Oktoberfest

First night

  On the first night, I checked into the campsite while having my first litre of beer. Then I set up my tent so I could head out to the city. I intended to go to Oktoberfest first but then I stumbled upon a very nice beer gardens that I later learned was close to Oktoberfest. I also learned that it is better to stay there since Oktoberfest was probably already full.

  At the back is where the beer was being served. There was a guy continuously pouring beer and people just grab one if they want. I found it to be a very efficient way to distribute the beer. Towards the middle of the location was a live band that played pretty much all night. There was also some very good food that was served in cafeteria style near the beer.

  I ate some of the food and had a few beers here. At the start, I sat and talked with one guy from Germany and another from the Philipines. Towards the end of the night, after the band was done, I ended up talking to two people from South Africa and three others from Poland.

  After I just left to go back and sleep in my tent.

First Full Day
  On my first full day in Munich, I got to Oktoberfest around 10:30 and immediately got my first beer. Getting a beer here was more difficult than the day before. Eventually, I figured out they only serve to a table so I went and sat one. After a few beers outside I decided to go into one of the tents. Most of the tables inside the tents were reserved so I had to go around it looking for people to let me join their table. It actually was not very hard since there was a lot of people who were quite happy to let others join. I ended up talking to lots of people from the US and Europe.

  During this day I was surprised by a few things. One of them was the sheer size of the Oktoberfest. It was like a small city with its own streets and everything set up. There was little stores along these streets, as well as the entrances to the big beer tents. Another thing was how many beers the servers could carry. I swear there were some women about half my size carrying 3 or 4 beers in each hand!!!. There was also rides and other attractions within the Oktoberfest and I didn't really expect that. I have included photos of most of these at the end of the post.

  When I got back to my tent I discovered that it had been blown down by the wind. It turned out setting up a tent after many beers is harder than setting it up sober. I was able to do it, but it was windy throughout the whole night and I thought it may blow done again.

Second Full Day
  The tents opened later on this day since it was a Monday, so I decided to go to the Deutsches Museum for a few hours. It is a massive museum with 6 floors and they are very substantial floors. The exhibits I saw include the aviation, marine navigation, mining, computing, physics, energy, microelectronics, and astronomy ones. The mining one was very cool since most of it was made to look like you were in a mine. The marine navigation and aviation ones were also very cool and I have included a few photos at the end. The energy one included information on nuclear, petroleum, wind, solar, and many others. The energy one also had a bike you could ride to see how much energy you could produce, and as you produced more some electronics came alive. Unfortunately, it is so large that in 4 hours I could only see about half of it.

  After seeing the museum I went back to the Oktoberfest. I went to a few tables and talked to some people while drinking beer. One table I was at was with a bunch of rowdy Italians and they were very fun. I figured out to get a beer without a table you have to ask a waiter and they will ask one of the tables if it is alright to serve an extra beer at their table. This gave a new to obtain a beer.

  Two of the tents I went to apparently are frequented by celebrities. A friend of mine told me that Arnold Schwarzenegger goes every year. I was told that he was there on Saturday (when I was at the beer garden place). Also, this article says he was there with his family, but I don't know when that was.

Last Day
  It was mostly uneventful except for all of my trains being delayed.

  I should also mention that next time I will probably buy a lederhosen since it seemed like most others were had. It may also increase beer drinking ability but I am not too sure about that

This photo shows one of the rollercoasters at the Oktoberfest

This photo has one of the beer tents on the right.

The next two are from within one of the tents.

This one is a picture of one of the rides

This a photo from the marine navigation exhibition.

This is from the aviation part

Another from marine navigation

Another from aviation

This is from the mining exhibition.

This is an automation exhibition. There is a robot arm close to 

Brussels During Nato

  A few weeks ago Brussels hosted the Nato summit, and since it was a holiday, I thought it would be an excellent time to visit. It was interesting to see how the city dealt with having a summit that could result in big protests. The block with the US embassy was closed, as well as the area close to NATO HQ. There was also a few other streets closed off, but I am not sure why (a police officer just would not let us pass). A helicopter hovered over the city the entire time as well, which was very annoying. It was also interesting to see that every time a big wig had to get somewhere the intersection would be halted until their convoy passed through. 

  Jora (another IAESTE trainee) and I also went on a freeish (you pay what you feel it was worth) tour of the city center. It started in Grand Place which is the main square of the city. It has a bunch of old buildings that were rebuilt at least once after the French army destroyed it. It also passed the old stock exchange which might be turned into a beer temple. The tour also passed the little peeing boy (Manneken Pis) and also learned it is someone's job to dress him every morning. The tour guide pointed out the gay district with all its flags and one of the murals. In the end, we took a photo with the whole tour group and then parted ways. 

  Jora and I then went to go and see the European Union area. It was cool and looks like there is a lot of buildings of interest along with many people walking in and out in suits. We tried to see the European Parliment, but then found out you need your passport to do that and neither of us had ours. Next was to go to the NATO HQ, so both of us got bus tickets to then realize that the bus had been rerouted away from NATO during the summit. This was quite disappointing so then we went to the brewpub that was conveniently in front of the train station 😊😊.

First Few Days

  The first few days were a bit hectic, but still enjoyable and I think there are a few stories that I found interesting.

Trip To Gent:
  To get to Gent, I flown to Vancouver then to Paris and then got on a train to go to Brussels. There was a 4-hour layover in Vancouver, so I had lots of time to sleep and have something to eat. The flight to Paris was long, and for some reason, I only slept through about half of it, so it was dull. When the plane arrived in Paris, I went to go find and get on the subway to the train station 'Gare du Nord'.

  Getting to that subway proved to be difficult however as the subway stopped selling tickets as soon as I started looking for them. This forced me and some other people to come together and split a cab. There was a person from the Czech Republic, one from B.C., and another person from some other place in Europe but works in Dubai. The person from the Czech Republic talked about the different ways people drink beer which was nice because I like beer.

  The drive to Gare du Nord was long, and during it, I realized that I might miss my train because it was taking so long. The others in the cab let me pay them before we stopped so that I could run and catch my train. At first, I started towards the wrong building, but then I realized my mistake and went towards where the trains are. I then asked a few people where my train was leaving from and found the gate they said and got on my train. I made it with about 15 minutes to spare.

  When I arrived at Brussels, I had to get on a train to Gent. I missed the first one because it listed the French name 'Gand'. That was fine though because about 3 trains are going to Gent every hour.

  The owner of the house I am staying at then came and picked me up and brought me to the house. I then had a nap and woke up at a later hour to unpack.

Friday: 

  On Friday I had to go and find where the migration office is so that I could register where I am living. The first time I attempted to find the place I walked too far down the street and got found a nice coffee place. I had a coffee and then walked back to the house and got some more directions. I found the migration office the second time and was able to register with them.

  The owner of the house told me something else I could do is go and find the castle and then get maps from a place close to there. I decided to do this, but as I got further into the city, I noticed that almost all of the buildings looked like a castle to me. I eventually found the castle and instead of getting maps I got a tour of the castle.

  It was a self-guided tour that contained a blurb about what happened in each part of the castle. There was also arrows guiding you where to go next. There was dungeons, cellars, places where people defended the castle and many other exciting things. It was an interesting and old place.

  On my way back I got lost, but it only took asking two people on the street to find my way back. The first person seemed surprised how far I had walked, and she did not even know for sure how to get there herself. I now know how to find my way around that area good enough to get where I need to go.

Saturday:

  I decided to get a Belgium sim card on Saturday so that it would be easier to communicate with people. To do this, I walked back to the city center and found the Orange shop (a mobile company). The first time they would not give me a sim card because they needed my passport, so I had to walk all the way back to the house and get my passport. When I got back they gave me my sim card, and it tested it to make sure it worked, and it did.

  After getting my sim card, I went over to a beer festival that I had just seen to get something to eat and try some beers. I went to a few of the booths and tried their beer. The both I spent the most time at was the Delirium booth, and that is because I remember reading about Delirium years ago. One of the people at the Delirium both was telling me that they signed a deal with a brewery in Canada so that they can more easily sell Delirium in Canada. Hopefully, it comes to all Sobeys Liquor places because they do make excellent beer.

  At the end there is a link to the Delirium website.

Sunday:

   On Sunday IAESTE people went to breakfast at a nice place in the downtown. It was a good breakfast and after we went to the beach. Close to the beach, there was a watchtower of sorts that we climbed, and from the top, almost all of Gent was in view. After seeing that beautiful view, everyone proceeded to the beach.

  At the beach, there was a bunch of people swimming, of course, but I did not have a swimsuit since I forgot it in Canada. I decided that I needed a swimsuit, so I left early to get one. After I got it I headed back home since my first day of work was tomorrow.



  That was the first few days of my internship. It was a fun, but slightly crazy few days. I can only hope more of these days will be like that.

https://www.delirium.be/en/age-check