Our whirlwind of a weekend started Friday morning at 8 am, meeting at the bus stop in Alcala to take a series of buses to the airport in Madrid. A little tired and a little homesick that morning, wishing Ty could have been coming with me, I was very excited but slightly hesitant at the same time. Once we got to the airport and I woke up a little, my mood started to change and as we were waiting to board the plane I was so antsy to just get going! Unfortunately, the website we booked our flights through, apparently never booked Kelly-Ann's flights, even though they took her money...So, we spent a few hours at the airport trying to get her on flights last minute with us. After some nasty phone calls to the agency and some nice receptionists, she was able to get on our flight with us WOOHOO. Quick sidenote- do not EVER use edreams.com to book ANY trip, ever. This was quite the learning experience for us all - we have all called the airlines for our trip to Rome this weekend to confirm that we all have seats, gotta love Europe! Finally, at noon, together, we all boarded the plane! What made it even more exciting was that to board the plane, we got shuttled from the gate to the actual plane and got to board the plane outside, walking up the steps! This is something I've always wanted to do but never had so I was quite touristy making Rosie take pictures of me going up the steps!
After a standard, easy flight, we arrived in Munich around 2:30 on Friday! Then, we encountered the most interesting part of our trip. After taking a series of metro's around Munich and getting lost more than once in a city where we dont speak the language, we managed to find our "hostel." Normally, hostels in Europe are fairly nice and clean and WARM, however, when we arrived at our wooden, tent of a hostel, we were all appalled that an establishment as such was legal. However, we sucked it up, realizing we werent in America anymore and stayed in the hostel for the weekend, almost freezing to death every night and only showering once! Again, love europe!
Friday night, we went into the center of Munich and had a perfect dinner and AMAZING beers at a little pub. Most of us got steak, baked potatoes, salad and bread for our meals - obviously one of my favorites thus far and the FIRST baked potato I've had since being in Europe, quite a devastating fact. We all order these tall, half-liter wheat beers the were phenomenal! Brewed in house, they were absolutely delicious and did not even taste like beer, more like a dessert, a luxury we will only be able to find in Germany :( What a pity. Afterwards, Sean took us to the Hofbrauhaus!!!!!! This was quite the experience! We had to wait in a small line, but once we got inside we went upstairs to the main room and when we walked in it was a picture right out of Beerfest - there were long tables from corner to corner or the room with Beermaids delivering liters after liters of beer to drunk Germans, while an authentic German folk group provided the entertainment. It was insanity. We found a table in the back which was a little less noisy and had ourselves each a beer (well, liter) and chatted for a while. We went back to the hostel afterwards to get some rest for the long day we had ahead of us on Saturday.
Saturday, we woke up bright and early (7 am) to make our way to the Ofest tents by 8 to get our drink on. We got there just in time and made our way to the Hofbrauhaus tent! Inside, it was an image straight out of a story book - everything about Germany was really. There were wreaths and decorations everywhere and the place was PACKED. We found our own table and sat down, impatiently waiting for our first beers and taking in all the scenery. We were all very excited to have finally made it to Oktoberfest! We had been waiting months to go there and it was surreal to finally be there, in the most popular tent, at the biggest drinking fest in the whole WORLD. It was hard to catch my breath at some points - Ty and Dad, you both would have DIED, we have to go back one day.
We spent a few hours sitting at the table having a couple liters each and some large pretzels then made our way to the tables outside when we were kicked out of the table inside (because it was reserved - whoops) by some policemen whom too closely resembled the Gestapo... Later in the day, we met up a lot of other Hounds which was LOVELY. It was so good to see everyone and have some familiarity for once this semester! We left the tent at some point in the after noon and went and got some schnitzel (hotdogs!!!) and they were PERFECT. They were footlongs and were served on some type of gourmet french bread, I have no idea but it was deeeeeeelicious. Afterwards, we walked around and did a little gift shopping, then some of us went back to the hostel to rest for a little. Around 8 we got up, went back to center city and found a nice little Italian place to have some pizzas and caprese salad which was pretty good but didnt sit well with all the beer in my belly, oh well. After a long day, we briefly went to another little pub for a beer then get a few more gifts and headed back to the hostel for the night. Our flight the next day was at 1135, sooo we had to LEAVE the hostel by 7, horrible idea. We got to sleep in the airport for a while which was nice but unfortunately, after our quick and crazy weekend, I brought back with me more than some gifts, mugs and steins - a nasty little cold. Oh well, it was well worth it! Now, during the European terrorism travel warning (great) we are waiting to go to Rome next Saturday-Tuesday! I am very excited but also VERY nervous now... I am sure everything will be fine though! We start some new classes this week which will be cool I guess. Thats all for now, talk to you after Rome!! XOXO 78tjp
