OKTOBERFEST

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oktoberfest was AWEEEESOME, i LOVED germany. i almost wish i would have studied there. it was so cool, and people spoke german, which i kind of could too. i really think if i was there for like two weeks i'd be near fluent. i HAVE to go back there!

okay so the bus left thursday night around 730 pm and we watched movies and stopped a few times along the way. we watched beerfest, which i had never seen but has everything to do with oktoberfest and beer (duh), and forgetting sarah marshall and the social networks. two of my most favorite movies! the bus ride there wasn't toooo uncomfortable, i felt like everytime i fell asleep we'd stop somewhere. i woke up a lot, probably got about 4 hours of sleep total. we got to munich at around 730 am. we couldn't check into the hostel until 2 pm, so we all (all meaning our bus and another bus from florence) had to change in the single bathroom in the lobby. that took about 2 hours and i wasn't even the last one. the hostel was called jeager hostel. after a quick change, tooth brushing and make up freshen up, we headed for oktoberfest!!!

i was soooo excited, i mean i'd only been studying everything about germany for the past three years, language, culture, and history. i'd been dreaming about oktoberfest before studying abroad was even a possibility in my mind. they said friday would be the easiest day to get into the beer tents. they were right. we got to the fest at around 930? there was already a long line to get in a few of them. there are six or seven all together. anyway, we got in, and they started serving the beer at 10. it was crazy the way these people could carry so many beers at once, i'm talking ten steins at a time. a stein is equal to a liter. they were 9.40 euro per stein at oktoberfest. the beer was delicious of course! and i'm not too much of a beer drinker. random people kept standing up and chugging their entire stein at once, everyone cheered, one guy failed and everyone booed him, although all of us booing could never do it either haha. we stayed for about 4 hours in the tents, and it was a blast. we met some people from sweden too. at around 2 i decided we should get back to the hostel to take a nap.

well, the oktoberfest grounds were HUGE and there were people EVERYWHERE. we ended up leaving out of the completely wrong exit that we entered.... heading into the opposite side of the city. (of course i didn't know this til hours later). we got lost. we were very tired and had each had multiple steins. i was too exhausted to try and find directions so i left it up to michelle... who speaks no german at all. she kept walking up to people saying sprechen sie english? hahah and of course everyone in europe speaks english for the most part. but NO one knew where the jeager hostel was, they kept telling us to walk about 15 minutes and we'd be tehre. we didn't know an address or anything so we couldn't take a cab. about two hours into this mess we find a burger king and decide we should probably put some food in our system. i ate some fries and while i was waiting for michelle to finish her food i literally started falling asleep in burger king- thats how tired i was. we started to venture back and within the hour finally by some miracle found the hostel. i had never been so happy to lay down.

well michelle and deana let me sleep for a total of 20 minutes? then we headed back out.. we stayed away from the beer tents this time and did some souvenier shopping and rode the ferris wheel. there were a TON of rides. oktoberfest is literalyl like an amusement park where everyone drinks a lot of beer. and it's huge, and there were a TON of people. i got one of those gingerbread heart cookies that said oktoberfest, i still havent eaten it, but i'm sure it's good. after that extremely long day we decided to stop at pizza hut on the way home. -i know it's sad but i really wanted breadsticks and i'm not a huge fan of german food- saurkraut no thank youuu. anyway, they didn't have breakdsticks but they did have stuffed crust pizza, which was delicious, tasted the same as in america, only with less sauce. michelle can literally make friends anywhere, and ended up getting a free piece of cheesecake and a cappuccino for her birthday which was two days away. it was a great day, minus the 3 hours of lostness.

we went back to the hostel and the rest of the people from our group were drinking at the bar downstairs so we hung out there for a little bit before heading to bed. michelle and i shared a room with these two other girls who were studying abroad in florence, they were okay.

after an amazing night of sleep, we woke up the next morning and went on a bike tour around munich. we saw the glockenspiel (clock tower), rode past some surfers surfing a river, saw a few famous spots where hitler made speeches and things like that, rode through a nudist park (weird.), and went to the second largest biergarten in the world (the first is also in munich btw). there i finally ate some bratwurst and mashed potatoes and split a stein with michelle. it was fun, the tour guides were really cool and funny. i really wanted to buy a dirndl but they were around a hundred euro and none of them really fit right! i was so bummed. EVERYONE in the city was wearing them and the guys with their laederhoesen.

saturday night we tried to get into the beer tents but it wasn't happening. the crowd was MASSIVE and the tents were filled to capacity. we went to another brewery right outside of the oktoberfest with a few other people from our group and hung out there for a while. the steins were a little cheaper there, 7.40 per stein, and much less foam than the ones at oktoberfest. it was a fun time, except one of the girls dropped a stein and it broke on another girl's foot, she had to get stitches which sucks.

sunday michelle and i took the train to dachau to visit the concentration camp memorial there. it was intense. it was really eerie and there was fog everywhere, and apparently it's always like that. i'm really glad i got to see it though it was really sad to think about what actually happened there. i was amazed by how big it was, it was literally like the size of a town dedicated to just torturing and killing people. it made it a lot more real to see everything.

after that we tried again to head back to oktoberfest but it was even busier than the other two days. i got a tshirt and left. the crowd was massive! the entire town of munich was a huge party everywhere. in europe there aren't open container laws so people can just walk around drinking, plus everyone was wearing their dirndl and laederhoesen, and people were literally passed out on the side ofthe road everywhere. i can't imagine how locals felt for those three weeks. but my time in germany was amazzzing and i really hope i can go back before i come home. i really want to visit berlin. i was happy to get to use my german. i felt like i heard more german in germany than i did italian in italy, but that's also because i don't look even remotely italian, germany is a lot more diverse and i could have easily fit in there.

my internet sucks, so i can try to skype people but its not looking like an actual possibility. i'm trying to think of what else. my apartment is amaaazing, rome is so cool. i havent seen the coloseum yet but thats next on the to do list. well i kind of saw it today because i saw the roman forum but only from a distance and it was from the back. i walk by the pantheon everyday to get to class. and there are these ruins in the middle of the city that are preserved and it's the spot where julius caeser was murdered. this city is incredible, and the history is so old. that's a major reason a chose italy over germany (plus of course the food). most of germany's historical sites only date back so far due to all the bombing from the wars.

trips i'm looking into are valencia,spain, morocco, berlin, maybe greece or amsterdam. not sure yet, money will definitely play a factor, and i only have so many free weekends. but i definitely want to see as much as possible!! im visiting naples and pompeii next weekend! CANNOT wait! i get to climb up a volcano! another one of my life goals crossed off. yayyyy!!!!

hope youre all doing well, i miss everyone 😊

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Comments

[Aunt Louise]

Memories of Munich
Enjoyed reading about your great time in Germany. It was a wonderful experience to participate in OKTOBERFEST. I remember being in Munich and having a kidney stone attack. At the time I thought I'd be coming home in a box. However, the attack subsided and I had a great time at the hofbrauhouses, etc. Also, I like german food. It really makes me happy to hear how much you are enjoying your time abroad. You will hold on to the memories for a lifetime. Sending my love. Also, you know you're in my prayers daily. Hope you're still my 'prayer partner'. I'm in Florida now until the 23rd. Aunt Louise