OKTOBERFEST-Carlyn

Oktoberfest

The most common piece of advice imparted on me by my study abroad predecessors was “GO TO OKTOBERFEST!” Not only was I excited to finally experience what I viewed as a study abroad right of passage, but also for a weekend with all of Vandy in one European location… (this simply implies epicness). After a glass of wine on the plane (gotta love Lufthansa) and a seemingly never ending journey to Munich we finally arrived at the tents.

 To be perfectly honest I was expecting Oktoberfest to be much like the Beer Garden at the Standard Hotel in New York only on a much larger scale. Which was why I was completely blown away when I entered the grounds and saw that what appeared to be cross between a frat party and Disney World. Not only was I surprised by the mere size of the place but the fact that it was quite a family affair.  

We decided not to go crazy Friday night as most of our group, who had been drinking since 12, had left to rest up for our 7:30 am wake up the next morning. After dealing with our sleeping arrangements and getting a much needed drink we hit the rides! After a nice Ferris Wheel warm up, we stopped for a drink break (it was Oktoberfest after all) and once we sufficiently liquored McCallen up convinced her to ride something other than the thrilling and extremely daring giant slide. After our two rides, we sufficiently worked up an appetite and Betsy and I stopped for some extremely juicy corn on the cob. Although it was only 10 pm and the tents did not close till 11pm we decided to head back so that we would be well prepared for Saturday’s festivities.

Saturday

I did not know what I was expecting my Oktoberfest experience to be …not going to lie I was a bit skeptical that my gluten-free Oktoberfest was going to be quite as raging as my partners beer-guzzling Betsy! However, after discovering that I could order wine in the tents, and I’m not just a meek glass either,

Therefore, despite the pressure from Betsy for this to be an “epic post” I must say that in the case of Oktoberfest a picture is really worth a thousand words… especially when there really are no words… that you can remember…. Thus, all I can really say about Saturday is that we drank a lot of beer and wine, met some friends some old, some new, went on some rides, and Oktoberfeasted (they had awesome corn on the cob and chocolate covered everything)

Sunday

            After Saturday we were in need of a detox day. Therefore, Sunday was our dedicated “cultural” day. We aggressively woke up and checked out of the hotel by 8:30am excited to see something other than the inside of a tent. We headed over to Marienplatz, the main plaza in the city center of Munich. Unfortunately our “Sunday Funday” was foiled by store hours—you think we would have thought of that before we decided to wake up at 8 am.  Despite the stores being closed we still enjoyed the beautiful gothic architecture and red flowers. We also visited the Mariensäule (Mary's column) church, which was incredible, but unfortunately we could only peak inside because they were conducting Sunday morning services. We decided to head to the airport all together and be early for once (yay finally getting the hang of traveling by ourselves)!