OKTOBERFEST!

This past weekend I went to Oktoberfest (a beer festival) in Munich with Allison. We took a train down to Florence Thursday evening, got on a bus we had reserved through an organization called EuroAdventure, and bused all night to Munich (we arrived at 7am). Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning we were free to explore Munich, go to the beer tents, and enjoy people watching and at night we stayed in a hostel the organization had booked for everyone. It was one of the best experiences I've ever had, and here's why:

Peace: Once our bus left Florence, we had an 8 hour drive to Munich. During that time Allison and I slept (although it was intermittent), listened to music, and chatted with each other and the other Americans around us (some of whom were fairly annoying girls who didn't know any Italian, despite the fact that they are studying in Florence, so whenever Allison and I wanted to talk about them we spoke in Italian to each other). At one moment, I was in my own world looking out the window at the sky full of stars over the countryside and listening to some Tracy Chapman on my iPod, and I felt completely peaceful and content. I had Allison sitting next to me, I had a bus taking me where I needed to go, the hostel would be there waiting for us, we knew we would be well taken care of by the guides, and I could finally let my brain relax for the first time since being in Europe. I knew it would be a good weekend.

The beer tent: We arrived in Munich around 7am on Friday, checked into our hostel, and left at 8:30am to get in line at one of the beer tents. The tents (which are actually fairly permanent structures) don't open until 10am, but people start lining up in front of the good ones much earlier. They let us in around 9:30 and I was sitting with my first beer (a huge 1-liter stein) by 10:15am. To give you a sense of the size the steins hold about 3-4 bottles of beer, it has a slightly higher alcohol content than beers at home, and it's made of glass that is REALLY heavy (awesome bicep workout). Now, I'm not a big beer fan. So I wasn't sure how much beer I would actually be drinking on this trip, but that German beer was SO good, and I didn't have any problems drinking a stein...or two....  We stayed at this first beer tent until 4:30pm drinking beer, eating a half-chicken (they should really advertise the chicken in addition to the beer), meeting very friendly Germans (even before the alcohol, but especially after), and generally having a grand ol' time. Once back at our hostel around 5pm, Allison and I showered and took a refreshing nap. We shared the clean room with 2 other American girls and we had a private bathroom (which was very exciting after the shared bathroom down the hall in our hostel in Milan). That evening, after grabbing a little dinner, Allison and I decided to wander aimlessly around the center of Munich. We found a main pedestrian strip with shops, musicians playing violin or guitar, and Germans and tourist alike out and about.

Bike tour: Saturday morning, we "slept in" a bit, ate breakfast provided at the hostel (scrambled eggs, rolls, jam, cheese, deli meats, orange juice, coffee--the Germans know how to do breakfast!), and then headed out around 10:30am on a bike tour we had signed up for with EuroAdventures. The bike tour was amazing! Our Australian guide (with wonderful accent to listen to...) took us to various historical buildings and the English Gardens where there was a river people could surf on, a nude meadow, a beer garden in the center, and walking/bike paths through the grass and the trees. We stopped for lunch at the beer garden in the center and we had a beer (a.k.a. a stein of beer) and a pretzel (which was gigantic). Fortunately, after having beer, people were still mostly able to ride their bikes. After the tour, we did a little souvenir shopping and headed back to the hostel for a shower and what ended up to be a nap once we had lied down on our beds.

Beer tent #2: Around 7pm Saturday night, we met up with some people we had met on the bike tour (all of us being Americans studying abroad) and some of our guides from EuroAdventures and we went to a beer tent just outside the Oktoberfest grounds. The first stein of beer hit pretty hard alcohol-wise because I only had a beer and a pretzel for lunch. But I paired this beer with another pretzel to make it my dinner. We hung out at the outside tables with everyone for several hours talking, laughing, and drinking before we went inside around 11pm to the club where we danced for several more hours. Finally, we went back to our hostel and slept.

Stroll through the gardens: Sunday morning we got up around 9am, ate breakfast, met with one of Allison's friends, and we walked back to the English Gardens. We practically retraced our steps from the bike tour, but it was nice to get out, take a stroll in the 75 degrees weather, and enjoy the cool foliage of the gardens (which we greatly miss in Bologna). On our way back, we stopped at a Starbucks (they were everywhere in Munich and none are to be found in Bologna) and enjoyed coffees, pastries, and each other's company for a while. Then, it was time to get back on the bus (around 3pm) and we headed back to Florence.

Florence for 7 hours: In Florence, Allison and I had each set up a place to crash for the night with a friend. Our bus arrived at 1am, we walked to our friends' houses, went to sleep, and met up again at 8am to take the train back to Bologna in time for class at 1pm.

It was a weekend filled with sleep deprivation, beer, pretzels, half-chickens, good-looking tall Germans, drunken tourists, and general merriment! I had a blast and would go back to Munich (especially during Oktoberfest) in a heartbeat. Before this weekend, Germany wasn't too high on my list of places to travel, but now I really want to go back to visit any city in Germany (maybe Berlin...).

Photos will be coming soon!