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Published: October 1st 2008
Hello everyone!
Many of you who have talked to me in the last four months have probably heard at least one quarry about this lovely three week beerfest. My experience in planning the weekend excursion probably took about 3 years off of my lifespan and probably created multiple holes in my stomach. But the weekend finally happened. And despite all of the issues in planning, the weekend was the best weekend I have had since I left the United States.
Germany, Germany, Germany... What an amazing country it is! My German excursion began with me setting off the alarm at customs. When we arrived in Italy, we had to go up to the customs agent, have my passport stamped, and all that jazz. Naturally, I assumed I would have a similar to do in Germany. So, when we passed right through customs, I was entirely confused. In front of about 100 Germans waiting for their friends and family to appear through the customs door, I walked back through customs, set off the alarm, and suffered all those people laughing at me. When we asked the customs agent if we got a stamp or anything on our passport, they also laughed at us and assured us that going through customs was really just that easy. They get points because they were trying really hard not to laugh at us.
Then, we conquered the Metro- Munich subway system. Nothing to say about that, other than Holly and I don't speak German, and had no problems getting from point A to point B on the subway. Yay for us!
We stayed in a little suburb called Ottobrun- it's on the Southeast side of Munich. It's a really nice little town! Anyway, we get up to our room and are looking through the list of local attractions (unable to understand any of it, because it's all in Germany). Then, we see a word we know "Mexican." There was a Mexican restaurant about 200 meters away from our hotel. Naturally, we went because we've been deprived of food from the US' neighbor to the South. And just our luck, it's ladies' night. So, we were served some sort of fruity/watermelony drink for free. Consequently, water was 2 euro. That's right- alcohol cheaper than water. We also had to pay for chips- which were doritos. I ordered the vegetarian burrito which was stuffed with no beans, unless you mean green beans, and cucumbers. Oh, and to top off the entire debacle- our waiter was wearing lederhosen.
Friday, we went to Oktoberfest. It is one HUGE festival with massive beer gardens. After mastering the art of actually finding a seat and placing your ass in the seat, Holly and I sat in our first beer garden. Actually, it was outside on the patio, but whatever. I consumed beer from my first stein (Paulaner). It was great. Couple it with some weiner wurstel and sauerkraut, and you have one happy Katie. I'll just forget the creepy Italian men who kept flocking to us and engaging in their creepy ways. We'll forget that it was Italian weekend. We'll forget that I had been inside the festival not 10 minutes, before I had some 40 year old man with his hands on my hips, face in my face saying "Ciao bella. Come stai?" Yes, we'll forget all that.
Speaking of people, can I just say that I'm in love with the German people! They are so nice, so friendly, most of them speak English, and they find out that you're American and they don't scoff at you. In fact, they would rather ask you if you're going to vote for Obama or McCain. (By the way, we had CNN in our hotel room. Sounds like things are a mess over there. But I did see the debate). Anywho, furthermore, the Germans all look like Abercrombie models with the tall figures, fair hair and eyes. They are beautiful. Yes, there were a lot of blonde people. Anyway, they were all just so happy and accepting, and just wanted to have a good time. This may come off as ignorant or inappropriate or whatever, but I don't understand how such jolly people descend from Nazis. I mean I do understand, it's all historical context, blah blah blah, but seriously, they are so great! And if anyone knows a 20 year old German boy looking for a love interest, feel free to give him my number.
Anyway, Oktoberfest is also filled with some truly incredible smells. I walked in and immediately it smelled like candied nuts. I mean, what a smell to begin with! It reminded me of Christmas at my grandmother's. Some parts smelled like fish- we walked quickly through those parts. The beer gardens smelled like beer. But mostly, Munich in general smelled like fall. Going to Munich, reminded me how much I miss fall- especially with today being October 1st. Does everyone know what their Halloween costume is going to be?
Saturday, we returned to Oktoberfest to find the amount of lederhosen/traditional German dress wearing folk quadrupled. It was so crowded, that we ate and left. We went to Marienplatz- downtown Munich. We went to the Hofbrauhaus (Yes, there were people carrying about 15 steins in their hands. Yes, I was nervous). So, the architecture in Munich is beautiful. I see where Disney found his inspiration. No joke. Please look at my pictures and you'll see what I mean. It looked like a fantasy land. Maybe it was. I also bought a new winter hat since mine went missing last March. It is big, ridiculous, and warm- and I love it!
Sunday, we got our asses out of bed at 7:30 AM to travel to Dachau before our plane. We left our hotel at about 8:15, but didn't arrive at Dachau until about 10:50. Since it took so long, we only had a half hour there which just was not enough time. I didn't even get to see the crematorium. But, Dachau is basially smack dab in a neighborhood, and a nice neighborhood at that. Even walking up to the gates, you would have no idea what was on the other side. It was green and there was foliage. You pass through those gates and it is desolate. Sunday started out as a very gloomy day in Munich- foggy, grey, etc. Perfect concentration camp weather, if such a thing exists. We saw the prison and the barracks. It was built for 6,000 people, but when it was liberated there were 32,000 people working there. Just for clarification- Dachau was a working camp, not an extermination camp, but they still killed over 200,000 people. It was a bit of an overwhelming feeling to think of all the feet that walked where my feet were walking. It was overwhelming to see how unlucky these people, yet how lucky they actually were. Yes, they were in Dachau, but they could have been in Auschwitz. I guess things could always be worse. Furthermore, when I was in Dachau, my feet were freezing- and I had proper shoes. I can only imagine how cold it must have been for those people there- especially when they had to line up for roll for almost 2 hours at a time on a February morning. It's hard to imagine that such a cruel thing is a part of our world history. Permit me to get the tiniest bit political here, but not only is that kind of cruelty in our history, but it's also in our present, and unfortunately most likely in our future. That is something I will never understand.
We left Dachau and went to the airport. We had a parting pretzel, and got on the plane. P.S. they served us sandwiches on a flight that was the span of an hour and a half. They also had real orange juice (not red orange juice). When we got to Rome, we got lost. Go figure, we navigated Munich just fine. But get back in the city of our residence, and we get lost.
So that was Oktoberfest. I will be posting again soon because I have some things to blog about. I have Roman ongoings that still need to be blogged. However, I have yet to get those pictures up. So, I shall wait for the weekend. I'm not traveling this weekend. First weekend in Rome. Actually, I might go to Pisa for a day, but we shall see. So, I am signing off. For those of you back home, can I just say how much it brightens up my day to from you. So, please keep the facebook posts, messages, and e-mails coming. Italy is amazing, but the US will always be home, and that is a special place in my heart.
Loads of love to all,
Katie.
Oktoberfest/ Munich pictures: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2130613&l=d7798&id=20011971
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Maria
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Sounds like a blasty blast. Did you get my mug?