OKTOBERFEST!!!

I have been dying to write all weekend! So, Oktoberfest. I'll start at the beginning.

After dinner on Thursday, Andrea and I headed down to the station to meet Kevin and Maggie. We had a little red wine in Piazza Santa Maria Novella to get ourselves to sleep during the 8 hour bus ride. Franco (student from HC studying in Bologna) met us at the station and we all boarded the bus. Of course, the completely American crew on the bus was very tough for us to handle, considering the fact that we are really trying to only be friends with Italians, speak Italian, etc. They were actually pretty obnoxious. I wasn't surprised based on the appearances of the girls and the boys, and all of their possessions. We even named one guy Princess Meathead. It was an appropriate title because Andrea was stuck sitting next to him and all he did was mush his big pillow on her shoulder and sleep the whole time. When he was awake, he complained about his discomfort. I sat all the way in the front with Kevin. I felt so badly for him because his legs were too big to fit on the floor so he had trouble sleeping. Meanwhile, I was able to curl up into a ball and fit my whole body on my seat. The wine helped us sleep for about 2 hours, but that wore off and I dozed in and out for the rest of the 6. It was most certainly the worst night sleep that I had had in a while.

We arrived at the hostel around 8 am. It was located about an hour outside of Munich in a beautiful location in the mountains. The air was so crisp and perfect- I felt like I was seeing scenes from the Sound of Music (especially when we drove through Austria). We weren't able to check in that early, but we did get to use the bathrooms and freshen up. An hour later, we headed into Munich for Oktoberfest!

As we approached the grounds, the German police inspected the bus for weapons, etc. They were of course very intimidating, as I expected. We pulled into the lot, received our instructions from Anna (our leader), and then headed into the fair! I was so amazed by the cleanliness of the park! The stands were all cute and perfect and everyone ready for the festivities. There were countless stands with candies, roasted nuts, pretzels, bratwurst, etc. Not many game stands though, which was different than the US. We made a bee-line for the pretzel stand because we hadn't eaten since 7:30 the night before, the pretzels were enormous, and we had to have something heavy before drinking. We finished our pretzels and headed into the Hofbrauhaus tent (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly) right away because they fill up around 12 and once you're in, you're in. If you want to leave, you don't come back. It's impossible.

So, we got into the tent around 10:30 and found some people in our bus group, including Anna. We ordered some beers and I was of course shocked by their size and strength. In fact, the filled beer mugs were so heavy that I have a bruise on my hand as a souvenir from the weekend. Anyway, the beer was delicious and effective. We had a great time watching the crazy Germans dance around in their lederhosen and drindl. In my opinion, some were way too young to be drinking. I met a kid that was 14!!! Are you kidding me!? There were also a bunch of Italians there and they were of course the most obnoxious crowd in the whole place. The security guards were not very happy. I was also amazed at how many beers the beer maids were able to carry. I counted 10 as the most! Absolutely crazy. I could barely hold my one. We spent a few hours in there and had about 2 beers each, ordered some awesome rotisserie chickens, and then left around 2 something when it was time for lunch.

Lunch was much cheaper outside of the beer tents and I really wanted to try a bratwurst so we found a good stand and made that our lunch. It was soooooo unbelievably good. I think I put onions on this one. Around 4, we left the grounds to walk around Munich and find a Starbucks. We found one in the train station and got some coffees and took a little rest. We returned to Oktoberfest sober and while we were gone, people had really taken a turn for the worse. We spent the rest of the evening walking around, drunk-people watching, and dodging puke piles on the ground. It was crazy to watch the policemen take down rowdy party people. They are really scary when they are angry! We got back to the hostel around 12:30 am and went to bed. Friday was a very long day.

We headed into Oktoberfest again on Saturday and decided to take Mike's Bike Tours for a tour of Munich. WE HAD A BLAST. And of course, the entire city was spotless. I felt as if I could eat off the ground-- that's how clean it was. I also didn't realize that Munich had so much to see! We saw castles and churches and some beautiful parks and monuments. Munich's famous park boasts being much bigger than both Central Park in NYC and Hyde Park in London. It was certainly huge! We had so much fun riding the bikes through the park. There was so much to see (including nude men sunbathing- ew). In the middle of the mega-park was the Biergarten where we ate lunch. Everyone ordered a beer, of course. In addition, I got a big sausage, sauerkraut, and scalloped potatoes. Everything was delicious! We returned from the bike tour around 4 and then followed some of our trip leaders to one of the most famous beer halls in the world- Hofbrauhaus. We couldn't find seats for the whole hour that we searched, so we went to a beer hall across the street for a beer. We returned to Hofbrauhaus after that because Andrea's friends from high school had found a little space for us. Partying in Hofbrauhaus was absolutely insane. There was a German folk band and lots of food and activity. I actually caught a man being tossed in the air while I was taking a video of Andrea and Kevin dancing. The video is priceless. After a few hours at the Hofbrauhaus, we returned to the Oktoberfest grounds and had some monster pretzels and beer at another biergarten. Then, we people watched again because everyone else was so hammered. They put on a great show. We got home around 12:30 on Saturday as well.

Sunday morning, we were pretty much over the Oktoberfest scene and decided to go visit Dauchau, the Nazi Concentration Camp. It wasn't fun, of course, but it was very interesting. I walked through the barracks and the gas chambers and it was all a little eerie. I was glad to be able to see one of those camps though. I have learned so much about the Holocaust that seeing the place helped me to understand the torture and inhumanity that happened to the Jews. It was a huge place and very open and barren- perfect for keeping prisoners from escaping.

After the concentration camp, we got some lunch and headed back on the bus to Florence. I left with an awesome sweatshirt that I bought, and 2 stolen beer mugs (one for me and one for Paul). Even though I'm absolutely exhausted right now, I am so glad that I went. We had a ton of fun and I learned a lot. Munich was an amazing city and I would recommend for everyone to go. It was so clean and easy to navigate, and there was so much to see! I'm really happy that we didn't only stay in Oktoberfest as some other kids did. I was glad to be able to get out and have a history lesson and see some other fun things that didn't necessarily have to do with beer. I really hope I can go back.

Pictures to come!

Auf Wiedersehen!