Munich Germany

When you book tickets to Munich for Oktoberfest it should come with a cautionary notice that looks a little something like this:

CAUTION- you will drink a lot of beer, you will be really tired, you cannot speak German, it is all worth it.

Germany was a grand ole time I must say. Now before you start to think all we did was go to Oktoberfest and drink beer, we did do a day of museums and sight seeing. But first, the party.

Honestly the hardest part about the weekend was that we couldn’t speak a lick of German other than nein or no (and we thought the Spanish language barrier was hard). The second we stepped off of the train from the airport, we saw men and women in lederhosen and drindles everywhere. We soon realized these were all tourists for Oktoberfest and no one really wears them anymore. Some of our crew did however drop the cash to get the German attire but I personally thought I’d save my money (they looked super cute though!) After some schnitzel, we dropped off our bags and headed to the fest. Not really sure what we were getting ourselves into, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived. The grounds were huge but somehow we accidentally ran into friends quite often. Not only were there ginormous tents full of tables and tables and tables of people and Steins of beer, there were also rides, carnival games and lots of food! We chose a random outdoor beer garden and ordered our first Stein of Munich Beer. Delicious. We ran into some of our guy friends and started the birthday celebrations, Mike was turning 21!!! We didn’t find any birthday cake but we did eat a lot of pretzels.

                              

Day two was full of more fun and beer. We got up surprisingly early to get in line for the big beer tent, Hofbrauhaus. It was a mad dash for a table, and we set up shop for a while with three tables full of SLU friends!!! The atmosphere was like everyone was there for a good time; german music was played by a live band, everyone around was happy and the word ‘Prost’ (Cheers!) was constant. We mingled with the people around us and had a jolly good time. We meandered around the fair grounds in the afternoon seeing the craziness of it all. We took a break for dinner at a German version of chipotle (I think it was better shhh). Then we headed back at night to try a new beer garden to end the Oktobeerfest activities. 

We spent the last day in Munich seeing the rest of the city. Our first top was at Dachau Concentration Camp. As chilling as it was, it was extremely interesting and I learned a lot while we were there. Our tour guide was excellent and gave us more information that if we had just gone on our own. A reminder of the scary past, but a place preserved as a warning for the future. After our tour we decided to get some traditional German food at the 5 floor high Hofbrauhaus Restaurant. More live german music but my favorite part, a whole roast chicken. We then explored the streets and saw the famous Marienplatz which at 11 o’clock everyday has mechanic marionettes that perform and sing on the outside of the building. The trip ended with a walk through a park and we even got to see the surfers in action. Yes, there was a river through the park that hits a dam and creates a constant, perfect, 50 foot wide wave for surfers to go through. We watched for a very long time as they did their tricks on the river. Then it was time to head home back to Madrid.