio Gaudi, but he died before it was completed. It has a completely unique style and is unlike any other church I've ever seen. It was really cool! Architechts are still working on it's completion, and it is paid for completely by public support. It was one church admission fee that we really didn't mind paying because we could see what the money was going towards, they were even working on it as we were there! After the bus tour we walked back down La Rambla in the other direction towards our place, and stopped at the market for some food.

We made it through Barcelona with all of our belongings in tact, and the next day we were off to Madrid!

holy pigeons batman!


holy pigeons batman!
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

outdoor bird market on la rambla


huge indoor food market


huge indoor food market
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

candy at the market


candy at the market
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

fruit at the market


fruit at the market
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

i loooove palm trees!


i loooove palm trees!
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

mike enjoying our bus tour


mike enjoying our bus tour
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

sagrada familia church


sagrada familia church
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

sagrada familia


sagrada familia
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

big happy lobster sculpture


big happy lobster sculpture
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

barcelona at night


barcelona at night
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

carcassonne, france

Because of having to take the later train, we arrived in Carcassone around 8pm. We went looking for a cheap hotel, and a lady at what turned out to be an expensive hotel called over to a cheaper one for us and made us a reservation. The receptionist there spoke good English, I'm sure of it, but insisted on speaking French to us. He wasn't being rude about it or anything, he was a really nice guy, he just wanted us to try French because he knew we were from Canada and should know some! We got most of what he was saying, then dropped of our stuff and headed to "Le Cite", the old castle and walled town. We knew everything would probably be closed but we wanted to go see what we could and walk around it anyways! It was so huge and awesome.. too bad we couldn't have been there during the day though.

the walled old town of carcassonne


the entry up close


the entry up close
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

one of the many towers


one of the many towers
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

bordeaux, france

Our next big stop after Paris was going to be Barcelona, which was quite far away. We planned on stopping in Bordeaux and Carcassonne to kind of break up the long trip. The train from Paris to Bordeaux needed mandatory reservations, and after trying three different ticket offices at the station (and waiting in three different lines) we finally found the right office and got our reservations. After all that running around, we made our train JUST in time. In Bordeaux we found a cheap hotel right near the train station so we could easily get going the next day. We didn't do a whole lot in Bordeaux. It's a famous wine region, but we were only there for one night and tours of any of the vineyards didn't run on either day we were there. They also have less frequent ours because October is prime grape harvesting time and they are really busy with that I guess! We took the tramline into the main town area and walked around there and the fair that happened to be going on. Most things in town were closed, and it was kind of nice to take a bit of a break from being a tourist. I think I only took a couple of pictures! We got a bottle of Bordeaux wine to try, but while walking to the tram the bottom of the bag ripped open and the bottle smashed all over the sidewalk. We went back to the store, and the guy replaced our bottle no problem..hehe.. stupid cheap plastic bag!

In the morning we found out that the train we wanted to Carcassonne needed yet another mandatory reservation, and this time it was full. They only allot a certain amount of reservation places for 2nd class Eurail Pass holders (us!). We ended up having to wait 4 hours until the next train. We figured we had better try and make our reservations for our next train from Carcassonne to Barcelona while we had the chance, but after waiting in the line Mike accomplished nothing because the lady spoke no English. All we gathered was that it was not possible to make the reservation at that time. Oh well, we would try and make it when we got to Carcassonne. We had a little improvised pic-nic lunch at the station, and I ate my big baguette that I had bought. I accidentally got like this big loaf of bread instead of a sandwich baguette from the store. LOL, oh well it lasted me two meals instead of one. We went back to our hotel and they let us keep our bags there while we went into town to the post office. Everytime we go to the post office it turns into a big ordeal, trying to communicate, waiting in multiple lines, yadda yadda... but we were really lucky and got a girl that spoke great English and really helped us out. We combined our stuff into one big box to save some money which was good, and then went back to wait for our train. We also bought some mini icecream cup things, a box of 12, and are them all while we were waiting!

me and my big baguette


me and my big baguette
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

all the ice cream cups we ate!


all the ice cream cups we ate!
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

paris, france

After about a 4 hour train ride we arrived in Paris! We took the metro a couple of stops and found our hotel - a basic basic room with a bed a table and a chair. The bathroom was down the hall and it smelled a little funny, but it was cheaper than a hostel and would suit us just fine.. we wouldn't be hanging out there anyways, we would be out seeing the city all day! It was late afternoon and we weren't sure what to do, we just didn't want to waste it at the hotel though, so we went for a walk. We passed the Pompidou modern art gallery which happened to be free that night because of a sort of festival thing called Blanche Nuit. We didn't bother touring it though because we planned on buying the Paris Museum Pass which would allow us to visit it later when we had more time. We also passed by the Notre Dame Cathedral, The Louvre, and Place de la Concorde. The Place de la Concorde and it's fountains were all lit up blue as part of Blanche Nuit and a tribute to the artist Yves Klein.

In the morning we left our hotel and followed our noses to the bakery below us and got some breakfast. I had the most delicious, warm, flaky croissant ever. It was fantastic! Over the course of the week we went there every morning and tried a bunch of different things - chocolate bread, fruit tarts, apple struedels and raspberry cakes. mmMMmm! Then we made our way to the Louvre where we actually went inside this time and saw pieces like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The crowd around the Mona Lisa was ridiculous, and there were no pictures allowed. The guards were like hawks and yelled at anyone they saw with a camera taking pictures to put it away into their bag. We've become pretty good at taking pictures where pictures aren't allowed, and I was able to get a couple of ok ones. You just have to wait until the guard person is distracted yelling at someone else then you can discreetly click away.. muhahah! The Louvre is absolutely MASSIVE and there's no way you could see it all in a day. We had the museum pass though, so we only spent a couple of hours and would come back another time to finish it off. We did the Champs Elysees walk all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe where we climbed up for a good view of the city. We walked over to the Eiffel Tower and wanted to climb up for sunset, but didn't make it in time, so instead we headed to Trocadero Square where we had an awesome view of the tower itself and were able to get some good pictures. Every hour for 10 minutes, the tower would twinkle with tons of little blinking lights which was sooo cool!

The next day we saw the inside of the Notre Dame Cathedral and were also going to climb up the tower (of Hunchback of Notre Dame fame), but the line was really long so we decided to do it another day. We followed one of Rick Steve's guided walking tours through historic Paris, to the Cluny Museum and the Conciergerie. We had lunch of french onion soup at a little cafe before heading back to the Pompidou to see if it was open yet. We had tried there first thing in the morning but there was some sort of strike action and the opening was delayed. Well, when we returned that afternoon (and every following day) it still wasn't open, and we regretted not just going in the first night when we had the chance! While at an internet cafe that evening We realized it was Thanksgiving when we saw some of our friends' MSN names, and were like awwww man, wishing for a nice big turkey dinning with mashed potatoes and stuffing. We got our dinner of sandwiches from the grocery store and that was pretty much it for us though! Oh well, we have a lot more to be thankful for over here, we can do without a turkey dinner! hehe..

Most of Paris' museums are closed on Tuesdays, so the next day we headed a bit out of town to the Palace of Versailles which was very impressive and extravagant! This is where the Treaty of Versailles (ending WWI) was signed, and where Kings Louis XIV - XVI lived, and spent half of Paris yearly income on initially building the palace. The King and Queen each had separate wings, and we toured those along with the Palace gardens. The King wanted to have orange trees, so they were specially grown in greenhouses, then wheeled out into the gardens on nice days when the King would go for walks. He also had romanesque ruins constructed and a venetian canal built on the grounds. The whole place was just totally over the top! We stopped at one of the ponds and fed these ducks and swans some of our bread. The swan wouldn actaully come over and stretch his neck up and eat the bread from my hand. Mike was taking a bunch of pictures and actaully captured the time where the swan got a little too eager and bit me! He didn't have any teeth though, it just felt weird, hahaha. When we got back to the city, we made it to the Eiffel Tower in time to go up for dusk. We took the elevator up to the very top level and it was incredible! It was a clear night and very windy, quite the experience.. The area below the tower is just FILLED with guys selling souvenirs, particularly these glow in the dark Eiffel Towers. It was really funny, with each group that came down, they would rush over to them, blinking towers in hand and try to sell what they could. It was pretty entertaining and we sat and watched in awe for a while, while shooing them away a couple of times ourselves.

The next day we did the Notre Dame tower climb, and saw the huge bell and the gargoyles. Then we went to Sainte Chapelle, which is a church that was built to house Jesus' Crown of Thorns. The church is mostly all stained glass with 1100 different scenes from the Bible, and King Louis IX spent three times as much on acquiring the Crown as he did on the actual construction of the church itself. Nowadays the crown is held in the Notre Dame treasury and only shown on Fridays during Lent. After that we toured the Orsay Museum, Rue Cler ( a neat little market street) and then went up to Montmarte (Paris' hill) where the Sacre Coeur Basillica is located. The Basillica was also very impressive, with a huge domed ceiling. We sat there for a while before continuing on another of Rick Steves' guided walking tours, seeing Picasso's studio, and Van Gogh's former house. We finished the tour at the Moulin Rouge, where we learned that dinner and a show cost like $150 and had to be booked in advance so we just headed home.

Up next was another guided walking tour which took us to the Picasso Museum, and the Carnavalet Museum. In the evening when we went to see if the Pompidou was open yet, we went into this restaurant called Flunch which was kind of like Uncle Willy's buffet style dining, where we could get a quarter chicken and vegetables "A volante" and a drink for $6. This is when we learned that A Volante meant unlimited! Things that fell under their vegetable category included french fries, potatoes, spaghetti, and of course vegetables. Amongst Paris' many expensive cafes with wierd hours we had found the sweet spot! Too bad we hadn't found it in time for Thanksgiving, hehehe. After Flunch we headed back to the Arc de Triomphe to go up for a night time view. All of these sights we had been seeing were included in our Museum Pass which was awesome.

In the morning we did yet another guided walking tour, this time of the Left Bank (Paris is divided by the River Seine). We started with the cafe Le Procope, which has been in business since the year 1686, and one of the places revolutionaries would sit and plot. We ordered a couple shots of espresso in the tiniest cups ever, and then continued on our way. We toured two more churches, St. Germain -des-Pres and St. Sulpice. At St. Germain the funniest thing happened, we were walking around, behind the altar looking at all the different little chapels and carvings, and there was only one other guy standing there, and he FARTED.. so loud I swear it echoed! he quickly looked at us, and Mike gave him this mixed look of shock/surprise/laughter and I tried not to look at him at all. He then scurried off in the other direction and left the church.. lol.. After that it was on to St. Sulpice, which is one of the churches mentioned in the Davinci Code. In one part of the church there is a sort of a sundial tower thing with a brass line running down it, and a stained glass window with the letters S&P intertwined. There is a sign posted there saying "Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent best-selling novel, this is not the vestige of an pagan temple, no such temple ever existed in this place... no mystical notation can be derived from this instrument of astronomy except to aknowledge that God the Creator is the master of time. Please also note that the letters P&S in the small round windows refer to Peter and Sulpice, the patron saints of the church, and not and imaginary "Priory of Sion". Even at the Louvre (where the Mona Lisa is) there was a "Davinci Code" tour. Funny all the unecessary hype a fiction author can create.. After that we took a break in Luxembourg Gardens. The day before we were feeling inspired by all the museums we had been seeing, and we each bought a sketch pad and a box of pastels. We sat in the park and drew for a while. It was actually a lot of fun and very relaxing! haha.. I think we spent a little too long there though, because we really had to rush the other things we wanted to do that day - the Rodin museum, Napolean's Tomb and war museums, and when we tried to make it to the Pantheon it was closed already. We just headed back to Flunch again, and then to the Louvre to finish up anything we had missed the first time.

We had planned on spending our last day in Paris by actually taking a day trip north to Bayeux where the Normandy D-Day beaches are located. We woke up too late however, and because it was a Sunday the trains were more irregular and it wouldn't be worth it to go and only spend a couple of hours. Instead we watched some stuff on Mike's laptop that he had downloaded (like Lost!) and took it easy all day. We finished up any little things we had been wanting to do, and went back to the Orsay where Mike bought a poster that he wanted. We went to our usual internet cafe, then to Flunch for dinner again, we even got dessert this time!

I REALLY liked Paris. Once you get used to things randomly being closed on certain days or weird hours and all the dog crap on the sidewalks, it's a really cool place! We got by a lot easier than I thought we would in terms of communication too. Yea, some people would look at us like we were crazy when we asked if they spoke English, but on the most part we got by ok. I find I can understand French pretty good, and reading it is not too bad, I just can't speak it that great, haha.

happy thanksgiving!


happy thanksgiving!
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

notre dame


notre dame
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

a gargoyle on notre dame


a gargoyle on notre dame
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

palace of versailles


palace of versailles
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

inside versailles


inside versailles
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

our friends in the versailles garden


aw isn't that cute, he's eating from my hand!


little bugger bit me!


little bugger bit me!
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

the louvre museum


the louvre museum
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

me and van gogh at the orsay museum


sacre coeur basillica


sacre coeur basillica
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

the moulin rouge


the moulin rouge
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

under the eiffel tower


under the eiffel tower
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

view from the eiffel tower


view from the eiffel tower
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

awww


awww
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

view from the arc de triomphe


view from the arc de triomphe
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

Friday, October 06, 2006

strasbourg, france

Well, there's not a whole lot to say here! We've both kind of been dreading France in a way, because we had heard from other people that it is especially hard to communicate here. Supposedly people will pretend they don't speak English, just so they don't have to deal with you. With our phrasebook ready, we arrived in Strasbourg, which is practically right on the border with Germany. We had found a REALLY cheap hotel online, so we went with that as opposed to a hostel, because it's nice not to have to worry about the security of your belongings as much. Well, it turns out it was cheap for a reason! It is WAY out of town, probably the equivalent of flying into Vancouver, then having to get to your hotel in Richmond. Doesn't really sound like a big deal I guess, but it's a lot harder when you it's night time, you have no idea how to get there, don't speak French, and have to rely on public transit! We got on a tram, only to realize that there was nothing at the stop we were told to get off at. The bus didn't come for another 45 min, so we decided to just find a taxi. Of course there were no taxis to be found. We got back on the tram and headed in the direction that we had just come from, where hopefully there was more action and more cabs. We ended up just going into another hotel and getting them to call a cab for us. 21 Euros later (yea, it was THAT far away..) and we had arrived at the Formule 1 Hotel. LOL. You know, Formula 1 Racing! Our room was tiny, but good enough. We decided to just spend three nights because we didn't want to have to go through the hassle of getting to the train station the next day already.

The next day we hopped on a bus - (yay we had figured it out!) and headed to town to get some food and look around a bit. We also had to call and confirm our hotel in Paris since they never got back to us by email. Mike and I rock-paper-scissored it to decide who would have to call. He lost and made the call, but he got the answering machine. I wish I had a copy of that recording... hehe.. He said it all in French, and actually did a pretty good job! He managed to say his name, and that we wanted to confirm our reservation for the 7th of October. We ended up calling again later and getting an actual person. This time it was all me, because Mike insisted the first time had counted as his turn! Sheesh. That was a time I was glad for once that we had to take French in school! I was able to say a few things, and the lady spoke some English, so between us we did alright. She was SO nice, and kept saying Oui Oui, Michael et Shanon, no problem, no problem! LOL... I guess we'll find out when we get there!

Today we did absolutely nothing and it was GREAT! They can't make us speak French if we just hide in the hotel all day.. muhahaha! Just kidding.. after the last couple of busy days, we just needed some time to relax. We stayed in our pjs all day and we watched a ton of stuff Mike had downloaded. The only time Mike left was to grab some pizzas for dinner (we had PB&J for lunch). We went to the same pizza place for dinner the night before as well, it's the only thing around here!

Tomorrow it's on to Paris!

our hotel


our hotel
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

the things you see in a french grocery store!


presenting... the french toilet! yes those are places for your feet when you squat =(


a street in strasbourg


a street in strasbourg
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

strasbourg's cathedral


strasbourg's cathedral
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

oktoberfest in munich, germany

When we were in Interlaken we were talking to our roomates and they were telling us how they had just come from Oktoberfest in Munich. Turns out the last day of Oktoberfest was two days from then, on Oct. 3rd. Something suddenly posessed us to want to go, and even though it would be a stretch, we wanted to make it happen. We figured that if everything went well the next day with skydiving and we got nice weather and stuff, we could leave the next night and be in Munich by the morning for the last day of the festivities. It allllll depended on the weather! If it wasn't good weather, we would wait in Interlaken and try skydiving the day after next. If it WAS nice, we were headed to Munich right after the jump.

Well, we did get nice weather, and as soon as we were done the jump we headed to the train station. After a LONG train ride of 9 hours and 5 different trains, we arrived in Munich at 330am. We had already been there, and headed to the hostel we stayed at the first time, Jaeger's. We had pulled an all-nighter there the first time as well, when we missed our night train, and we knew that for some reason they didn't mind if people crashed in their lobby, lol. We walked in casually, threw our stuff in some lockers and tried to get some sleep. We were able to get a room for the next night though, which was good!

We woke up around 930am, and still in the same clothes we had been in from yesterday, headed to the fairgrounds. The festivities were crazy! There were like 14 different beer tents, each that could hold around 100,000 people. Plus there were rides, food stands and games... like the PNE! We both bought one of the cheesy hats and wore them around all day..it was a blast! The girls were all dressed in the traditional German dresses, and the guys were all wearing lederhosen, it was so cute.

We had our first litre of beer at about 1130am, then walked around the fair for a while. While enjoying our second litre, we met this German girl Suzy who couldn't have been more happy of the fact that we liked Germany so much. She kept saying how proud of us she was, lol.. we also met a guy who ordered some traditional bavarian pork for us that came with this dumpling.. it was so delicious!

Things really got going in the evening, and you could barely tell that there were even tables set up, because everyone was standing on them, dancing around to the band and having a good time. I kept thinking how there could probably never be anything like this in Vancouver.. we have too many rules! Despite how many people must have been sooo drunk, (including security guards that we saw wrestling with each other, haha..) We didn't see a single fight. The attitude is completely different over here, so relaxed! Everyone just wants to have a good time. There was even two little boys at one of our tables who would drink out of daddy's mug whenever they wanted..

When it was all over and done with, after one last ride on the roller coaster in the pouring rain, we grabbed a bratwurst and headed back to the hostel. Our shoes got SOAKED and we've been airing them out even since =(

The next day we went back to the Hofbrauhaus and ordered the same meal we had the first time we were in Munich, the brewmaster's pork steak. It was just as delicious as we remembered! We then took advantage of the hostels wireless network, which we still knew the code for, and planned where to go next. We really had no idea, since we weren't planning on even being in Munich! We decided to make our way to Paris, stopping in Strasbourg which was only 4 hours away.

the fair


the fair
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

paulaner beergarden


paulaner beergarden
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

another beergarden


another beergarden
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

one of the beergardens


one of the beergardens
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

gotta love the cheesy hats!


gotta love the cheesy hats!
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.

cheers!


cheers!
Originally uploaded by shanonv123.