Basically everyone in the city begins drinking at the crack of dawn and is passed out by sunset. The man I met at Starbucks gave me a big hug and said "ah American girl welcome to Germany" and was smelling of beer at 9 am. Everyone is super nice but im not sure if it was just because they were all drunk or were just really nice haha. I only had 2 beers a day because they were beyond huge and had a much higher alcohol content which we were warned of several times on the way to Munich. Some people stood up and got the entire tent (hundreds of people) cheering for them as they chugged. I do not know how these people were standing at the end of the day. Needless to say I was not one of those people haha. I took my time and still passed out in bed by 9 pm Friday and Saturday night.
So far in Europe I have had great experiences with hostels. It was me and one of my other roommates Jill and then we were put with what we thought would be 6 random people, but it turned out we luckily knew them from Florence. But when we got back from our first day at the festival we had a knock on our door. I opened the door assuming it was one of our roomies and this girl came running in and asked to use the bathroom, so of course I let her, being drunk and knowing how she felt haha. Anyways she then thanked me and told me someone had been using her bathroom and she didn't feel good and passed out on a bed next to me...yea.. I wasn't sure what to do with her. After we all took a nap and the girl who we decided to name "Randy" (random girl) woke up she asked where all her stuff was. The poor girl had no idea she wasn't in her room, had no shoes on, and no key to find her room. After going down to the desk with her and finding out she was our neighbor we became pretty good friends with her and learned that "Randy" had a real name and was actually from Florence also. Small world.
In addition to Randy we met several other interesting people. We hung out with a group of German guys all day Friday who were a ton of fun. And then on Saturday somehow met up with guys from Long Island who knew my friend Jacky. Again, small frigging world. What are the chances of meeting someone at Oktoberfest who lives a town over from one of my roommates?
Now lets discuss food in Germany. There is a lot of chicken, potatoes, sauerkraut, and sausages. There is also awesome bacon and cheese biscuits, Starbucks, and Burger King (yes i was drunk enough to eat fast food and am still grossed out about it). We also tried to get pizza (do not ask me why I have no idea) and after being in Florence for a month, Germany's idea of pizza was gross. The pretzels were stale and we didn't get it until we later realized that they were to dunk into the beer. I could not stomach trying one of those white sausage looking things (sorry Omi). But the beer was amazing I encourage everyone to try it once. So worth 10 Euro for a 1 liter stein.
Oktoberfest is not only a big beer fest but also a huge carnival. I'm so not a big ride person, and especially here. Some of these rides I have never ever seen before. They were crazy. But I did make it on the feris wheel and into the fun house which were both great. We rode the feris wheel with a group of about 10 Germans who were all wearing lederhosen! so great!
On Sunday we decided to go on the bike tour through Munich. Starting off the tour I was unsure how I was going to make it because I probably haven't ridden a bike since I was about 10 years old. But after a while it became a little easier. We went through a park with the Isar River which has extremely intense rapid that people surf on. In this park there was a nude section which was interesting to say the very least haha.We saw the government building which is constructed of mostly glass to symbolize a government with no secrets. We rubbed lions faces (only 3 for luck, 4 is unlucky). We walked on the golden path that locals who wanted to revolt against the Nazi's often walked on, until people began getting killed for doing so. As a sign of respect and to remember those who died their the bricks are now painted gold. We rode down the Maxamilieum avenue which is the most expensive shopping area in all of Europe. We also went to a beer garden to eat lunch where the man behind the counter was chopping roasted chickens in half pretty intensely.
On our way our tour guide told us it would be like Disneyworld for adults and it absolutely was. We had a great time, met some great people, saw some great views, and had some great beer! Prost! (this means cheers and was sung allll dayyyy longggg, along with New York, New York, Bevo Bevo an Italian song). We ended the trip by driving home through the Alps an sunset. It was so beautiful.
