I arrived in Munich (Monaco in Italian) Friday evening over an hour behind schedule. The train to Munich started off a half hour late. I got settled into the hotel room around 20h00 and settled down at the hotel bar waiting for my friends to show up. The bartender was from Morocco and it gave me a chance to practice my French.
At the bar I met some Americans that described how to get to Octoberfest. Turns out the metro was right outside the hotel so it was an easy enough venue to get to. I had a beer and headed off toward Octoberfest since none of my friends had arrived (although some were supposed to get in later).
I got to Octoberfest and my first reaction was "Why am I at a carnival?"
There were carousels, bumper cars, and all other kinds of rides for the
festival. I finally found the beer tents, but as it was already 21h30
most of them were not letting in any more patrons as they were full to
capacity. So after walking around a bit I headed back to the hotel.
I waited up until 00h30 for my friends but they hadn't arrived.
The next morning I caught up with Dave who had arrived in late last night as his flight from London was delayed. So we headed out into Munich to look around and take a couple of photos. We sat down at a cafe and had a couple of beers and then headed back to the hotel. There I had three messages from Mike and Maria who were looking for me. They said they'd be at the hotel so I ran downstairs and sure enough, there they were. They must've come in only a couple of minutes after me.
We sat down at the hotel bar and had a beer 
Dave joined up with us a few minutes later. We headed on off to Octoberfest
together.
We got there around 14h30 which we thought would've been early. As it turns out, the place was pretty full and a number of people were stumbling about from having drunk too much beer. We headed off to the Haufbrau tent as that was highly recommended by a couple of Americans the night before. But the place was standing room only. We had a couple of beers here and spoke with some Italians. Many Italians come to this festival.
But after a while Mike and Maria wanted to go to a sit down place so we went to another tent they had been to the previous night and found some seats with, whom else, more Italians. There we settled in for an evening of drinking Octoberfest beer, which I must say is quite a tasty treat. If you ever get a chance to drink Octoberfest beer I highly recommend it.
I soon joined the neighboring table that was occupied by a group of
young Germans. After a while we were talking and singing German songs
(there was a live 30 piece brass band) eventhough I didn't know the words.
-grin 
Needless to say it was a fun evening out. Dave wandered off at one
point in the evening and I didn't see him again until the next morning.
I eventually went home on the metro. Mike and Maria headed on back
to their hotel from the main train station.
Dave and I had an early 08h00 breakfast. Although he went back to the room to take a nap. I went outside for a brief walk and then headed back to the hotel room. Mike and Maria called right before I was going to check out. Maria had lost her voice but it sounded like they had a great time last night.
Dave and I headed off to the BMW museum to check that out. It was interesting enough to see the old cars and motorcycles they had on display.
We then headed off to the train station as my train would leave before Dave. We sat around drinking espresso and I headed off to catch my train. The train ride back was uneventful. The Germans were the only ones to check my passport in and out of the country.
The train goes through beautiful and scenic Innsbruck which is definitely on my list of places to go see. The mountains here, look ragged and powerful compared to the gentle slopes of the Italian ones. Austria itself is a beautiful country too with many streams and pine trees covering the mountains.
Copyright @ 1997, Alexandre POLOZOFF. All Rights Reserved.