Part 2: Oktoberfest in Munich!!!!!!!

Ok, so we have all heard of the craziest beer drinking party on the planet right?  Well if you haven't you have now!  Since Julie and I moved to Germany the first thing we told ourselves is, we have to make it to Oktoberfest in Munich.  From day one we started planning the 5 day weekend trying to convince people into joining us.  Well we succeeded in getting 2 friends to show up for the occasion, Jeremy Pettigrew and Nick Greenwell.  I will try and give you a play by play on what went down on those 5 days with a few, What happens in Octoberfest stays in Oktoberfest moments kept out :)

Ok, so the weekend started with Nick and I coming home from Ceuse and picking Jeremy up from the train station.  From there we tried to find the guys some of the "Bravian" local attire at the shops here in town.  After walking into a few stores and all over the shopping district nothing was found, 3 men trying to shop isn't the best way to go about it though.  From there we headed back to the house to pick a few things up then off to get Julie.  On the drive we go!

Five hours later we arrived at our friends home Frank and Mandy in the Frankenjura.  We spent the first 2 days of the weekend bouldering on a rope and having a lot of fun hangin out.  But no one wants to keep reading about climbing, there are already way to many people talking and blogging about climbing :)

Taking the guys to sample some Frankenjura!

Sunset in the Frankenjura

 From here we headed into Munich to find out hotel.  This went surprisingly quick and we were walking toward the festivities an hour later.  As we were approaching things were looking vaguely familiar.  If you have ever been the a State Fair, picture this with 100s of 1000s of drunk people from all over the world pouring out of the fairgrounds.  This was at 6pm and we hadn't even made it into the festival area.  In the festival area we were all wanting to get some food before we started the drinking for the night.  Nick was psyched on fish and fish is what he got!

Nick with a fishy mouth!

The rest of use went with fish sandwiches.  Once we were done eating we needed beer!  We had no idea how to go about this because you couldn't just walk up to a vendor and buy it.  We later found out, after walking aimlessly for 30 minutes and trying to ask people, you need to be seated inside a Beir Tent or at one of their Beirgartens.  We tried to get into a few of the tents but this was almost impossible, with each tent housing 10,000 people eating, drinking, dancing, screaming, fighting, and jumping up and down on tables.  So we decided we should sit out at a Biergarten for our first beers of the night.  One hour and 2 liters of beers in, I was feeling pretty happy!  My goal for the first night of Oktoberfest drinking was 4 liters of beer.  I was half way there in just an hour, feeling confident I could meet my goal we all decided to hit up another beirgarten.  An hour later the goal was met, not much is remembered after that other than some dancing on tables with our crew and a bunch of screaming, partying Germans!

A bunch of Photos! 

The following day was basically a repeat of the first, this is the most partying and drinking I have done in years.  The fourth day we all needed a rest from all the flowing beer and drunken people so we stopped to visit and pay respects to the concentration camp, Dachau.  This was another thing Julie and I have talked about doing since we moved to Germany.  Its hard to describe the feeling you get when you enter the gates and see where millions held during the 2nd World War.  Here are a few photos I took while wondering around learning about what went on.

From Dachau we drove to Innsbruck, Austria for a day of sight seeing, eating, and basically to take a rest from all the beer drinking.  We basically just did the touristy things around town.  Once we were done with being tourist Julie packed up the car and started her drive home and Jeremy, Nick and I jumped on a train back to Munich for one more night at Oktoberfest.  It was another night of insanity and a great end to our time there.  It was a 5 day weekend I will never forget!!!!!!!!

Crazy. Busy 6 Weeks Part 1

The last 6 weeks have been extremely busy with visitors, travel and house/dog sitting.  But before this adventure started I have to tell you about all the new boulders I had found and started cleaning.  I remember walking through these boulders, which are situated just outside the hospital Julie works at, when we first arrived in Germany.  My thoughts on them were, if they ever dry up there could be a lot of problems in this area.  Well after a long dry spell I decided to walk them once again while I waited for Julie to get off work.  To my surprise they were bone dry!  At the same time other local climbers found the same area and were excited about all the new boulders.  Everyone jumped in and started cleaning boulders, with close to 40 problems established now and probably close to 40 more to be cleaned and climbed!  I think in the first week alone I cleaned and climbed close to 15 boulders.  Here are some short clips of a few of the problems. 

Julie Killin it!

Dave Hume Warming up!

I started this adventure on Sept. 8th, that day I took a train to Geneva to meet up with a friend, Nick Greenwell.  From there we were heading to climb on what I feel is the best sport climbing cliff I have ever climbed on, CEUSE!  To me Ceuse has it all, hard powerful technical moves with rope stretching heights.  For me there is just something magical about being there over looking the french countryside, with gliders soars just above us.  Nick and I spent just under 2 weeks climbing on this cliff.  I have to say I had a better climbing experience this time around.  Unlike the spring trip I was actually able to climb quit a few amazing routes.  The one I was most excited to try was an 8a La Couler du Vent.  I had tried this route once in the spring and to me it had some of the best stone I have ever climbed on and I knew I had to climb it.  On our first day I decided to give it a go and surprisingly I one hung it.  With all the bouldering I had been doing I must have stored up some endurance because that one hang came out of no where.  I proceeded to one hang it though for a week before I finally had the juice to pull though the upper crux.   After that I wanted to climb every remaining day we had there.  After that day I went 5 days on and on the 5th day of hiking and climbing I thought I was going to die at the end of it all.  Lets just say I climbed a lot of phenomenal routes and anyone that rock climbs should visit this cliff!

I can never get to much of this!

Left blue streak is La Couler du Vent and the right is Berlin

There is a particular day that comes to mind when I think back on this trip.   The wall was the Cascade Wall and this wall is PERFECT for sunsets, close to the best sunsets I have ever seen.  Nick and I decided we wanted to have our own little sunset photo shoot.  We ran over to the wall Nick tied into a route called Super Mickey (bigger jugs than anything the RRG has to offer) and cruised up to a certain point and clipped in direct.  I tied him off and ran back up the hill a ways and proceeded to snap as many photos of him "climbing" as I could.  When he was done we switched places.  The whole time this was going on I was thinking, we are huge dorks!!!!  But you know to me climbing just doesn't get any better.   Nick might think other wise though, in true Nick fashion he decided to wait until the last concivable moment to send his project.  He tried this route Berlin the first day we were there and last day, last burn of the trip he sent!  That is one sending process he will probably never forget.  NICE JOB NICK!  This was a fun successful trip that will never forget.

Wish the pictures did this justice!

Poser!

Bigger Poser!

Biggest Poser!

Nick got a good shot of this little guy!

Gliders everyday!

Rest day Crepes

Rest day Crepes