Herbstferien in the Balkans, entry #1

"Herbstferien" (Fall Break) Trip: Plitviče Lakes, Croatia

The kids get a couple weeks in October for a Fall break, and so instead of placing them in "Play Care" at the school while we work, we like to take a trip and show them some things. Last year for this period we met up with some Portland friends in Lyon, France for a trip up to Grenoble, then hooked up with Seattle friends who were doing a year in Basel, Switzerland and went up to Grundelwald deep in the Swiss Bernese Oberland mountains. The trip provided a stream of incredible images and experiences and, we like to think, a wonderful education for the kids. We sought to replicate it again, this time heading to Croatia and Bosnia.

We initially played with Sicily, Sardinia, Portugal and Croatia, but Croatia offered the cheapest airfare and accommodation since we'd missed the prime season, so we went there. We booked a few days on either end of the trip and left the middle open to facilitate going into Bosnia (or, if the local information counselled against it, to explore somewhere else. It was a vacation risk, considering the whole 1.5 weeks might be spent in freezing rain, but with the cheap airfare we took it.

On Monday 23 October we flew into Zadar, Croatia, got the rental car, and drove north to the Plitvice Lakes region (indicated on map). It sits right at the corner where the horseshoe of Croatia curves around the corner of Bosnia-Hercegovina. The area is characterized by several north-south mountain ranges, all of which is underlaid by limestone. Limestone degrades with water, which is what makes such great limestone caves around the world. Here the landscape is littered with massive inverted-cone shaped holes ranging from house-size to small valleys. They are the remains of water ponds that eroded their way down through the rock.

The Plitvice area is known for a unique string of lakes which have arranged themselves in a picturesque line up one of the valleys. The limestone forms travertine dams at the bases of the lakes and the water pops through them not in one pour-over but through many little spots where it has burrowed through the rock. So the waterfalls look much different than your typical ones. The abundant water supports greenery along the dams between the lakes, so it gives the impression of a forested wall spurting with waterfall leaks.

The park is one of Croatia's big tourist draws, ranking behind the beaches and islands further south along its Dalmatian coastline. As such, it is well laid-out with full infrastructure for visitors. A system of hiking trails curves around and over the cascades. These are linked with a bus service and a boat service that links up the trails and itineraries one can do. Most people manage a day in the park before they continue further south to the beaches. We would spend three days there and as a result hiked all the trails, rode all the busses and took multiple trips on the lake boats. The weather was iffy the day we arrived, and from then on out it was beautiful fall days.

Clear water shows lots of fish, which fascinated the kids.

Jasper enjoys the brisk morning air on the deck to brush teeth.

We found wonderful hiking in the woods alongside the lakes. We missed the peak colors by about a week but nobody complained since the sun was out almost the entire time. 

  

The bridges over the cascades are sturdy enough in spite of their looks. At one end of one of the lakes the trail rose up into the canyon wall through a huge cave that had been hollowed out.

The kids seemed to enjoy the waterfalls and the boat rides, but they also were quite preoccupied with the local duck population, stick-finding in the forests and tying vines together to create fishing lines. These then turned into flails when they got bored of the fish not biting their vines.

I must admit that I never know what really impresses them from all these trips. You show them 1500 year-old Roman ruins or march them on log bridges over a landscape of spraying waterfalls and all we hear about later is the cat that was spotted in the hotel car-park, or the stick that needs to be brought back to Berlin because it is so awesome.

Apparently, getting children out in the woods is great for their development, so in the end who cares as they achieved plenty of this on the trip. There was lots of them leaving the trail and climbing up into the forest until we couldn't see them anymore. Every so often we'd hear a shriek. Then silence. Eventually they appeared, sliding on their butts down the slope of fallen leaves and grabbing onto saplings to aid in the descent.

After three days of exploring the lakes, we moved on into Bosnia to the small town of Bihač in the northwest corner of the country. We'd determined it was safe and booked a cheap apartment the day before. Read on...

Going to Theresienwiese

OKTOBERFEST 17

I suppose it was inevitable that when you live in Germany eventually you wind up at Oktoberfest in Munich. Here's the report.

It takes place at Theresienwiese ("Theresa's Meadow), the celebratory field where Bavarian King Ludwig I married  Therese Saxe-Hildburghausen on 12 October 1810. Munich's citizens were invited to the event which was celebrated in the fields "Wiesn" in front of the city gates. Thereafter, it was decreed that a celebration should occur in that meadow every year to commemorate the wedding. This grew into what we now know as Oktoberfest.

Early versions of the 16 day festival included horse races, tree climbing and a trade fair. Booths served drinks and of course beer from the local breweries located in town. Around 1890 the concept of establishing large tents was undertaken to provide more room for guests than crowding around booths in the field. Now Munich's storied breweries each sponsor a tent, and in those tents only the beer from that brewery will be served.

The "tents" themselves began as tents, but have evolved into something resembling pavilions now, with heavy load-bearing beams and soaring ceilings. The larger tents hold between 6000-8500 people each, so they are significant affairs.

After the festival ends, the tents are taken down and stored until next year. The Theresienwiese is open again, although since it is mostly paved it isn't really a "meadow" like it was in 1810 of course. In June the construction starts on the tents, which will take about three months to make sure they are complete by mid September.

Oktoberfest is the largest folk festival in the world, attracting around 6 million people. In 2015, those visitors drank enough beer to fill three Olympic swimming pools, or 7,3 million liters.

How did I get here? A Thunderbird friend from Berlin. Dominik Hess runs the T-Bird group there. He's from Munich and his family has the same table in the Ochsenbrateri for the last 20 years. This worked out well since we could get the reservation in advance as Oktoberfest is not the kind of thing you just show up for and sit at an open table. People do that, but you have to let others with reserved tables let you in and you are a bit of a hanger-on if you don't plan ahead. Potentially some of the other tents are different, for example the Hofbrau tent is super popular with the English, Australians, Americans, Japanese and is more focused on drinking than anything else. So that might be a little looser.

Our tent was the "Ochsenbraterei" tent, so named for the large oxen that are roasted on a huge spit and then carved up into dinner. Each ox has a name, and a signboard tells you his name and weight. Our ox was named Robert for example, and he weighed 950 kilograms. Once Robert was cleaned off, "Paul" appeared on the spit.

It is more of a German tent than a tourist tent, so it was a bit calmer since it has a focus on serving dinner as part of the deal. This worked out well because you definitely want some ballast to offset the beer you are drinking. Also, you are around people in the traditional Lederhosen and Dirndls who are not there to get black-out drunk so it feels more authentic.

But you are still drinking lots. Our tent was served by the Spaten Brewery. The Spaten is served in a "Mass" which is a liter measurement that comes in the famous heavy glass steins. Discussions with Oktoberfest vets was that you can realistically shoot for four of them over a six hour sitting with a big Ox dinner in the middle. Pretzel guys walk up and down the aisles so you are also advised to pack away a couple of those during the night to help.

Our table reservation for our group of 15 was for 4pm. We filed into the massive hall, bedecked with Bavarian flags, streamers, and carved wood figures each showing a different part of Bavaria with the accompanying local dress. A band stage sat in the middle. The waitress came over, the same one that has served the table for a decade, and took the orders.

The first hour people are chill. Everyone is sitting. Here and there someone stands up on the bench but they sit down fairly quickly when no one else stands up with them. People are tucking into their Mass beers and scarfing pretzels for the coming onslaught.

Around 5:30, you start to notice groups of people standing up. The band is now going, and this prompts people to start getting excited. I expected the band to play traditional German folk tunes but lots of American 70's music was coming out. "Country Roads Take Me Home", "Sweet Caroline" and "Sweet Home Alabama" surprised. Germans love these songs. Especially Sweet Caroline, the place definitely jumped up a notch when that came on.

We ordered our ox. The kitchen organization that moves ox platters out to 6000 people is truly something to behold. Waiters roll out with meter-long trays packed with 6 plates each, flitting amid the growing chaos of the field of tables and bench-standers. Waitresses manhandling various Mass beers on each hand bob and weave around the pretzel vendors, singing people, and other back-forth tent traffic. Over it all the strains of beer toasts are belted out by the band:

"Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit!"

We finished the ox. Then you stand up and that is the rest of the night. For the next 4 hours you are standing on the benches doing stereotypical things: linking arms with everyone, singing the repeating toast songs, pacing yourself on the beer. I finished my fourth Mass and didn't dare order another. 

Some pics of the events:

Sequence of events on the weekend: I flew down Saturday afternoon and came downtown to meet our group for dinner in the Altstadt.

Munich's Old Town (Altstadt) area. This is the clocktower on the Marienplatz, the main square. The other long-standing breweries are all within a 15-minute walk.

We met at the Schneider Weisse Brewery. Weisse = 'Wheat." It is the biggest name in wheat beers in Germany. Historically, wheat beer could only be brewed by the Bavarian royal family in their state breweries, but in 1872 King Ludwig II halted royal production of wheat beer due to declining sales. He sold the rights to Georg Schneider, one of his royal brewers. Schneider's family had been brewing wheat beer since 1607 with a state contract and now he went out on his own with the dissolution of the royal production concept.

The ingredients adhere to the Bavarian "Reinheitsgebot" law, which stipulates the only thing you can put in beer is water, barley, wheat malt, hops and yeast. All the breweries in Munich subscribe to this law. The ingredients come from farmers in the region who have special contracts with Schneider. the beer is actually brewed 100km north in the small town of Kelheim, but they kept the Alstadt location as one of the classic beerhouses in Germany.

Schneider Weisse Brewery.

Sunday afternoon we met outside the Wiesn. Dominik gave us the admission bracelets to the tent where we had the table reserved and we dove into the madness.

What you see as you approach the Wiesn. The famed "Bavaria" statue and the hub-bub of Oktoberfest.

Bag-checkers.

The troops file in.

Our tent.

These waitresses carry six Mass at a time!

Dominik and Pelin. He's Bavarian. She's Turkish.

The signboard for the Ox who is currently being roasted. Poor Robert! He was a good ox.

Ox meat good with bier JA!

Some people from our group have been doing this every year for the last decade. 

The traditional Bavarian Frau-outfit: The Dirndl. Lederhosen ("Leather pants") on the right.

At 10:30 we left and wandered around the amusement park rides (also set up for the fest). For some reason we rode the chair-swing one, which spins you around in centrifugal joy. This one was exciting because it does all this on top of an 80 meter central pole structure, which really makes you realize how important it is to hold onto your phone in the middle of the spinning.

Chair spinner, high upstairs.

They shut down the rides at 11 and people start wandering off into Munich's night streets towards home or their hotels. The moon came out over the twin domes of the Frauenkirche and the rain slacked off finally.

We went back downtown to an Irish pub. It was a nice walk but ultimately I should have just gone back to the hotel. Did not need anymore partying that night.

I jumped on the plane the next morning back to Berlin to meet my parents coming back up from Italy. You can't really wear Lederhosen in Berlin, people in Northern Germany think the Bavarians are crazy, and why would you wear what cuck-coo crazy people wear. So I shall just wear the lederhosen around the house. They were originally worn as work clothes, the Carharts of the 1800's, and are quite durable as a result. So they should stand up to the beating that the kids give me.

Boyntons in Berlin!

John and Court came through town for a week before heading down to Italy with the Wooster group. Here are some pics from that fun week!

Cody's Einschulung (Elementary School Entrance Ceremony) is a huge thing at the Grundschule. Jasper and his class plus others helped out to welcome the new first years.

Cody onstage with his class.

Cody and his "buddy" (Taran) right behind.

The Zuckertutte (Kid's Cone) is full of candy and toys. Lovingly prepared by mom.

Heading to Bayerischer Platz to the Goldener Stern, a classic Bavarian restaurant. 

Few days later, when the sun came out, at a playground in Mitte in front of a multi-story grafitti art project.

Late summer picnic at Sean and Jen's!

Cody loses something.

Right before classy lunch at the KaDeWe: Wittenberg Platz.

Fancy dinner at the 1930's-built Funkturm!

Showing Nana and Pop-pops how to get around the dreaded U-Bann.

Tierpark in the Fall

The Tierpark (Animal Park "Zoo") is the DDR's answer to the West Berlin Zoo. When the Berlin Wall went up, the Berlin Zoo ended up in the enclosed Western end of the city and the East was left without a zoo. So they built the Tierpark for the people of East Germany to overshadow the one in West Berlin.

It's the largest zoo in Europe, although that is sheer size, not animal species. The place is a forest park cut by rivers and fields that has animal enclosures as a secondary consideration. The Berlin Zoo is animals with trees scattered around, while the Tierpark is countryside with animals here and there. At one end is a stately manor house surrounded by formal gardens, statuary and water features.