Originally, I was going to go with my friend Erin who I know back at Tech from club field hockey and is studying in Dusseldorf this semester. However, that eventually fell through due to complications but it just so happened that my housemate, Andrea was also planning on going so I decided to just go with her and her friends.
We flew into Frankfurt Hahn, which is pretty much solely a Ryan Air airport. Don't be fooled by the title though, that airport is TWO HOURS outside of Frankfurt. That didn't matter though
because we rented a car at the airport and drove to Munich that evening. There were 5 of us in the car: me, Andrea, her friends Victor and Tatiana, who are both from Colombia as well and are studying in Montpellier, and Tatiana's boyfriend. It was a pretty drive through the German countryside, but it was kind of a long drive. The only downside was that I was the only non-Colombian, meaning the only non-Spanish speaker. Although I do know minimal Spanish and they helped me improve a bit.We drove into Munich that night and headed straight to Oktoberfest. Although it was about 10 pm and the grounds were starting to shut down, there were still a good amount of people out and we ended up sitting at an outside beer garden and ordered steins. We stayed there for about an hour and a half and had fun chatting with a group of Italians-- although they were starting to get a bit
rowdy. I might as well have not even bothered taking a year of Italian because I couldn't remember anything. But they spoke broken English so we managed to communicate.The importance of "Bro."
As we were exiting the grounds to head back towards the car, my trained ears registered a word that I hadn't heard in a couple months. As soon as the word "bro" was uttered, more like shouted, I shouted it right back at them. Of course they were American. No other country uses such a term. Both parties stopped to look at each other from a distance, and I shout "I'M AMERICAN!" They got really excited and rushed back over and each of us were like what are YOU doing here? They were from Philadelphia, I think, and were here for a pre-wedding trip or something. Seeing as my friends hadn't stopped to wait for me because they didn't understand the importance of bro, I told them I had to go but we made a plan to meet at the swings the next night at 8.
Afterwards, we met up with a bunch of Andrea's friends who were also in Munich for the weekend and we headed to a night club.Because we had only planned the trip that week, we didn't have anywhere to stay, per se. All the hotels and hostels were all booked or extremely expensive. Although there was a camping ground that a lot of people stayed at, we didn't really look into that. So we just parked the car at the train station and I managed to get a couple hours' sleep. It felt like a true backpacker's experience, or maybe a homeless one.
Crazy Italians
That morning we hung out at the train station for a bit to get breakfast, a beer and try on traditional German garb. The traditional outfit for males is called Lederhosen and consists of suspenders with short shorts. The outfit for the girls is called Drindl and is the corsett looking thing with the long skirt. Andrea and I tried on Drindl and had a mini-photoshoot before deciding that it wasn't worth the price (80 euro) and we headed on to Oktoberfest.
There were ridiculous amounts of people there especially since it was the 200th anniversary and
it was the last weekend. So the lines to get into all the main beer halls were very long and none of the people I was with really wanted to wait in those lines. We walked around for a bit, got food, rode some rides and eventually ended up in an outdoor biergarten (I forget which tent it was at though). It was a lot of fun and we befriended Italians, Brits, and other Americans. I ended up separated from Andrea and the rest of the group because the car had gotten towed and they went to go deal with. I stayed and hung out with the other two Americans-- they were in the Army stationed in Hamburg I think.
One of them dared me that I wouldn't ride the drop zone ride, which was a huge mistake on his part. Of course I rode it and it was a lot of fun-- it dropped 3 separate times so it was better than the drop zone and King's Dominion! And then he ended up owing me a bratwurst and a beer. We headed back to the same biergarten and made friends with some Germans who then showed us around the grounds. We were going to go onto the beer carousel but then I realized it was 8 o'clock and my train to Frankfurt left at 8:50! So I quickly exited the grounds. Remember those bro guys? Yeah we never met up. They're probably still standing there under the swings waiting for me like a lost child waiting desperately for his mother. Or they completely bailed like I did.
The bier garten we were at
Hofbräuhaus tent
Bye Oktoberfest :(I never ended up meeting back up with Andrea but luckily I had brought my backpack with me to Oktoberfest so I didn't have to find the car. I also had her jacket which was lucky because it was quite cold that night. I met some other Americans who were taking the same train and we sat in a private car and I just slept the whole way. I got to the train station in Frankfurt at midnight and the next bus to the airport wasn't until 3 am so I just sat around in the McDo's for a while, exhausted. Finally, the bus for the airport left and I slept the whole way again but it was still only 5 am by the time we got to the airport and my flight wasn't until 9:40.
I sat around again for a couple hours and slept a bit, and then eventually wandered outside and saw the most amazing sunrise. The sky was completely orange with streaks of purple and blue
weaving in and out. It was hands down one of the prettiest sunrises I have ever seen. Then again, I'm often not up that early to watch the sun rise.I definitely want to go back at some point and do it again. Things I would do differently: plan better-- not the week beforehand! You have to book hotels and hostels in the summer if you want to get a decent place! I will also buy Drindl and I will make a table reservation at one of the big beer halls because that's where most of the action took place. I still had a lot of fun this time around, all in all it was a fun weekend.
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