Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Oktoberfest

I believe that I've wanted to go to Oktoberfest ever since the first time I saw an "Oktoberfest" tent in the U.S. I remember my dad telling me about it in Germany. Finally on the weekend of September 24 - 26 I got my chance! I traveled with 5 girls first to Zurich to spend the night and then on to Munich early friday morning.

I was still tired and had planned to sleep for the 4 hour train ride to Munich but everyone else had a different plan... start drinking! Unfortunately, we had all booked our train tickets individually so I wasn't sitting near my friends, I was sitting near a group of rowdy French (or Swiss French) teenagers. It made for a rather unenjoyable train ride due to their drinking, yelling and general obnoxious behavior.

Eventually we arrived in Munich! The train station was full of what we would be surrounded by all weekend, beer, pretzels, chocolate, souvenirs, bread and other carb-filled goodies! And thus we started our quest to find our camp site. When we arrived we staked our claim on a spot to call home the next two nights. We were surrounded by tents, RV's caravans and other people there to party! We set up camp in the beautiful warm weather and then headed to the festival!

We were told to just "follow the crowd" and then we discovered why. There are millions of people at Oktoberfest, enough to have a constant mob going to and from the festival grounds. We were just in our jeans and T-shirts but that seemed out of place. Most people donned the traditional German lederhosen and dirndls. After purchasing our first Bratwurst we checked out the rides and got into the festive mood! No dark clouds looming in the distance could ruin our high spirits!

Unfortunately, a positive outlook does not an umbrella make and the rain and cold settled in on Oktoberfest... and us. A few of us got ponchos but others sported their wet clothes proudly. Eventually, we did go back to our tents to join in the festivities there.

After a long, cold wet night, we woke up early and landed a spot in line for one of the famous beer tents! We were there by 8:30 and got a seat and beer by 9:30. I must say that first thing in the morning I was not feeling like a beer but eventually the peer pressure and general joviality encouraged us all to enjoy a beer or two. We met some wonderful new friends and had a fantastic time singing, dancing, walking on tables or benches and taking pictures!

The next day we checked out of our campsite and went into Munich to see some of the actual city. We found a cozy cafe (aka McDonald's) and had a delicious breakfast. Then we went to see some of the sites thankful that the rain had stopped. Tired and Sick we finally got on our train back home. 5 best friends, 4 new Facebook friends, 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 2 train changes and 1 Nicolas Sparks book later we were back in Geneva. The experiences and memories that we were all so fortunate to have discovered will last a lifetime!

For a video of our adventure click HERE. Chelsie was so kind to put our experience on youtube!

- B

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