Oktoberfest 2010

I have been so busy in the past week I haven't had any time to write about my most recent adventures.

Over the weekend we traveled to Munich for the 200th Annual Oktoberfest. Lindsay has relatives who live in Petting, a suburb of Munich, so we were fortunate enough to be able to stay with them for the weekend. It was also great because we had German tour guides to take us around Munich and help us maneuver through Oktoberfest.

We arrived in Munich at 5:30am Friday morning after an 8 hour bus ride. We had taken some sleep medicine so we were able to get a bit of sleep, but it still wasn't great. However, we were in Munich and we were going to make the best of it. After a quick early breakfast, Lindsay's cousin, Stephanie, took us around the city. She showed us many of the historical sights in Munich. Sadly, I was so tired and so busy taking pictures that I don't recall the names of most of the places I now have pictures of. I believe many of them were governmental buildings. We were sure to rub the noses of the Lion. This is supposed to bring about good luck and I would say we had a weekend filled with good luck. After our sightseeing we went shopping. Lindsay was the most excited about shopping and she went to town haha. I was a little bit better but I did buy one designer purse. It was only 63 euros and I would have paid $120.00 in America, I couldn't pass up such a deal!!! By 11am our purses were drained and so were we. We decided to stop at a Starbuck to get some coffee. I could not wait to have American coffee (espresso just isn't the same). I must say, my experience in Starbucks was not quite what I expected it to be. After getting our coffee we sat down in the back of the restaurant to rest for a bit. There was an innocent looking woman sitting back there but we figured we would be quiet and not disturb her work. Well as soon as we sat down, she ripped off her headphones and started peppering me (because I was closest to her) with questions. In the beginning they were normal: Where are you from? Why are you in Europe? etc. But then thing started to get uncomfortable. She asked me what I was going to do after I finished my undergraduate studies. I told her of my intentions to go to law school. Well this set her off. She began ranting about how I do not have the personality to be a lawyer and I really need to consider an alternative plan. Fortunately Stephanie saw what was happening and made up some excuse about why we suddenly needed to leave. I was so thankful, I did not know how to handle this woman who was telling me my entire life plan was a horrible decision. Needless to say, my first introduction to Germans was not the best, but it got much better after that.
We ate lunch at the famous Hofbrauhaus. The atmosphere was incredible in this place. There is a polka band who plays continuously and there are thousands of people eating, drinking, and having a good time. It was like a mini-Oktoberfest! The food was delicious!
After lunch we headed out of Munich to Stephanie's house in Petting. It is about an hour outside the city so we got to see a lot of the German country-side on our drive. We showered, changed, and had a delicious dinner of swinebrotten made by Lindsay's aunt. Even though we were exhausted, we wanted to see Salzburg, Austria which is 10 minutes from Petting. We spent the evening walking around Salzburg. We saw the house where Mozart was born, many little shops, and other historical sites. Everything was closed while we were there so we didn't really know exactly what we were looking at, but it was still beautiful and nice to see.

Saturday- We began the day by traveling to the Herren-Chemsee. This is one of the three castles built by crazy King Ludwig II. This particular castle was built as a monument to King Louis XIV so it looks very similar to Versailles. We had to take a ferry across the Chemsee lake to reach the castle. It was a very pretty ride. Our view of the Alps was spectacular. The castle itself was amazing too. Right as we walked up to the castle all of the fountains turned on. Each fountain is a massive work of art within itself, but to see in with the water flowing out of it was amazing. My pictures will do a better job demonstrating what I mean than I can describe. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures in the castle (and it was strictly enforced, believe me we tried). But the castle was completely covered in gold leafing. It was one of the most ornate interiors I have ever seen. It was absolutely beautiful, but I was angered to learn that King Ludwig only spent 10 days of his whole life in the place.
After we finished our tour of the castle we headed to Oktoberfest. This festival was nothing like I expected it to be. Not only were there more people than I ever imagined possible, but it was also a lot more like a state fair than I expected. In addition to the massive beer tents, there were game booths, food stands, and rides. There were also people of all ages at the event and everyone was wearing their leiderhosen or durdels. It was truly an experience I will never forget. Some of the highlights of our day: there is a ride that requires one to jump onto a moving conveyor belt in order to be transported to the slide. Well Lindsay and I were sure that all of the people who kept falling down on the conveyor belt were just too drunk to do it correctly, so we wanted to try and demonstrate how its done. Boy were we wrong. When we finally saw the conveyor belt we realized that it actually moves at about 15 mph and you have to go from standing still to balancing on this speeding contraption. We no longer thought it would be a piece of cake, and sure enough, we both added to the long list of people who were laughed at as they rode up on their backs. (there are pictures in my album of us). Another highlight was having dinner in one of the beer gardens. We got there too late in the day to get into one of the tents, but we were lucky enough to get a table outside of the tent in the beer garden. We each had a stein of beer (which we later snuck out of place and still have)which was a massive amount of beer. The rest of the night was a lot warmer and a lot more fun after we had our drinks. The brezens (pretzels) that they served in the beer garden were also delicious, not to mention huge! Finally, while we were there we apparently met a famous german soap star. We clearly had no idea who he was, but the germans sharing our table told us all about who he was. We tried to get a picture with him but he was too busy for us Americans.
Finally, on Sunday we got up bright and early so that we could try and get into a tent at Oktoberfest and really experience the atmosphere. We were lucky and we did get into a tent. Wow, that experience was so amazing. Picture a giant tent with a capacity to hold 10,000 people already filled at noon. Beer had been flowing for 2 hours already and the band was just getting started. Every time a popular song came on, everyone jumped up on their seats and began singing as loud as they could. It was so much fun! I also had some of the best chicken I have ever had in the tent as my lunch. We had to catch our bus by 3:30 to head back to Florence so we didn't get to stay at Oktoberfest as long as I would have liked.
Overall, it was a great experience. I think that it was an experience that everyone should have at some point in his/her life!

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