Contiki - 7 day camping tour, Munich, Germany
London to Munich - overnight by bus
10 September 2006
Had a hell of a time dragging all my Luggage to the
Generator. After initially having some trouble finding the place and having a
mini spastic in the street, I checked in and dumped my stuff. The hot check in
guy was nice enough to give me an extra free drinks card. I think he noticed I
was in need of a drink.
Rhianna and I had planned to go to Brick Lane for the
Curry Festival but upon meeting up we realised we were both too tired so we went
to the Goose pub up the road instead. Crashed that night in the damn hot hostel
room. London was absurdly hot.
11 September 2006
Bummed around the hostel that morning. Met Emma and
Lisa briefly. Then went and found some net. Had a hilarious incident with Sean
in which we were both online and obviously in the same area, possibly the same
net cafe. Turned out he was around the corner, but at the time it was funny...ok
so you had to be there.
That arvo I met Clarissa and Leigh for the first time,
after talking to them online for 2 years it all seemed very natural upon
meeting. Along with Rhianna we headed to Brick Lane for some curry! Should not
have worn my heels. But the food was good! Went to a place called Capital Curry.
Korma was surprisingly sweet, but all in all it was very nice.
12 September 2006
Went to the British Museum that morning. My main
objective was to see the Rosetta Stone which I'd always had a fascination with
since I was a kid. Saw it, took photos, and then had a look around the Egyptian
exibits. Some of the statues were pretty cool. At the souvenir shop I spotted a
cool Geisha bracelet. I bought it and then went in search of the Japanese area,
unfortunately it was under renovation for a new exhibit. I was still happy with
my purchase though.
That arvo I knew that another net friend who I'd been
talking to online nearly every day for the past 18 months, would be arriving in
London. I hadnt planned on doing anything that arvo so that I could catch up
with him when he got to the hostel,where he was supposed to stay. So I waited
around at the Generator for a few hours. Hadnt heard anything, so I SMS'd. He
was around the corner at the London Pub having drinks with tourmates he had just
spent the past month with. Felt a bit put off. He asked me to come down for
drinks. I had also been in contact with one of his tour mates as he was also
going on the Oktoberfest Tour, so having to deal with two net meetings, plus the
fact that all his friends would be there, scared the crap out of me. Initially I
decided not to go down, but realising I had nothing else to do and would need to
meet him at some point I headed down there. I went straight to the bar, ordered
a pint, and skolled it.
To cut a long story short. Things didnt exactly go to
plan. I knew they wouldnt, but still. Spent the arvo feeling quite
uncomfortable, although made friends with some of his other friends, but all up,
every other net meeting I've had, has gone way better. To give him credit
though, he didnt act badly towards me (well except when he didnt initially
recognise me, thats a bit insulting) but the whole time I just felt
uncomfortable. It would have been nice to meet one on one. Its always better
that way because you can figure out how well it goes much more easily.
Got quite drunk after skolling pint and pint. Went and
threw up in the toilets, not because I was sick, but because I knew I was
getting too drunk,
Left late and went to bed feeling like crap... not due
to alcohol.
13 September
Went to the Royal National Hotel at 7.30am for a day tour Talal and I had booked. Two of his friends came along as well.
Headed to Victoria Station where we waited for the
coach. My friend Stooie (who is a friend of Tals that I stole hehe) rang me from
Australia. So we talked to him for a bit.
The Coach came and we headed off. First stop was Stonehenge. The tour guide had told us not to get our expectations up as he found a lot of people were disappointed that it wasnt what they expected. But when we got there, apart from the fact that it has a major highway running right next to it. I thought it looked cool. We walked around the big loop that goes around it.
Had a pit stop nearby for lunch, then it was off to
Salisbury to visit the Salisbury Cathedral. I was pretty impressive and BIG!
Took more photos.
After that we went to Bath. I hadn't realised that this
place was soooo pretty! It was gorgeous. We walked around and had a look at the
Roman Baths. Would love to go back there as it was just a really pretty city.
Looked liked something out of Italy and not England.
It was then time to head back to London. Was about a 3 hour bus ride back.
We all went back to the Generator Hostel and I went to
my room for a shower while the others went to the bar and met up with some of
the others. I went down and met up with Rhianna, Em and Lisa. I took down a
little present I had got Talal in Kuala Lumpur. He liked it. I like giving hehe.
Got stuck into the drinking and was having a great
time. At one point a girl came up to me and asked "Are you Shelly?" I
said "Yes". She told me she was Chelsea from the Contiki board. Then
she left. Odd.
Shortly after I went to go grab something from my room.
Upon walking out of the bar, I saw a guy who looked a little familiar. We both
did a double take, we smiled and I knew it was Mark, a guy I had become friends
with via the Contiki board. He later said he recognised me immediately, which was a nice
change after Talal hadn't.
When I meet people from the net it usually takes me
about 5 minutes to decide if a) I still like them, b) if I feel comfortable with
them and c) if they approve me. None of which I was able to answer with Talal
even some 48 hours later..... or 7 days as it turned out.
I knew within 1 minute that all three questions had the
good answers with Mark,
We went back to the bar and I introduced him to
everyone. Most of us that had planned to be there that night were there. Damien
and Lance had come down and later Sean came up to me and had somehow recognised
me, so we 'met'. But there were still a few that I was not sure were there or
not.
I spotted one slightly red head guy with two blonde
girls and came to the conclusion that they had to be Matt, Courtney and Rizzo
from the Contiki messageboard. I noted this observation to Mark but we were
unsure how to approach. Matt eventually went to the bar and seeing he was quite
drunk I just yelled out his name. He turned around. I was right! They came over
and we introduced ourselves. Mark and I felt quite famous as they seemed quite
excited to meet us in person after reading all our messages on the board.
So the night turned into one big drinking session. Lots
of photos were taken and lots of drunken antics were to be had. Talal had since
left but Mark stayed all night, we had immediately fallen in sync with each
other which was good. It was a good night.
14 September 2006
The coach for the Contiki Oktoberfest Tour left at
3pmish. Mark had been kind enough to help me drag my bags with me to the Contiki
basement where I left one of my bags in their storage and the rest in the day
storage. He then came with me to go to my friends work at Canary Wharf so give
her my laptop so she could look after it while I was travelling. I think he hurt
his shoulder which I felt bad for, but there was no way I could have handled the
bags by myself.
Back at the Royal National later, I found that all
three of us were on different buses. I was on a bus with Matt, Courtney, Nicole
(Riz), Bree and Ross who I had met the previous night, but I would have liked to
have had either Talal or Mark on the same bus considering it was an 18 hour bus
ride.
After a few endless hours I tried knocking myself out
with sleeping tablets. I only had one and the effect didnt last very long.
15 September 2006
Arrived at Thalkirchen Camping Group at 9am the next
day. Breakfast was ready and waiting and it happened to be my favourite. Kransky!!
We then settled into our tents. I was put with a girl whose name I still dont
know as we hardly saw each other. Went and hung out with Mark and a group of
guys he had made friends with. Gave me a chance to
check out the talent.
A Zoo mag was brought out and we had a look through it,
commenting on the 'articles'. The boys thought I was a lesbian hahaha. I can
just appreciate a good looking chick ok?! haha.
I went and got my hot pink footy out. Football =
instant friends. For the rest of the arvo we kicked the footy around and all the
guys joined in. It was lots of fun and they were all impressed with my football
skills....well for a chick.
That night the campsite turned into Schoolies Week.
Seriously, the place was swarming with young Aussies all drinking and wandering
around in boardshorts. It was awesome!
Mark and I decided to go grab some dinner. We planned
on going to the beer hall up the road but unfortunatley with no euros on us and
them not accepting Visa, we had to go elsewhere. We went up the road and found
an ATM and then stumbled on a cool looking asian beerhall type thing. It was
quite odd, but turned out to be a great meal. I got a chicken curry that was
excellent.
Had a great time with Mark. He was very comfortable to
be around and I was glad to have such a good friend there.
Later, walking back down the stunningly beautiful tree
lined street to the campsite, I overhead a conversation from a group walking in
front of us. I heard they were from Perth and piped up that I too was from
Perth. The convo went like this.
"Bicton" I said
"OMG We're in Melville! Did you go to Melville High?"
"Yes"
"Whats your name?"
"Shelly"
"OMG! Are you Ross' sister!?"
On the other side of the world I had stumbled into my
brothers friends. Both who I knew!! One of them I had been sort of friends with
when she was dating my brothers friend. It's a god damned small world!
It really was a small world. All that day I had met
soooo many Perth people and each one I had a connection with. Some lived in the
next suburb, some knew friends of mine, some were regulars and the same club I
was a regular at. It was amazing at how many Perth people were there.
Amy, one of the girls who brother I went to school
with, took a liking to Mark and started grabbing his ass. She also even bit him
which later left a HUGE bruise on his arm. She ended up giving him her
gingerbread heart and we went our separate ways.
Mark and I grabbed a beer from the vending machine at
the front of the camping site and stood around for awhile watching the crowd.
Rory, one of our tour guys came over. This guy was a dead ringer for Justin
Longmuir (AFL player) and I had earlier asked if he was related (he wasnt but
said he got that a lot haha).He was pretty drunk and he hung around a bit while
I tried to teach him some German phrases. He eventually headed back to our tent
area. Mark went to bed but at the insistence of Matt and Courtney he was dragged
back out. He was given an Aussie flag and made an honorary Australian. People
slowly headed off to bed until it was J.Lo and I left. Felt good being the last
up hehe.
16 September 2006
Day 2 of the tour started out crap but ended up to be
one of the best nights on tour. I went for a shower early but had to wait 40
minutes to get one. By the time I got out, everyone had got on the buses and
gone to the Fest grounds. I jumped on the last bus to leave. Sean and his mate
Brendan were on the bus and when we got to the grounds I hung around with them
for awhile. We walked from tent to tent but couldn't decide on which one to sit
at. I eventually felt defeated and went back to camp. Thankfully Wayne, another
tour guy, was there and he made me go back with him. He knew where the others
were so we headed to the Lowenbrau tent and sat with everyone in the beer
garden. This was the start to the good side of the day. The guns/canons went off
to mark the start of the festival and the beer started flowing. JT asked us all
for 10 Euros which we all
thought was for a ber and a 2 Euro tip for the Frau.
We waited for our steins and watched as the Fraus's hauled the large steins
through the crowds, some handling 10 at a time! JT then told us that the 10 Euro
was just the tip alone and that we had to put in another 10 for the beer.
Finally sorted out our order and the beer thus come! It tasted soooo much better
than the bottled Lowenbrau. Thank you German Purity Law!! (which dictates how
German beer should be made... without preservatives)
The rest of the day was excellent. Made lots of new
random friends including a girl called Gabi who took me on a very drunken ATM
run. We weaved/stumbled through the crowd talking non stop and smoking her
cigar. We had a lot of drunken fun.
Later I met another girl in the toilet line and she was
having trouble talking to this old guy on the other side of the fence. I started
translating for her, but for awhile we didnt know if he were German, Italian or
French, so I mixed what I knew from all three languages and we eventually
understood each other. Turns out he was Italian who could speak French and a bit
of German hehe.
On the way back to my table I bought a bottle of snuff.
I had been snorting it all morning from a guy who had earlier bought a bottle.
We had been doing lines off the tables but probably looked pretty dodgy/stupid,
but it was all in good fun. Snuff is essentially this menthol powder which you
snort to keep you awake, though it does look a lot like cocaine.
The rest of the evening was a drunken blur. At one
stage Gabi and I had bought some dinner. She got the chicken and I got a pork
knuckle. They tasted great!! I went with her and her friends to the showground
rides where they went on a ride which basically went up and down very fast. I
opted to stay at the bottom and film it all.
Back at the beer garden, a whole load of various things were happening. The Kiwi boys were doing the Hakka, Mark had got it on with a girl called Vic, who he later found too clingy. And everyone drank lots and started singing Robbie Williams songs. One of my fondest memories of Fest is watching a bunch of blokey aussie guys singing along to Robbie Williams - Angels hahaha. Stay tuned for the video!
Overall it was a great day/night. I had so much fun and
cant wait to do it again!
17 September
Today we went to Dachau Concentration Camp. Although I
had already visited the place before. I wanted to go again just to get a better
feel of the place. (I find that it always the case, if you go somewhere twice,
it feels like you've been there, whereas if you only go somewhere once it
sometimes feels you were never there at all...ok maybe its just me)
Later that arvo a group of us went to the Hofbrauhaus
in central Munich. Vic and her friends came and we all caught the train to
Marienplatz. Got a bite to eat at McDonalds and I marveled at how, only 3 1/2
years earlier I was sitting at the exact same table with a group of friends
while on my first Contiki tour.
Went to the Hofbrau and got our steins. I was a bit
tired so it took awhile to get through mine. I started off sitting with Michelle
who I got along with really well. But later slid under the table to sit with
Mark.
We left just before midnight but while the others took
a taxi back to camp, Mark and I were having too much fun and decided to go find
some other nightlife. We walked around a bit and he mentioned how he had kinda
fancied me a bit, even before we met. I thought that was cute and it made me
feel a bit more confident in making a move on him. I had decided, pretty much
that day that I did like him a bit more than just friends and for the first time
EVER...would make a move on a guy. 
We started looking for a strip club, but that soon
turned into trying to find any form of nightlife. It was pretty dead.
We eventually found a bar that I had heard of. One side
was called Ned Kellys and was an aussie bar, but it was quite quiet so we went
to the other side which was an Irish bar, got a drink and sat down.
My mind played on how I would make this move. Took
about 5 minutes until I decided to just lean in and kiss him. Went down well, as
expected. He whispered in my ear "Why has it taken 5 days for this to
happen?" .... cute :)
Didn't stay out long. Went back to camp.
18 September
Today went to Neuschwanstein Castle. I had aaaalways
wanted to go here. I think its the best castle in the world. Matt, Courtney,
Ross, Nicole and Bree came. Took 2 hours to drive there and we decided that
instead of taking the shuttle bus from the bottom of the mountain to the castle,
that we'd walk up it.
My god! What a hike! The road was set at a permanent 45
degree angle. It seemed to take forever but about 45 mins later we made it.
Absolutely buggered.
Grabbed a Bockwurst in a bun and wolfed that down.
Attempted to head out to an area that has a bridge but
it started raining pretty heavily and halfway there we turned around and came
back.
Did a tour of the castle. It was ok. The tour guide
sounded like a tape recording, but her take on some English words were hilarious,
like Iron, she'd say Eye-ron hahahaha.
Got dropped off at the Fest grounds on the way back into Munich. We first went to the Hippodrome tent where we saw the guy from Las Vegas, the TV show. I got excited because at first I thought it was Johnny Knoxville. It kiiinda looked like him haha. Courtney got her photo taken with him so she was happy. We talked to his brother as well. I asked him if he wanted me to take lots of photos of him as his brother was getting all the attention, so he'd feel special too haha. He was nice.
Met up with Mark and left early heading back to camp.
19 September
Headed to Fest with Talal, Damien, Justin, Grant and Lance.
We went to the Hofbrauhaus tent and it was pretty dead.
We even got a table straight away. Ordered a beer and a feed. I had actually
ordered the sausage, but ended up with another pork knuckle.
Next few hours were a blur. The tent filled up and we
started sitting on the railing behind the bench. Every now and then the security
guys would come past and tell us not to sit there. At one point they even
threatened to throw us out. If I had of had one more stein in me, I'm sure I
would have tried to take them on hahaha.
Blurry
night. Went to the bus at some point where I
proceeded to pass out on the back seat. Wayne had to wake me up when we arrived
back at camp. Went to my tent, packed all my stuff and tried to sleep. Couldnt
sleep for ages as there was noise all night. I was thus awake through the
hangover I usually sleep though. Probably got to sleep about 2am.
20 September
The bus left for London at 5.30am. I could not have
been in a worse condition physically or emotionally. I zombied my way to the
front of the campsite, grabbing the little breakfast pack along the way I
dragged my bag to the bus.
Had three pit stops before reaching the ferry. Got a
crappy dinner of fish and chips before hanging out with Mark on the top deck. It
was nice.
Was then a two hour drive from Dover to London. We
raced another bus there and won!
Back at the Royal National Mark and I got a room. I was
hoping he'd presumptiously get a double, but he was a gentleman and got a twin.
Had a shower before going back downstairs and meeting up with everyone for one
last drink at the London Pub. I was pretty tired and after one beer I said my
goodbyes and went to bed.
21 September
Mark had to leave early that morning to catch a train
back to Manchester. He woke me up with a kiss and cuddle and then was gone. I
slept in till about 9am before grabbing some breakfast downstairs. I was not in
the mood for moving everything to the Generator Hostel as planned so I forked
out the extra cash and booked two extra nights at the Royal National.
Talal messaged and later came up to my room to give me
some money he owed me. We later organised to meet up at Piccadilly Circus with me. We spent the
rest of the day running around London trying to find souvenirs for his family
and friends and also ticking off some last minute tourist attractions.
A lot of
things happened at Fest with him that I haven't mentioned. But I was glad that after everything, we had a nice day
out and at least could part on a nice note.
22 September
Completely bummed around today. Did some laundry and went on net again.
23 September
Headed for Berlin.... to continue the story, click here