Well it all stated with the always unnerving European airline of RyanAir. With fares too cheap to be true, I was a little weary on my first experience. The flight from Pisa to Munich ended up being quite nice and the view out the window of the Swiss Alps was worth the ticket alone. The flight was full of American college students studying abroad who were about to embark on the same journey we were. We joked after the flight that getting off the plane not on a jet bridge made us feel like the Kennedy's.
The air was crisp as soon as we walked off the plane. Fall was in full swing in Germany; the leaves were bright red and yellow and you could see your breath. Excitement came over me as did a chill.
Not only was the flight a success, but Holly was wearing her tradition Oktoberfest German attire: a "dirndl". Yes, she wore it all weekend. I'm not going to lie, I was a little jealous. As we got off the flight and on to the train into downtown Munich the cars flooded with women in dirndls and men in knee high socks and suspender; all had beers in hand (keep in mind it was 9:00 am.), ready for a good time!
We found our hostel and got settled. Since Kate and I had never been to Munich we figured we should do a little sight seeing before we went to the fairgrounds.
We went all aorund downtown Munich, looking like total tourists in our jeans instead of lederhosen. We did a little shopping, saw the world's oldest coco-clock in Marienplatz. The coco-clock, or the Glockenspiel, is world famous, the characters dance around when the clock strikes the hour. We actually didn't get to see it dance but it was still a pretty neat sight to see, it was a beautiful building. The flowers all over the city were truly amazing. Vibrant colors were seen everywhere. I was really impressed with Munich; it was so big but seemed so small.
We then made our way to the Hofbrauhaus which is arguably the most famous beer hall worldwide. Everyone was singing and drinking beer; clanking their glasses with huge smiles on their faces. It was really out of a movie.
After seeing the main sights on this beautiful, chilly day we decided to go back, rest, and hit the fairgrounds that night. The clouds were starting to move in and it was beginning to get a little rainy but that didn't stop us.
Everyone had told us that it would be almost impossible to get inside of one of the many beer tents (as they are reserved months and months ahead of time), but on our second attempt, we met two guys who had been working inside who pulled a few strings with security. I'm pretty sure the fact that they thought we came to Oktoberfest all the way from Texas had something to do with it along with the fact that we informed them that Kate was on iTunes. Christian, the guy who got us in, brought us right inside, got us three huge mugs of beer, and let us sit with a table of his friends. It could not have been a better night-we realized later that we had found the locals tent, which made it that much better. Everyone was so welcoming and fun. We met the cutest girl who was eighteen and from Munich. She stayed with us most of the night and told us all about the tradition. She said she loved America because of Sex and the City. Haha.
There was a traditional German band playing (who also played 'Summer of '69'), tables and tables and tables full of people standing on the benches singing at the top of their lungs, dancing, and stopping every two seconds to say ‘Prost!!!’ and take a drink. We only drank one beer that night and it was more than enough. The tents close around 11pm, and after day of traveling, exploring Munich and experiencing Oktoberfest, that was late enough for everyone. We went back to the hostel, talked about how awesome our night was, and fell right to sleep.
The rainy Saturday morning started out with meeting up with my best friend in the whole wide world Jacqueline who is studying in Barcelona. She went with a group of her friends. Amongst all the people and umbrellas in the crowd, we finally found each other. It was more a a slow motion, running to each other with open arms, across a huge group of people, reunion. It was pretty epic. I was so happy to see her, I started to cry!
We came to one conclusion: German pastries are the best thing on earth. This pastry below, was fresh out of the oven and may have been the best thing I've ever eaten. You can just see the joy in my face.
We actually went back to the bakery where we got it from and it was closed. You can see how badly we wanted another one.
Then it was time for German fair food. Not only did we have pastries but we had corn, pretzels, sauerkraut, wienerschnitzel, and bratwurst. No complaints!!
Now it was time to go back in the tents to warm up but knew it would be even more difficult to get inside today considering it was Saturday as well as cold and rainy. After a few unsuccessful attempts (German security guards are scary)…we first found a smaller tent serving only mixed drinks and desserts that looked like a gingerbread house! It was amazing! It was straight out of a fairy tale! We couldn't believe all of these tents were only temporary; they were so elaborate!
We moved on from there to one last tent: The Lowenbrau tent (one of the biggest tents).
Kate, again, sweet talked our way in and she even sang and signed one of her cds and gave it to him! Thank goodness my friends have such amazing talent! This tent was a ton of fun and met a ton of people.
At about 5 o'clock we were ready to call it quits and it was time for us to take a train to Memmingen, an adorable quaint town outside Munich, where were spending the night. Our flight left early Sunday morning.
We had such an incredible weekend and I loved every second of the experience. Prost!!
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