Oktoberfest!!!

Wow! I don't even know how to begin writing about my trip to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest.  It is a 2 to 3 week festival that has been running since 1810, and the festival draws millions and millions of people every year.  The majority of Oktoberfest-goers are from Bavaria, but there are definitely a good amount from other countries.  There was an especially solid showing from Vanderbilt; all of the study abroad Europe kids met at the festival and we had the time of our lives! Before we even left Barcelona, the friends I was traveling with and I decided to kick things off right with a round of beers at the bus station.  We continued to prep ourselves for beerfest by having some road beers, or sky beers, on the flight...

We thought we were pretty cool having our beers en route to the festival, but we had no idea the kind of beer we would soon be encountering the next day.


After taking a bus, a plane, and another bus to get to Munich and then wandering around to our hostel, we tried to go out on the town in search of something to do, but only ended up grabbing a few slices of pizza and befriending drunken, lederhosen-wearing people who were roaming around after a long day of Oktoberfest.  We hit the hay not too long after so we could be ready to go early in the morning and beat the long lines.  Cole made us wake up super early, we ate breakfast at the hostel to fuel up before the adventure, and we were on our way... I have to admit I was already feeling pretty high off of adrenaline and excitement to see what the festival would be like.  Taylor, Cole, Lauren and I set off around 7:00 AM to line up at the Hofbrau tent and the amount of people already there was astounding.  After we entered the park, before even getting to the tent where the other Vandy people would be, we saw so many huge rides and thousands of food and game carts...Disney World but funnier, costume-y, and with tons of beer!

 Kennywood's big swings except 600 times bigger

Charles, it's the real Hofbrau House! And soon I can go to the Pittsburgh one with you!

(inside the tent, view from one of our tables)

Vanderbilt friends

Shown: size off bierstein relative to my body

Once we were finally inside and situated at a few tables with Vanderbilt people, we awaited the beer waitresses' entrance.  The crowds went wild once they started coming out with huge rounds of huge steins of beer.  I was warned that this beer was higher in alcohol content, and that one mug had about 3 regular sized beers in it, so I was pretty sure I would have to pace myself.  I was so excited to see some of my great friends, who are studying in other countries, that I have been missing and everyone started to reminisce and drink their beers.  Before long, you could say we were feeling pretty happy as probably 75,000 people (only in our tent, but there were many more on site) were chanting, singing different songs, and meeting each other.  Whenever one brave soul in the HB tent decided to try to chug an entire stein, the whole tent stood up and watched to see if he/she could do it...if the person couldn't then everyone booed, if the person could...the crowd went wild! I couldn't have chugged one of those monsters if my life depended on it, but Tess and I got some pretty good shots of us pretending we were hard core...

Prost!

I drank beer, believe it!

Some of my friends, like Evan here, bought hilarious German hats...

View from top level of tent. So many people.

 Lederhosens on Alex and Lauren's adventure to the toilet!

 Biggest soft pretzels you'll ever see, Dad you would've loved them...and bratwurst (ew)

 This is how every German person dresses, it was so entertaining. I almost bought a dress.

They sell cookie cake necklaces that people wear, who knows why?

More Bavarian-clad natives

That guy had one too many...

These are the ridiculous kind of people we saw walking around.

After a long and enjoyable day, we needed to nap before we went out to get dinner with one of our best friends studying in Italy, so Taylor, Lauren and I headed back to the hostel.  Seeing everyone in the streets trying to stay awake and continuing to party on was very impressive, but the nap we finally got was much needed.

The day, in all, was one that I will never forget for the rest of my life.  I wish I could repeat it, but I'm not sure I'd be able to handle it all! I highly recommend going to Oktoberfest to ANYONE, it's a must.

This final picture shows how long and crazy German street names are, the language is crazy! I think I'll stick to Spanish...

Josepspitalstreet? Out to dinner after the festivities.