After Ibiza, we flew into London for a couple of days. It was a quick pit-stop before we headed to Munich for Oktoberfest. After 10 weeks of singlets and shorts it was finally time to give use to the jackets and jeans that we had been lugging around. It was freezing. 8 days of solid partying had worn down my immune system, which wasn't a shock, and London's autumn climate wasn't helping things.

We were staying just down the road from Kings Cross Station in a little hostel that was going for 10 pounds a night. I think we got ripped off. They crammed 4 triple-bunk beds into a tiny matchbox of a room. I got close to no sleep on the first night, and that was off the back of not sleeping the night before (our last in Ibiza). I was pretty fried.

The next morning I had breakfast and thought I would take on the city for the day. First, I posted home most of my singlets, which I thought I wouldn't have much more use for. Then I went to the train station and got a day ticket. I went to Camden markets for a look around, was pretty average. Reminded me of Sydney markets, just a lot of cheap rubbish. Then I went to Oxford Street for a look at some more shops.

That night I went to Arsenal vs. Braga at the Emirates Stadium. Payed a lot for the ticket ($700 Aus), but I figured champions league.. my favourite team..might be a once in a life time opportunity.. whatever. The ticket was part of a hospitality package, so I got in there nice and early to make the most of my 3 course buffet dinner and took some photos of the empty stadium before it packed out.

Arsenal made the Portuguese champions look like dogs breakfast thumping them 6-0. So at least I got my money's worth of goals. Was a perfect night really, couldn't have asked for much more. I definitely want to see more premier league games in the future. The night was a tease for what the atmosphere would be like for a local derby or a top 4 clash.

The next day we checked out and caught the train to the airport nice and early because I thought we had a 3-something flight to Munich. Turns out we had a 7-something flight and I cost us a day of site-seeing in London to sit in an airport all day! To be fair, we probably wouldn't have done much anyway. We were both still pretty ruined from the previous week.

We got into Munich pretty late. And it wasn't much warmer. We checked into our hostel that was pretty central in Munich. Our room was a 40 bed dorm, which didn't phase me, but apparently there were a few snorers amongst the group. Lewis felt it was necessary to wake up the person sleeping above him (not me) during the night because he was making sounds not too dissimilar to a freight train. Not sure if you can do that..

Nonetheless, we checked out of that hostel the next morning to head to our camping accommodation where we would be for the first weekend of Oktoberfest. It was Friday, the eve of the opening day, so obviously no beer halls open yet. We just sussed out our camping grounds for most of the day. Found the bar, supermarket and shower block which was about all we needed. Our tent was roomy enough, but didn't really assist much in terms of warmth during the night as we'd soon find out.

We just went to the bar at the campsite that night for a couple of steins and caught up with a couple of friends (Kirby & Sarah) who were also staying at the campsite. Then I think we wrapped it up pretty early to rest up before Oktoberfest kicked off.

Was up pretty early after a, close to, sleepless night in the freezing cold tent. We had breakfast and headed into Day 1 of Oktoberfest at about 930ish. The lines were big. We managed to get a table in the beer garden outside one of the halls, which we were content with being decent weather. The mayor of Munich didn't hit the keg till midday so there was a bit of an impatient wait until the beer was finally flowing.

The setup of Oktoberfest, in a nutshell, resembles the Royal Easter Show, just replace the animal tents with beer halls. Theres food, rides, stalls etc all over the place.

A normal day at Oktoberfest involves finding a table, anywhere will do! A lot of steins.. Great food (half chickens, pork knuckles).. Drinking games.. mixing it with the Germans (awesome people).. and eventually dancing and singing on top of your chair/table.

Day 2 we did similarly and caught up with some friends from our Croatia tour (Anthea, Jane & Rhianna), Day 3 we did similarly and caught up with some friends from our Contiki tour and from our time in Spain (Foxy, Zoe). All 3, very very good days!

Day 4, Tuesday, we checked out of our tent and camping ground. We were fortunate enough to have met a friend (Zoe) through our travels whose Dad lived in Munich, and she offered us (Lewis, Foxy & myself) to stay with her for a while.. definitely don't say no to that. The house is about two stations away from Munich Central and three stations to the Oktoberfest grounds. Not bad! I'm pretty sure I was asleep on the couch for the rest of Day 4.

Day 5, it was back to the beer halls again. We caught up with some more friends from our Croatia tour (Alette, Jenny & Beck) who were in town for a few days. Yet another awesome day, filled with alot of loose shenanigans and smashed steins. Day 6 the crew from the night before made the journey out to Dachau Concentration Camp. Was pretty eye opening stuff. Im not sure what I was expecting but it was really eery walking around the camp where thousands were killed and held as slaves. Was a great tour, our tour guide was really good. We went out for Thai that night then hit the sack early.

Day 7, Friday, brought the end of the nice weather and start of the huge crowds including the dickhead italian contingent. Can confirm that Germans hate them as well. We didn't get into Oktoberfest till mid afternoon as we slept in and decided to have a big lunch. Tables were then obviously hard to find but we everntually found one in one of the beer gardens, shortly before it poured down rain. Definitely not our best day out. We went and had a drink at our friends' hostel and called it a night.

Saturday, Day 8, was to be our last day amongst the beer halls. We didnt have a massive day but still had fun teaching Germans drinking games over a few steins. Lewis whipped us up his signature spag bol for dinner, again knocked it out of the park, really good.

Which brings us to today, our final day in Munich. Thought we'd do a bit of site seeing today. We took a couple of beers and checked out the man-made wave in the river that runs through the main park in Munich. Heaps of surfers were out, it was awesome to watch! After that we just went for a stroll through the park before heading home.

Were catching a train to Amsterdam tonight. Munich was awesome, I love it here. The people, the food, Oktoberfest.. Im sure i'll be back again soon.

To be continued.. lewis adds 'life is vundavar ya?'