Oktoberfest 2010 - "Its like the thanksgiving of beer"

I just got back from oktoberfest about an hour ago and it was the best weekend ever. Germany was amazing! Oktoberfest was all i hoped it would be and more. I was a lil worried since it was built up so much and probably one of my more expensive trips tht it wouldnt live up to its standards, but i have to worry about that no more hahah This was by far my favorite weekend of being abroad thus far. I left thursday afternoon on a train to  Rome to meet hayley. I had class from 9-415 and walked to the train station and took a 5pm train. The trains run very frequently to Rome so its very easy. it only took about an hour and a half which is not bad at all. Italian trains are also the most comfortable trains ive ever been on. There's first class and second class seats and i got 2nd bc they're cheaper but i honestly thought i was in the wrong place when i got to my seat. Plenty of leg room, a table for eating or reading or using or your computer, outlets to charge electronics, people coming by with refreshments...i thought i was on a first class plane ride haha I arrived in rome around 630 and met up with hayley. She took the local bus to come meet me at the train station. Rome is huge so buses are the way to get around, its not like florence where you can walk everywhere its more like nyc with its crazyness. Florence is a big city, but not that big i kind of like that about florence. its a city but never overwhelming. Also Rome cant have a subway system bc of all the antiquity so they cant dig underground or blow anything up to build subways sooo its only option is buses, which are super inefficient bc of traffic and just bc italians have no concept of time at all. Thats the one frustrating but true stereotype about italians, they are always late, whether it be in restaurants with the service where you have to wait 45 minutes to get a check after a quick dinner, or buses to come on time or teachers for classes, being a new yorker where were all about speed and efficiency and rushing this baffles me hahah its nice and refreshing at times others ill just get annoyed haha but anyways so i got to rome and me and hayley took a bus to a restaurant in Trestevere (spelling could be incorrect...a neighborhood of rome though btw) to meet 2 of her friends. The restaurant was called Dar Poeta and was the most amazing pizza place id ever been. I had a huge pizza with cheese, potatoes, and all sorts of toppings. and also had some of hayley pizza tht had delicious cooked peppers on it. we also got bruschetta, one pomodoro bruschetta and one pesto with cheese which was amazingggg for an appetizer. we also got lots of the house wine, which was delicious! another plus of italy even the cheap wine is good wine haha we got a calzone filled with chocolate for desert and i was stuffed to the brim. It was sooo goood. and it was so cheap too! it was like 12 bucks a person and we had huge pizzas each wine and desert! it was also just so much fun bc hayleys two friends were hilarious and we got along super well and obviously me and hayley always have a good time together. we were at the restaurant for quite some time and thean headed to hayleys apt which is in Monteverde (another neighborhood of Rome) her apt is super nice and one of her roommates was away for the weekend already so i got a nice bed and slept for about 3 hrs haha than unfortunately had to get up at like 3am to go catch our flight. the airport is like 30-45 mins away and we wanted to make sure we got there on time and my flight was boarding a 615am and had to be there early to go through security, which actually only took all of 5 seconds so we had some time to wait in the airport but better early than missing our flight or something haha so my flight left at 645 and i got to munich in about an hour and a half and hayley was on a different flight so i waited about an hour or so in the airport for hers to show upo. While waiting i got some starbucks which was amazing bc they dont have it in italy and sometime i miss normal coffee haha After finding hayley we got our stuff and figured out the subway system to get to our hotel. The german subway system was amazing so clean and efficient and everything they did made sense. they had signs saying when the next train was coming how far away it was etc etc everything was so nice. all the people were nice too, everyone was helpful and we were already huge german fans by the time we got to our hotel hahah our hotel was actually super nice it was a Sheraton, and me hayley and her two friends kim and kailey from richmond were sharing a room we had two big twin beds and they were super comfy and it wokred out perfectly. it was nice to stay in a hotel. Kim and kailey are hilarious and the four of us had so much fun together. When we first got to our hotel we took a quick shower and nap got a snack and headed to oktoberfest. Getting to the festival from out hotel was about as easy as it gets, we took one subway which was right next to the hotel a couple stops, than all you had to go was get out and follow the lederhosen for a few blocks haha We got to oktoberfest by around 4/5ish and it was PACKED. Millions upon millions of people, and i wish lederhosen werent so expensive bc you feel a lil left out not wearing them haha we tried to wait on line for some of the beer tents but at that hour of the day it wasnt happening. Everyone was filled to the brim and they werent letting more people in. But that was totally fine, me hayley and some richmonders went and got lots of chocolate covered strawberries from these stands whcih were the most delicious things ever and had my first germand sausage which i am now in love with. So delicious. After eating as much as we could fit into our stomachs we went to a lil bar outside of one of the tents. Here is our first oktoberfest beer! German beer is so delicious!!! So much better than any beer ive ever tasted. It was enjoyable.

It started pouring rain so it was even more packed under the awnings bc people were trying to stay dry but still get their beer haha and it was pretty cold too so it wasnt a warm rain. I was freezing for a bit bc i was wearing pants but a shorts sleeved german soccer jersey (which was a great idea to get bc the germans love their soccer hahah).

So we hung out there for awhile talking and making friends. Trying to learn a few german words haha at around 9 they stopped serving beer and started only serving this wine drink, its barely alcoholic and its supposed to be watery to bring people down from all the beer haha we learned all about it from these 2 super old german guys that me and hayley made friends with and they bought us a drink which was really nice. After that last drink we headed back to our hotel in the pouringggg rainnnn. (pic below: germans using tables as tents in the beergarten hahah im not the best photographer so the quality isnt that great especially with my camera being soaked and all...)

It was still super fun though and Munich is an absolutely gorgeous city! I could definitely see myself living there for a bit, I wish i was there for longer than just a quick weekend. Later that night me and hayley ordered chinese food and even that was amazing the germans seem to have everything down haha The next day (saturday) we all woke up at like 6am got dressed and headed to oktoberfest. The tents were already packed at 7am but we only had to wait a bit and we got in and got a table.

we had an awesome table it was right next to the band (the two guys in the second picture were tuba players who loved us) and we kept running into people I knew (such a small world even when im all the way in germany ran into high school friends, grls from the liberty lax team, etc too funny) They started serving beer at 9, so these crazy german woman who can carry like 15 GIANT beer mugs to the tables bring them over to you. you can also order food at the table so we had tonsss of delicious pretzels in the morning and than at lunch time we ordered chicken for the table and everyone got about half a bird for lunch haha it was the most amazing food ever!! We had fun standing on our tables chanting german songs like "ein prosit", (i just looked it up on youtube to see how close we were to singing it right...not too too bad hahah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD2-aSbcW0s) we had some german guy who was about 16 and so adorable teach our table all the words. He said we did awesome but idk how well we were pronouncing some of these intense words hahah Me and hayley thought it was the funniest thing on the subway to try and announce the stops bc they were all intense words like Odeonplatz and i cant even spell the others hah so we spent the majority of our time in this HB beer tent and than a lil after lunch we headed out to the fairgrounds and met all sorts of characters and ate more delicious food of course haha oktoberfest is definitely not only about beer its alot  about food, which is my kind of party hahah

we also went to this bar that was a giant merry go round/carousel type thing which was definitely an experience to go on! We hung out there for awhile and than at around 730pm we were so tired and done for the day haha figured out how to get back to our hotel and watched Germanys Got Talent!, like americas got talent but german version...they even have a guy that acts like the Simon of american idol but i think the german version guy is way scarier hahah it was pretty funny. we went to bed pretty early and than woke up early to get our flight. the flights are so nice and easy got to the airport via subway got some food got on my flight and headed back to italia! once at the rome airport i took a train to the rome train station than another train to the florence train station and walked home from there. the public transportation here is amazing. too good to be true. i am super exhausted now but this was one of the most fun weekends yet. I would love to go back to germany and explore munich more, its a beautiful city. Everything about it was amazing!!!!! (below is me and hayley with our bavarian hats that we had to purchase in order to at least sort of blend in, everyone dresses up its so fun!, and also me and kailey, and me hayley and gina)