Austria + Oktoberfest

I'm a little behind as always, but that doesn't mean times are hard nor are they boring. Just the opposite.

Before I begin, I just wanted to send best wishes to anyone and everyone that knew my cousin Jean-Philippe, especially to Marie, Simon, and Leonie. JP past away in a motorcycle accident recently, and it was a huge shock for everyone. Some dipshit in the oncoming lane cut across into his lane to pass another car. A-hole! Talk about a guy that never wanted to bother anyone, and was always there to help and put a smile on your face no matter what. Je ne l'ai pas vue souvent dans ma vie mais il m'a quand meme beacoup marque. Ca me fait chier aussi que je n'aurrait pu la chance. Quand tu dit que c'est un crisse de bon Jack, ca fais juste relever la poussiere de son personnage. Il y'en a beacoup plus! Avoir une face haissable comme ca et te faire rire comme si c'etait contagieux! On va tous le manquer enormement! I really would've liked to be back home for the service atleast. The picture was taken but a couple of months ago when my brother and JP went to drag races. It kinda gives me the fuel to keep on going though. I gotta live it to the fullest, because JP always did and I know he would kick me in the ass if I didn't. Carpe Diem!

well......


Vienna

After coming from the Czech Rep., Austria was a nice old slap in the face........monetary slap that is. Holy Crap! Welcome back to the euro! Atleast the beer was still cheap but the food, lodging, and especially transport was considerably more expensive.

Vienna was a nice surprise in terms of the sheer beauty of the city, but it's for good reason that everyone there is so bloody rich. You need money to live in Austria, and especially in Vienna.

There are amazing monuments, and parliament buildings (pic left), and churches (pic right), and estates that give a certain imperialistic charm to the city. It is very clean and it was nice to have passed by and seen the city, but that's about it for me. The condescending look that most poeple give you there is really gives me bad vibes. Both the Austrians and other tourists look at the backpackers and "lower classes" as if they were swine. The whole Vienna scene is high couture and all of the major brands are there in the ring old town icluding LV, Versace, D&G, and all of that shit that I don't really appreciate. Thus the city was gorgeous on the aesthetic level, just like all of the people that call it home, and most of the people that visit it, but nothing deeper than that.

One very impressive Palace that we visited was the estate of the Hofburg Palace. Talk about having too much money and power and not knowing what to do with it. Sissi actually became depressive because she had no one in her life, just money and open spaces (pics). We didn't even check out half of the estate and it was enough time spent galloping in the wonderous gardens and gorgeous countryside. Quite massive, and cool cause wandering around is free free free!!!!!!

We still enjoyed ourselves immensely in Vienna. We got ourselves a little Viennese coffee. Actually one for the both of us cause it was rather expensive. I know, we splurged! We also met a really cool young quebecer couple in our hostel, JS and Noemie.

and then we were off for Salzburg, near the German border. You know that it cost 42€ each for the goddam train from Vienna to Salzburg. A 3.5 hour train ride...........42€.......... It's just stupid how expensive transpot is in Austria.



Salzburg

No wonder everyone talks about it, it's a really nice town. A little on the over 55, white haired tourist, hotel style but still beautiful nonetheless! We got beds in a decent hostel, and who do we see in our room, JS and Noemie (pic left). They had left the day before us, and it was so weird to fall upon them in the same hostel and same room no less. The 1st night, we met an amazing stand up Scotsman named Alex (pic right) that had been in Salzburg for a while and he paid us (4 quebecers) all a few and took us out to the bars. We ended up pretty drunk, at the Irish pub he usually works at, and he almost got into a fight cause some dipshits were pushing people in the bar and seriously just looking to pick a fight. It was quite an exciting night!!!! Alex is the type of guy that really has found what you need in life to be happy. He's wise beyond his years and he's a living example that people can make their way out of shitty environments. He was a necessary addition to my travels.

The town itself was quite nice to check out but once again, the vibe in the place was rather snobby. The town is surrounded (a little further back) by mountains, there's a castle, and a river runs through it. Pretty picturesque (pic left). There's again very nice gardens, and palatial grounds (pic right), and I almost forgot, it is the birthtown of the "Wolf"........that's right......... Wolgang Amadeus Mozart. There are also some naughty vixonesque godesses riding around on their unicorns here (pic left). It is still a very mythical place!



To get in the mood for the upcoming Oktoberfest, I gots me a little Tyrolian mountain hat (that fits great on my sweetness... pic left), and we went to a monastarian brewery that serves the beer in fat 1L steins, and out of huge classic wooden barrels (pic right). Good Bavarian Beer! I can't wait for the real deal in Munchen.

The train ride to Munich was really cheap since there's a group deal from 2 to 5 people on the same ticket, thus it cost me 5€ to get to Munich directly, about a 2 hour ride.

From Salzburg, I also split up from Andre since she was heading to Italy, and I was going to meet my cousin Alex in Munich. No ladies allowed, so it's going to be a perfect weekend of debauchery to do a little male bonding and especially get to discover Alex whom I've seen only twice before in my life. It should be really cool cause his buddy Antonin lives in Munich, and is receiving me, Alex, and 4 of their other friends.

Andre and I needed a little space I guess to keep things rollin' on sanely and this will be another nice separation to see how much I will miss all of her sweetness. I will see her after in Italy somewhere........we'll see!



Munchen

The official biggest beer festival and one of the hugest parties in the world. OH MY GOD what a good scene! Celebrating beer. What a splendid idea!

Already getting into town at the train station was pretty hectic. People everywhere but actually standing, and not staggering around to walk, but it was only noon. The best part is seeing so many people, young and old, in their classic dress. Guys in leiderhosen, and the girls in dirndle. So awesome..........I really wanted my own hot little leather shorts with suspenders but they're way too expensive.

I met up with my cousin Alex, and his buddies that he came down from Paris with: Vincent, Francois, Sebastien, and Thomas. We hit the beer garten at the Englischer Garten and got some steins. That's right, one full liter of good Bavarian beer! That's us in the pic on the left except we don't see Vincent which is off on the right of the pic. The righteous host of the weekend, Antonin, was to join us later, and from there things got a little, how do you say, skewed I guess. After drinking 2 beers (2 L) you feel pretty good so you have 2 or 3 more, and then, you're screwed! But all good fun! And you can see we were all sleeping in Antonin's one room appartment (pic right). It was quite tight but all you needed, a floor to pass out on, and great people to cheer you along and join in the FUBAR festivities.


The best part is I got to discover my awesome cousin Alex over the weekend. What a cool cat! He's such a great guy, and the life of the party. I had so much fun with him, and laughed so hard, and he had his own fun too...........I'll let the pics do the talking.... I can't reveal everything that went on. It was so cool to be taken in by him and his friends and to really party, and Alex just treats me as one of his best buds as if we had known each other all of our lives. I really love this guy!


I was really surprised at what extent the vibe is really good all over town. People are seriously drunk but there are hardly any fights. We only saw 2, in the same night, right in front of us, but otherwise people are there to just have fun. One night we went to one of the brewery/rest aurant halls downtown, not at the Oktoberfest. It was the Hofbrau Brewery....we had some great meaty, real mens food, (full roast chickens, and massive roast porc chunks......slurp slurp.....ahhhhhhhhh) with a few beers, and then we went downstairs in the main hall to have a couple more (pic left).......really great time!

Another really amazing highlight was the Englisher Garten again, but not for boozin', for the actual park, and especially the river. There's glacial water that runs down from the mountains and goes through the whole town and park. At one end, there are dudes surfing (pic left) as there's a dip or crack in the floor of the river which creates a continues wave that the guys just go back and forth on, almost like an indoor surf thingamajing. And also the river itself is so nice and refreshing. Antonin, Alex, me and one of Antonin's buddies, Mike, jumped in and let ourselves flow down the river through the whole park. It is so much fun !!!!!! The current is really strong so you just ride down in the cold-ass water for 10 minutes....no joke.......it was the best thing for a hangover......I loved it so much and never thought I could ever do that almost right in the middle of a rather big city.......Munich is so nice and clean and cool !!!!!

Back to the partying. The actual Oktoberfest site is made for the whole family. Rides and games and food galore, and then.....there's even huge beer tents. These are actually huge halls for each of the beers brewn in the Bavarian area and most of them in Munich. So there's a hall for each beer. There's one hall, I forget which one, maybe the Hofbrau hall, that holds 13000 people! No joke, and holy shit do these people ever party. Again the guys in leiderhosen, and girls in dirndle, and everyone up on the benches and tables dancing and singing with their stein in their hand (pic left). A really cool ambiance!....and absolutely insane!!!! I had a great time with the men of the hour, Antonin and Alex (pic right).

So here are the guys and me in front of the Olympic village to round out the weekend.......So I really got a great tour of Munich, had an amazing time with the guys, and discovered a goldmine in my cousin...........what a sweet time.

Next, I take off to Italy to join my gorgeous sweetness, I guess to Verona 1st, since it's rather central and overnight, so I can meet her wherever she is once I find out......where she is. I can't wait.......boys and booze is good almost all of the time, but girls can give you something the boys can't.......I leave you to fill in the blanks........make sure to paint a good mental image!!!!!!

I gotta go, but love all y'all and till next time.