I arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen late at night, so all of the stores in town were closed except for the gas station convenience store, where I had a very limited selection of snacks for the weekend (all of the grocery stores were closed the next two days too... they are closed on Sundays most places in Germany, and on holidays too... and my luck had it that Monday was Reunification Day). Anyways, lets just say I ended up eating out a lot.
When I woke up in the morning, I was stunned by what I saw. I was in the middle of the Bavarian Alps, with old men in their lederhosen (traditional German clothing) wandering the mountainsides. It was spectacular, and I was surprised to find that Leavenworth actually did a good job of imitating Bavaria, except for the people of course.
That day I decided to take the train and go to Oktoberfest, leaving the Alps to be explored later. Oktoberfest is the largest fair in the world held annually in Munich. It had lots of rides and even more beer tents. I had to wait almost an hour to get into one of the tents, and when I was in line I met two Mexican girls and a French guy. They introduced me to more of their friends and we ended up spending the whole evening together drinking excessively large beers and singing songs. I got to practice a lot of Spanish as well. I didn't get back to my hostel until very late, but I felt like I had definitely experienced Oktoberfest and will never forget it or the people I met there.
The next day I explored the Bavarian Alps and took some awesome photos.
One of the highlights was exploring a very narrow gorge with a trail built into the cliff on one side:
Knowing that I would return to even higher peaks and more magnificent scenery later on in Switzerland, I reluctantly left the Alps for Budapest on a night train. My English friend that I had met in Helsinki, Adam, was staying there, so I thought I would join him. I was surprised to find that two Canadian girls I had been to the hockey game with in Prague were also at my hostel.
The day was pretty long but rather exciting. Among other things, Adam and I went to a cathedral with the 1000 year old mummified hand of the first king of Hungary, which we found out was processed around the city once per year. After dinner, a bunch of us dressed up in costumes and went out to sing Karaoke that night, and the highlight was Backstreet Boys as usual.
Now for what was undoubtedly one of the highlights of my trip, if not my life. Adam and I, along with the two Canadians I had met in Prague, decided we were going to skydive over the Hungarian countryside. We took a taxi one hour out from Budapest to an "airport" in the middle of nowhere near the Danube river. The airport turned out to be a grassy field with an abandoned control tower. Nevertheless, Adam and I crammed into a Cessna which could barely hold 5 people and took off into the air. It was both of us, two tandem instructors, and the pilot (the tiny Canadian girls had already gone before us and survived, so we were reassured). After about 15 minutes of flying upwards, the door of the plane opened, my instructor and I stuck our feet out the door, and we jumped out of the aircraft. Free falling was not how I expected it to be, there wasn't too much of a zero gravity feeling but more a feeling of stronger than hurricane-force wind in your face. After about 30 seconds and 5000 feet of falling, my instructor pulled the parachute and we drifted down to land. It was unreal.
The next day, Adam and I went out and explored the city. Some photo highlights:
If you can't tell, that last one is a Stormtrooper from Star Wars crossing the street with a suitcase.
I am hungry for more of Hungary! I promise the next blog post will not be as long as this one.
Cheers,
Josh
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