Discover Holland Weekend

On the last few nice days of a Holland summer, I enjoyed a trip to the southern province of Brabat, specifically to the cities of Eindhoven and s'Hertogenbosch (more popularly known as Den Bosch).  For 65 Euros I got a fun-filled weekend with 80 other international students.  It included the bus, 2 night accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner, snacks, Dutch version of mini-golf, a museum and all the beer and beverages you could want to drink at night!

Friday night we met by the train station and loaded up onto our double-decker coach bus (I had no idea you could rent buses this big, definitely not an American thing).

Though we were visiting Brabat, we ended up staying in a small town of Bree in northern Belgium.  We stayed in 2 buildings right next to an old mansion/castle built by some important person...yeah I forget the story. I also got to see the Milky Way for the first time in a long time and it was so nice to see the night sky so clearly!!

That night we played a couple games like speed dating and musical chairs (from which I have a massive bruise...honestly how old are we that we need to get violent) and were provided all the beer, wine and soda we could drink! I went to bed early as I had been a little sick all week and definitely needed all the rest I could get.

In the morning we had a Dutch breakfast of either sandwichs or bread with sprinkles on top (I am not kidding...), but I stuck with a normal jam and butter.  All of us loaded back onto the bus and drove to the middle of nowhere and played...Boerengolf!!!

Basically it is a cross between golf and mini-golf, except you are on cow pastures and use a mini-soccer ball as the golf ball.  Naturally the golf club has a clog on the end of it...so Dutch. Since we played among the cows, we were given little booties to place over our shoes in the event we stepped in some cow patties...which happened to the majority of people including me.  

After a lovely hour or so playing, we went to a Historical Open Air Roman/Medieval Musuem.  This is in the same concept as Colonial Williamsburg with people role-playing various roles like gladiators and peasants.



For dinner, ESN took us into the city of Eindhoven, a more modern city in the province of Brabat. It is definitely not as cute as your typical European town, but as it was bombed during World War II it could not be helped.  There are apparently some good museums there and the city center has designated pedestrian streets.  Once back at our accommodation, you had the option of "making a party" as the saying seems to go...though I went right to sleep and had a glorious 10 hours of sleep while most people had 5 hours or less.


Sunday morning after breakfast, we all pitched in and cleaned up as you will be fined otherwise.  For the day we went to Den Bosch, ate a local pastry called Bossche bol (basically a large cream puff) and took a canal tour.  This city is very different from Eindhoven as it is cute and a bit larger, I definitely would like to go back if I have the chance.  As it was the first Sunday of the month, shops were allowed to open from 11 to 4 and most take advantage of that. It was beautiful day and there was also a festival of musicals going on at the same time...so lots of people were out and about enjoying the shops, music and being outside.

Around 5/6 pm we headed back to Utrecht and by the time I arrived back to my room in Zeist, I was exhausted and tired...and unfortunately still sick.  In terms of Discovering Holland, definitely got a little taste of it, but it is a country hard to define and still do not feel like I know all of it...but plenty of time for that!

Ein Prosit!

Entrance to Oktoberfest

A week ago I traveled down to München for Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest for those who don't know, is a 16-18 day (varies every year) celebration that started in 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. Originally it always ended on the first day of October...hence Oktoberfest, but they have since changed it to include October 3, which is German Reunification Day. Therefore in order to include October 3, sometimes the beerfestival is the last 2 weeks of September and other times the last week of September and first week of October.  This festival is the largest festival in the world with over 6 million visitors each year! There are rides, games, food, drink and more! Basically München becomes more like a New York City with the amount of people stay there...when I had gone back in June 2004 the city was definitely not as crowded as it was right now.

Lebkuchen

As fortune would have it, my sister and 2 of my cousins are also studying in Europe, though only for a semester. My sister, Gillian, is in Rome at the John Cabot University and experiencing quite the different lifestyle. My two cousins, Aleandra and Erika, are studying in Prague and Berlin, respectively. Anyways... last spring when we found out we were all going to be abroad, we decided to meet up at Oktoberfest and so my sister booked us this über-awesome hostel.

Or not...it actually looked like this aka camp, but worse:

Our mobile hostel

Inside our tent

In order to stay warm at night we slept 2 to a bunk bed and the body heat helped a lot.

Magenbrot

After taking 3 different trains from Utrecht starting at 7:30 am, I finally arrived at 3:15 at the train station. After meeting up with the others and checking into the hostel, we went first to Oktoberfest just to see it and eat some Bratwurst and Magenbrot! (and if you never had Magenbrot before...honestly you need to try it, sooo good. Gillian ate some and immediately said, "Christmas!")

Alt Rathaus in Marienplatz

After walking around a bit we went into downtown München and walked from Karlsplatz to Marienplatz. Aleandra (my cousin) and I each bought some fake leather jackets, which we thought were very good purchases! I forgot to bring a fall jacket with me...so this was needed.

For dinner and drinks we went to the Hofbräuhaus! I was so excited to go back to the first place I had a full liter of beer (and basically my first beer). I purchased a new beer mug as my original one broke last summer and 20 minutes later I dropped the bag...and broke my glass!! So upsetting...but I ended up stealing one the next day from the Hofbräuhaus tent so it worked out.  Erika, my other cousin, and I got to share some Spaghetti-eis as well! I miss the southern Germany ice cream sundaes, so good!!

Hofbräuhaus

 

Spätzle and Schnitzel

First of many biers that weekend :P

Inside the Hippodrome, one of the many biertents

Hofbräuhaus Biergarten

Saturday morning, we forced ourselves to get up and dress in the cold weather, but we were going to Oktoberfest all day so that made it better. We arrived at the Wies'n a little after 10 am and stood in line to get in the one of more famous biertents known as "Himmel der Bayern" (Heaven of the Bavarians) or Hacker-Festzelt. After waiting in line until 12:30 we got out of the line to look at the side entrances, which were apparently letting in people. We decided to wait until later in the afternoon to get inside and instead went to the Hofbräuhaus Biergarten (tables outside the tents where you can drink and eat food and be outside in the sun...but not experiencing the band inside as much though there are speakers).

New friends at the Biergarten

In order to get into the Biergarten we had to stand at the entrance and wait until a waitress came over to bring people inside to sit at her tables. We ended up seating a table with a German couple who came from outside of Düsseldörf. They could not speak a lot of English so we were forced to speak German, but it was funny and we had lots of fun. The table next to us was full of people from Rio de Janiero, Brazil who had all met up from their various places of studying abroad. They were really nice and I talked with them for awhile. 

Our waitress at the Biergarten

So after some beers and pretzels, we decided to go back to the original beertent (Festzelt) to get inside. We stood in line next to a group from Switzerland (who were snorting tobacco....and kept trying to get us to as well) and about 45 minutes later happened to get into the tent thanks to Gillian! A group of 4 German guys got to cut the line because they knew someone, and since we were in the front of the mass group of people Gill happened to put up her hand with 4 fingers and the bodyguard noticed her and let us in with them.

Inside the Hacker-Festzelt

Hacker-Festzelt

Finally we got into this coveted tent and we had a great view of the bandstand and the rest of the tent. It was really beautiful and we had a good time there! Drank some more beer of course and ordered some pork and chicken dishes for dinner.  Both dishes were absolutely amazing....I mean they cook it fresh right there...and you know it is fresh because people are constantly heating and there are constantly people going into the tents with more food supplies. Basically if you like chicken, pork and ox dishes...eat at Oktoberfest and drink liters of beer.


We were there for probably 2-3 hours, singing, drinking and eating and then left and ended up going back downtown (but not before we devoured a bag of roasted almonds...well inhaled really). Back at Marienplatz we sat down again for more food! This time we sat down with people from America.

Chicken dishes, sehr leckar!

Around 10 pm or so, we headed back to our lovely abode and got ready for bed. We ended up talking to some other people in our room, a guy from Boston and a couple from Oregon who live in Hawaii now.  The couple had been staying in the hostel for a week and were leaving Sunday morning and very ecstatic about it...I would be too if I had to stay there for a week and paid 42 euros a night.

Sunday morning we got up and checked out and went back to Marienplatz to sit down and eat some breakfast. We all got the same thing: Englischer Breakfast, which has scrambled eggs and toast, orange juice and then either coffee, tea...or hot chocolate!!! At noon, Gillian went off to the airport and the rest of us headed to the train station to wait for our trains.

Hot Chocolate :)

Marienplatz

All in all it was a wonderful weekend of fun and meeting new people, but also catching up with Gillian, Aleandra and Erika. I hadn't seen my cousins since last November so it was nice to see them again! Gillian I am going to see a week from now as I will be going to Rome.  As yes our hostel...well could have be better, way better, but that was all part of the experience! I mean how many times do you hear a guy retching right outside your tent, but laughing hysterically at the same time at 3 am in morning while you are huddled in a bed next to your cousin/sister....?

Goodbye! We will be together again for Thanksgiving!

Photos are courtesy of myself, Gillian Clark and Aleandra Borchers.