8 alternatives if you cannot visit/do not want to visit the Munich Oktoberfest

Why you should avoid the Munich Oktoberfest

Unless you are in the gorgeous situation that travel budget is not a big issue for you, there are a couple of reasons to consider alternatives. Yes it is said to be the largest Volksfest on the world. But definitely I am not the first to claim that it´s not always the size that matters.

As the Oktoberfest has a unique atmosphere, it inspires travelers year after year to visit and celebbrate with the cloud. Cole and Adela from fourjandals.com wrote an excellent short guide on how to survive the Oktoberfest as a foreign visitor. However if this huge event is not your piece of cake here are some

Reasons for not visiting the Munich Oktoberfest

Ok what is the main attraction when visiting the Oktoberfest:
You sit in an overcrowded tent. On an uncomfortable bank. Which you have to reserve if you go in the evening. Every now and than someone will pur his or her beer over your nice Dirndl or Lederhosen that you just bought. You are listening to music that is well … it takes getting used to it. The music will be so loud that you won´t be able to have a conversation with the person next to you. Except from screaming directly into his/her ear. Which leaves you two options:

Drinking. And Eating. Well nothing to bad about that. Only that I can think of more pleasant ways of enjoying my dinner/lunch. Which is besides that somewhat upscale at mediocre quality.

1 Liter of beer is currently close to 10.- Euro. If plan not to drink you´re probably really better of not to go. If you go though and stay away from alcohol, be informed that spring water is appr. 7 Euro.
Finding accomodiation has it´s price as well. Hostel beds tend to be around 90.- Euro, just to give you a rough idea.

It´s fun and for me this once in lifetime experience is worth everything you are mentioning you might say. And I am pretty aware that most international travelers visiting Germany think that way. And I do visit some weird events that most locals wouldn´t do as well. By the way approximately 34% of the people living in Munich did not grow up there. If, however, you are looking for alternatives with a little more real, here is my list of

8 alternative events to visit if you avoid the Munich Oktoberfest:

City	Event	Date
Bamberg	Sandkerwa	Aug 22.-Aug 26. 2013
Nuremberg	Volksfest	Aug 23.-Sep 8. 2013
Cologne	Carneval	Feb 27.-Mar 4. 2014
Passau	Maidult	Apr 25. – May 4. 2014
Erlangen	Bergkirchweih	Jun 6. – Jun 16 2014
Würzburg	Kiliani Volksfest	Jul 4. – Jul 20. 2014
Forchheim	Annafest	Jul 25. – Aug 4. 2014
Passau	Herbstdult	Sep 5. -Sep 14. 2014

Have you visited the Oktoberfest yet?

Probably you´re going anyhow to the Oktoberfest. Or you have already been there. I hope you enjoy yourself a lot on this unique event. You are welcome to share your experience in the comment section. Also if you are visiting one of the 8 alternative events or feel you think something is missing there.

Party on!

2013/08/192013/08/19

Cappadocia – amazing landscape and bronze age tenements

Where to stay in Cappadocia?

Ada Camping in Avanos was where we stayed with our tent in Cappadocia. The staff there is very friendly and helpful. And the camping ground is very quiet at night. The big upside was the pool that is part of the Campground. As it was very dry hot in Cappadocia when we have been there in July,it served as welcome cool down opportunity in between the various tours we took.

Alternatives for balooning while traveling on low-budget

Our research turned out that we were not able to book balooning for less than 130 Euros per Person. Even though there might have been some more room for negotiation we decided to avoid joining this mass event which turned out to be a good decission for us.

Alternative 1 Zelve Yolou Park entrance

A good alternative is to get up as early as the balooners do and drive to the entrance of the Zelve Yolu National park. You can climb small hills tehre for free. Walk around or sit down on a hill top and view the impressive light of dawn on this breathtaking landscape. Also the balloners will start shortly after dawn and they´ll sit all around some so close that you can see the faces of the balooners. We took some hilarious pcitures there and figured out that if you have to get up that early it´s much more relaxing to just sit down and relax. Rather than doing all this baloon hazzle and sit together in an overcrowded basket. You can also bring your champagne from the local groceries store if you are into drinking at 6 in the morning 😉

If the dawn is over and you have seen enough ballons rising around you (we counted somthing like 50) I recommend to also take a walk through the area and check out the stone churches and stone tenements at the Zelve Yolu area.

For those of you who are using the navigation app or s.th. similar, here are the GPS Koordinates of the completely free of charge area:

Zelve Yolu GPS coordinates:

Zelve Yolu Stone tenements

38° 40.361′ N
34° 51.759′ E

Alternative 2 Uchisar castle

A great chance to take a look at the breathtaking landscape in cappadocia from the top is climbing uchisar castle. It is the highest point of cappadocia. Though it doesn´t come completely free the entrance fee is resonable (it was 5 tL when we were there). You will have to climb some stairs for like 10 minutes, but the 360° view pays of for the effort. No need to be afraid of the stairs, a healthy person can easily take it and it is reasonably safe in my opinion.

Uchisar castle GPS coordinates:

Uchisar Castle

38° 37.797′ N
34° 48.311′ E

2013/08/162013/08/21

10 free or inexpensive things to do in Germany

Small Budget Travel in Germany

Let´s assume you are not a big fan of the Octoberfest. Or you have been there already and need to look after your budget more, from now on Or you are on small budget travel anyhow. Here is a my

Shortlist of 10 free or inexpensive things to do in Germany:

What to do	Price appr.
Visit Landscape Park Duisburg North	0,00 €
Have “3 im Weckla” in Nürnberg	3,00 €
Have a Currywurst in Bochum	2,30 €
Visit Cologne Cathedral	3,00 €
Visit the Court Gardens in Würzburg	0,00 €
Visit “Marienberg Fortress” in Wüzburg	0,00 €
Take a walk on the “Krämerbrücke” in Erfurt	0,00 €
Take a half hour bikeride through Hamburg	0,00 €

What do you think is missing on this list?

2013/08/152013/08/19

Pamukkale touristy but worth visiting

The Travertines in Pamukkale are absolutely worth visiting. However my personal recommendation is to stay a night in the area and arrive there really really early. In season it starts to get very crowded after 9.30 in the morning. It´s a beautiful must see spot. We stayed at Tepe Camping . It has a great view about the area (unfotunately not at the Travertines, but beautiful, though).

The upside at Tepe Camping is that they serve good BBQ and it is really close to the entrance of Pamukkale. And for one night it´s absolutely o.k.

You should shop your groceries before going to the camp ground as you´ll have to drive 20 minutes in order to get some from there…

2013/08/122013/08/12

Relief pain from Insect bites with chamomile tea

Insect bites all over. Plenty of them. Who hasn´t suffered from that. It hurts it itches. I use chamomomile tea and my towel to get easy pain relieve.

Make some tea from chamomile (easy to carry and not a big hazzle to get in many countries) on your cooker. Take your towel and dip it to one third into the tea. Now wrap the wet part of your towel around the part of your body that itches most. If you can’t wrap it just apply it on the point of interest.

After a few seconds you should feel relieve. When you feel the towel is cooling down, iterate as long as it feels good.

You might want to wait until the tea cooles down a bit after cooking if you are sensible before applying it . Personally I try to use it as hot as can be. The heat helps to neutralize the poison from many insects.

This method also helps for scratches you might have taken as a souvenir from todays hiking trip.

As I just had the pleasure of some 15 bee stings yesterday, I also have a few Fotos to illustrate 😉

Boy does this feel good!

Disclaimer: Be responsible with yourself. The obove is my treatment for some everyday minor injuries. If you feel really sick or are in an area with dangerous insects consider finding a doctor.

2013/08/092013/08/20

Confessions…

This is my first Blog

At the moment it feels a little lonely here. Not that I am surprised. The whole site went online only a couple of days ago. However being aware that my audience are the googlebots and their brothers and sister out there feels a little weird to be honest.

So my dear Googlebots (This is the firs time I adress my audience directly, haha):

Why am I doing this?

This website is my trainging ground for writing online and Web 2.0. I did some Web 1.0. in the past. Even I would go as far as to say I know a bit about Web 0.7 to 0.9.

No idea where this site is going

I do believe that you cannot become good at things from studying only. Research is important. But skills develop while using them. So this is a finger excercise at the moment.

I like reading blogs. But when starting this little site of my own, I realized that I now tend to look at other blogs from a new perspective. Reading about how to start a blog is enlightening, but at the same time the more you read from others the more you realize:
“Wow there are some people out there doing this since quite a bit. And this guy has a beautiful look and feel on his site. That gal has great pcitures. These people know how to entertain their audience”

The first reaction might be: “I´ll never make it that far”. But then on the other hand nobody is born as a professional. Becoming better requires training. Becoming good requires hard training. Becoming excellent requires talent, hard work and a lot of training.

As a conclusion this site might face a lot of change in the future. In terms of look and feel. In terms of content. And in terms of the direction it is heading.

I´ve never been a long term traveler

Although I think I´ve traveled a bit, so far I never left home longer thant 8 weeks or so. Though the place called home has changed a lot. And I´ve also seen a bit of the world, yet. I love traveling and there is this desire of becoming a long term or even permanent nomad. Well at the moment I´m not. My time will come…

I am not an English native speaker

Perhabs you already realized 😉 You might say: if this is your first blog you better should have started writing in your mother tongue. And probably you´re right. But as it turns out I underestimated the hurdles that come with writing in a foreign language. However I´ll stick to it for the moment. If the hurdles turn out to be to high I´ll change it. Currently it is good the way it is.

Fishing for comments welcome!

If you read until this point and you are not a searchbot: Thanks for taking the time. I hope you feel a little entertained. Or maybe you are exercising in a similar way at the moment. Or you just can´t stand all those uninspired blog newbies. With this last paragraph I want to encourage you to leave a first comment on this site. As this is not a lecture but targeted on bidirectional exchange.

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2013/08/082013/08/15

Western Turkey in 17 days

Distances 3000 km (~1850 miles) by car
Transport: Mainly rental car, public Transport in Istanbul
No. of Travel buddies: 2
Overall Cost excluding fly in and fly out (2Persons): 1.436,30 Euro
Daily Budget per person (excluding fly in and fly out): ~42.- Euro

Itinerary:

City	Nights	Accomodation
Istanbul (3 nights)	3	Hostel
Gölbasi	1	Camping ground Tent
Avanos (Next to Göreme)	4	Camping ground Tent
Sultanhani	0
Selcuk (Ephesus)	1	Wild camping Tent
Egidir	2	Hostel
Güzelkamli	1	Wild camping Tent
Pamukkale	1	Camping ground Tent
Ayvalik	1	Camping ground Tent
Canakkale – Istanbul	3	Camping ground Tent

…to be continued

2013/08/082013/08/08

Useful Smartphone Traveler Apps

While you want to decide on your own wether you need/want a smartphone while traveling or not here is a list of Apps I personally find very useful:

Currency a simple tool that converts any given sum into the corresponding value of other currencies of your choice. It only needs Internet access for downloading exchange rates, but works pretty fine off the grid, as long as the currency is not extremely volatile (which never happened to me).

Skobbler An inexpensive Navigation App, that works ok offline with GPS data and based on openstreetmap. I bought all maps of the world for 12.- Euro. And seriously when was your last opportunity purchase the world at this price? I tried it out in Turkey and while it does not provide what you might expect from a fancy build in GPS it´s ok compared to what you might pay for a TomTom in a rental car every day.

To be continued, recommendations welcome…

2013/08/062013/08/23

Trangia – ett kök för alla

I really love my Trangia stove.

I is a pretty handy tool when traveling.
It may occupy some volume in your backpack, though. But if you go for the lightweighted Aluminium Version it´s weight is pretty low (about 700 somewhat grams).

On of the big advantages I see in this legendary outdoors cooker is the flexibility.
Not only does it come with 2 pots and an additional teapot. It also has a frying pan that enables you to create delicious egg scramble or even pancakes.

The downside is that in some countries it´s a little difficult to recharge your supplies of ethyl alcohol. But this can nowadays be avoided if you get gas burners as an add on.

Usage of the cooker is pretty easy, however throwing off the blower with its cover requires a little training and is an entertaining contest with your fellow travelers.

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