Munich - End of the line

Ok we'll start with the bad news first.

My camera, which I'd recently lost, recovered and vowed to protect like my first born child, was dropped in the Hostel bar. Im not sure who dropped it, as it was being passed around, but at some stage it hit the floor.

It is damaged. After a detailed investigation I've concluded that the aperture shutters have shattered and are now floating around inside the lens itself, occasionally blocking the view. The camera still takes photos, but in bright lighting (when the aperture shutters would be out) the picture has a grainy kind of static over it. It still records video perfectly.

I've found a couple of camera repair shops in London, so I'll get a couple of quotes next week and see what can be done. Its a bit of a shame, but I've had a lot of fun here too.

The day we arrived was also the last night of the tour for a couple of my good Busabout mates, so we all decided to take full advantage of the happy hour(s) in their honour. From 6 - 8 we drank all sorts of things in the Hostel bar. Then, with a shine well and truly on, we went to a beer garden.

Now I thought I knew what a Beer Garden was based on my experiences in Australia. The "Beer Garden" of every pub I've seen has been a paved area with a couple of tables and some potted plants. Basically the only thing that distinguished it as a beer garden was the lack of a DJ.

Well the Beer Garden we went to in Munich was the real deal. In fact it was less of a Beer Garden than it was a Beer Forest. It was a massive area (easily the size of the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane) and totally packed with tables. The tree canopy formed a complete unbroken ceiling of the place, and it was totally full of people.



We found oursleves a table and a very german looking lady took our complicated order of "Beeeeeerrrrrrrrr!!!!". She returned with 7 massive glass steins full of the stuff, the table must have bowed a few inches as she put them down.

We would have been there for a couple of hours at least, very loud and very drunk. Eventually we noticed the odd flash of lightning through the canopy and somehow came to the logical conclusion that we should leave.

As we got out onto the street, Emma from Sydney started laughing and reached into her handbag, producing (with a Houdini-like flourish) one of the massive steins we'd been drinking from. Myself and 3 of the other boys looked at each other, briefly searched out consciences, then immediately decided we had to go back for the ultimate souvenier.

We didnt really have a plan, other than to use all the cunning and guile we could muster to somehow smuggle out glasses of our own. The fact that we were utterly legless was immaterial.

We all piled on a massive bench near the entrance that had a few empty glasses on either end of it. Matty and James were on one side, with me and Luke way down on the other end. We announced loudly to each other how glad we were to be back in our seats after a brief leg streching excursion outside. The only person who took any notice was an old guy on the next table, who regarded us with the weary gaze that comes from being the only person around drinking beer for the taste.

After sitting at our empty glasses for a few minutes, we simultaneously had the idea that we should go to the mens room and take the glasses with us, as sort of a diversionary tactic. So off we went, trying in vain to hold them under our shirts or behind our backs without looking like complete idiots.

We entered the unrinals to plot our next move (like most men), but suddenly we were faced with 20 serious looking guys staring over shoulders at us with eyebrows raised. We froze. Noone had thought it out this far, in fact noone had thought it out at all. I lost my nerve, wheeled around and ran headlong out the front gate and down the street, stein waving around madly. I could tell by the yelling and laughter behind me that the other guys had followed suit.

By about the third block we were out of breath. We put the glasses back under our shirts and walked back to the hostel, taking a route that somehow passed every local police station in the area. I gave myself a few minutes to feel guilty back in my dorm, then stashed the glass and went back to the bar for the second happy hour of the evening.

At the crack of 10 that morning I was out of bed and into the streets of Munich. I went to the city park, which is twice the size of New Yorks central park and full of nude sunbathers (100% of whom were old men). I went to the Wave riding area as Id seen it on a backpacking show before I left. Its a section of the parks artificial river that has a rockwall across the bottom, which combined with the pretty fierce current creates a never-ending wave not unlike that ride at DreamWorld. There was a lineup of 5 people on each side, all wetsuited and surfboarded up, taking turns to put on a demo for the crowd of onlookers.

Once I'd found my way out of the park again, I did a bit of a wander through town then met up with Emma and Vijay back at the hostel bar. We took an evening walk, burnt up some photos and drank milkshakes, then turned in for the night.

Today Vijay and I teamed up once more to visit the BMW museum, which was closed. Fortunately they had a little tent setup next door with some of the more popular exhibits on show. Then we made it to the massive Deutches Museum. Apparently if you spent one minute at every exhibit, you would be there for 33 days. We knocked it over in 3 hours.

Its happy hour again at the Hostel, so I'll probably head back and tie a few more on before I have to bid farewell to the Busabout experience. I havent thought of a clever or meaningful way to sum it all up, other than to say its been a blast. Every single breakfast has involved a croissant, and every single dinner bar 2 has involved pizza. If I did this any longer I'd have scurvy, and that how you know you're really living.