Plane and arrival

Servus! (southern german way of saying hello or goodbye).

I decided to leave with only one back-pack, in which I packed a tent, a sleeping bag and camp matress, as well as clothes and the other necessities. I will be staying at "The Tent", about 15 minutes by tram from downtown Munich, for the two weeks of Oktoberfest. My second stop should be Switzerland. I should be there in time to do the "vendages", cutting off bunches of grapes, and all the other steps necessary to get fermentation going. I will also check to see if camping is possible in Greece and Turkey, my other planned destinations afterwards. Of course, even for those southern destinations, it may not be feasible temperature-wise.

Of the long list of things I had to do before my departure, only one wasn't accomplished (kegging two brews) which is a feat considering it's length. Both were brewed in May, which is quite a while. Both are Belgian strong ales and if they had been brewed recently, I would have come back to nicely aged Trippels.

The plane from Montreal to Philedelphia went fine. It was quite a short one, but the wait at the airport was somewhat long, especially considering that I had lunch before leaving from Montreal, and ate supper on the plane from Philedelphia to Munich. Not all that much to do in an airport for three and a half hours. I was only able to sleep about two or three hours on the plane from Philedelphia to Munich.

The Munich airport is very new looking. When I arrived, the first place to eat that I saw was showing a replay of the Roma at Bayern Munich match (Roma 0 - Bayern 2). I sat down and ordered a breakfast combo (no kidding): two veal sausages, a pretzel and a wheat beer (kleines weißbier). I ordered in german, and when the waitress came with my plate, I asked if it had rained yesterday, in english, as the ball seemed to slide really well on the pitch. She didn't understand at first what I was saying, since I guess she thought I was still speaking german. I took a train into the city center, and from there a metro to my hostel, where I will be staying the first night. I found a towel at a sports shop near Marienplatz (where Bayern Munich celebrate their titles). Other good news is that I found a free Wi-Fi network also not far from Marienplatz at a café.