It was now time for my first of many trips during these three months. Travelling has always been fun for me and since I have all weekends free, I travel every weekend. Since I have been to Europe before, I decided to visit primarily the places I had not seen before. Eastern Europe was something I had completely missed during my trip to Europe and I had also heard a lot about this upcoming part of Europe.
I had not planned anything at all. I just knew that some 15 odd friends from XL were meeting at the Octo(beer) Fest in Munich and that was my first destination. I booked my tickets to Paris and left Ram bharose, an adventure was truly about to begin. The route was a 24 hour journey from Barcelona to Paris to Munich with multiple (around 7 in all) train changes in between. Since, I could book tickets only from Spain; trains from Paris could not be booked beforehand. When I reached Paris, there were no seats left on any train to Germany as almost everyone was heading there for the fest. When you’re stuck in Paris, the only other option is take a train to Lille, a city 1 hour away from Paris, which has some trains to Belgium and then ahead and I had already missed the last train from Lille for that day. However, I am lucky to have two of my closest friends currently studying at Lille, Miss Singhal (Akanksha) & Hunter (Shringar) at whose place I stopped for the night. Since Miss Singhal was joining me for the Eastern Europe trip, she was kind enough to miss her train so that I would not have to spend a night at the station. After heading to her place, we decided and planned the entire trip ahead for 8 days. This unexpected event actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it helped us plan the entire trip ahead; something which was going to help us a lot in the coming few days. The plan was somewhat like this, Lille-Munich-Prague-Budapest-Bled-Soca Valley-Venice and then back. Phew!!! I know it was some travelling for 1 week, but something which had to be done.
So, after having a wonderful dinner with my friend’s super cool Land Lady Cecilia and her friends and planning the entire trip with hostels, trains, and flight bookings, we started on our memorable trip to the east next morning (25th of September).
Train Travel
They say Europe through Trains is a completely different experience and I had already started experiencing it. We were travelling from 8 am to 6 pm that day, but I can’t remember being bored for even a minute. I have met so many different and interesting people while travelling and it is good fun sharing experiences and chatting to them. Today, we met an American from California. He was sitting ahead of us and I could not help but notice a very amusing travelogue he had. Instead of photos, he was actually sketching the places whenever he saw something truly unique and the sketches were so wonderful that we both were mesmerized. After just talking to him for some minutes about California and USC (a place where many of my friends study), I asked him if we could see his artwork and he obliged. While I was going through the beautiful drawings he had made, Miss Singhal had an agenda of her own. Along with the sketches, she also ended up reading some of the private stuff that guy had written about his experiences which involved things which he would obviously not have shared which were actually quite amusing when she told me about them later.
German Engineering
I have heard a lot about German engineering, today I experienced it. Our train was running 15 minutes late, and would have reached late for a very important changeover to a connecting train if that was the case. That is when some announcement came in German, after which the train started to pick up some speed. After 10 minutes or so, the already fast train was simply flying. Acres of flat land just whipped by and I could feel that this was some speed. That is when they suddenly flashed the speed on the indicator, a shocking 300 km/hr. It was the closest one can get to flying. The tracks were parallel to the German Highways (The Auto Bahns), which are some of the best roads to drive on in the world. I saw something very interesting on the highway. In spite of galloping at 250 km/hr, the train could not outpace some of the cars on the road. Some of the cars were matching the speed of the train. Imagine driving at 250 km/hr, from Churchgate to Borivali in 12 mins J. The Germans truly are at a completely different level when it comes to these things; even from the rest of Europe.
The Octo(Beer) Fest
Just as we entered Munich, we could sense the aura of the place. The entire country is in a party mood for the entire 15 days and almost every German just drinks and drinks and drinks more during this time. They love their beer so much that they start drinking in the last two weeks of September in the October Festival; crazy isn’t it. The entire city was buzzing with almost all girls dressed in a traditional dress (I forgot what they call it), in which the bartenders serve the beer. If La Merce was the biggest festival in Spain, this was 10 times grander. The entire area is divided into many huge tents. Not the tents we know, these are huge houses which can fit in thousands of people easily. And there are many such tents. Freshly brewed beer is served in huge 1 litre glasses and there is superb music going on. Every few minutes, some random person takes up a challenge to complete it bottoms up and stands up on the table. The entire tent then starts cheering that person and the atmosphere becomes so electric and amazing. After a round of drinks, everyone breaks into a dance to the groovy music and the entire tent is filled with laughter, dance and colour. What an atmosphere. Every beer lover (Amit ‘Raging’ Bull & Gajaa come to mind) has to and has to visit this place sometime and even if you do not drink, this is an experience worth savoring.
Apart from the mind boggling atmosphere, another super thing was that now I was with friends. Meeting them after even 20 days, felt so good. They say you feel good if you meet Indians abroad. Well, if you meet Indian friends, the good just gets better J. Due to missing our train, we were late as everyone else had reached there early morning. When we reached, the people were already zonked out totally smashed out. I could see people just sleeping on the grass like they were already dead and random people just doing anything crazy. But all this added to the fun and craziness of this place. We friends entered a tent to just feel the experience and we also managed to get some free space at a table. As the music started again, we all could not help but break into a dance. No one cared what the music was, we did Bhangra steps and what not, forgetting about everyone else and just enjoying in that moment. I even danced for a while with some foreigners and joined them in a traditional German step, which I picked up pretty soon thanks to my sister back home. As I looked around, I could see thousands of people just dancing and drinking and having the time of their life, and couldn’t help but tell myself, Now that’s making it Large ;)
Night at the Station
We had an entertaining night at the Munich railway station, where our train was delayed indefinitely (German’s disappoint after all that praise earlier). The station was full of drunkards from the October fest and the waiting room was stinking so bad of vomit smell, that we just sat at an empty place in the station. There was a drunk person, showing an article printed that day saying German trains are always on time and laughing at the irony of the situation. After listening to some interesting stories by Neeraj and exploring the variety of mysteries within Karan’s bag, we boarded our train and all of us just collapsed on to the seats to grab some much needed sleep. In between, Miss Singhal, (who always ends up doing something weird) found out an open pantry where there were many cold drinks and juices, and all of us grabbed some much needed refreshments for the days ahead. Prague awaits :)
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