Oktoberfest

Well, it's been about a week or so since the last post, but I promise this one does not have the blood and gore of the bullfighting update...

This past weekend, I went with Elise, Matthew Keshian (Kesh), Robert (my roommate), Grant Guenther, and Liz Christenbury to Munich, Germany! We left on an AirBerlin flight Friday afternoon, had about a one hour layover in Palma de Mallorca (I've got to admit, we weren't going to complain if we got stranded there), then finished the trip to Munich. Upon arriving, we changed terminals to find Grant (who was flying in from his study abroad location in Glasgow, Scotland) and got on a train to head into the city. Over the summer (still too late for good hotel/hostel bookings for Oktoberfest weekends), I worked really hard to find a place for all of us to stay and ended up getting a really good deal on an apartment in a pretty quiet part of the city. It was perfect for us (big bed for the two girls, then the four guys were scattered on two cots and a pull-out sofa). We had a great little kitchen, a bathroom, and we were only about twenty minutes (via subway) from the city center!

A quick cultural update...Oktoberfest is a 16-day festival in Munich (Bavaria). Oddly enough it is held mostly in September. It was originally a celebration for a German royal wedding (in 1810). It is held on a fairgrounds (reminded me an awful lot of the NC State Fair that I'll be missing this year) called Theresienwiese. Giant tents (I mean, this suckers can hold thousands of people) are sponsored by the best local breweries and host traditional bands, traditional foods (pretzels, chicken, pork, etc.), and of course, beer.

We woke up early Saturday morning and headed to the 'Wiese for the opening of the tents at 9am. It wasn't much of a surprise to find tens of thousands of people had the same idea, but we slithered into a tent (Hofbrau) and found our own table upstairs. The rest is pretty much what we thought it would be. We ordered our giant beer steins (9 Euro a pop!), had them delivered by our beefy German waitress in her traditional dress (drindl, I believe) and enjoyed our drinks as we yelled "Prost!" (cheers!) to all of the honest men in honest leiderhosen. We were surrounded by Italians, French, Germans, and even a group of girls from Wake Forest University and had a great few hours of drinks, prost-ing, and just enjoying our surroundings.

After a few hours, we decided to find a different tent. We used the bathroom, then headed and grabbed a table outside of a nearby tent. We ordered another round and talked with a group of people from Oregon, and then a group of Germans who were about our age. It was a really great atmosphere for conversation (granted, some of these people were more friendly than they usually are) and we enjoyed learning a bit about the lives of German students.

Oktoberfest lasted just long enough for us. It was absolutely great, but we also had hopes of touring the city, so we spent a few hours, enjoyed the beer and the scenery and headed out to see Munich!