Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit! Bevo! Bevo! Oktoberfest!

Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der Gemutlichkeit.
Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der Gemutlichkeit.

Eins, zwei, drei g'suffa!
Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke!
Hoi, hoi, hoi!

The four of us when we arrived at the campsite

 Guten tag! Ciao a tutti! This weekend we went to Oktoberfest, the largest European festival of the year in Munich (München), Germany. Naeemah, Amanda, Mackenzie and I all bought a bus2alps all inclusive package and went together. We rode on one of their private buses. The trip was 12 hours long. It was a long ride, but the views of the sunrise over the mountains in Germany were gorgeous. I never realized how many mountains were in Germany, and just how green it is in comparison to Rome. We stayed in the Stoke campsite, which is run by Stoke Travel. The second we walked into the campsite at 9am we were handed beer or sangria to quench our thirst while in line to check-in. We all bought the package the campsite had for unlimited beer and sangria for the entire weekend for only fifteen euro. Both the beer and the sangria were delicious. Mackenzie was given a "bull bite," which is a mixture of the two, and even that tasted good. Each row was organized by letters, which were all named. Ours was O for "orgasm," so the Australians who ran the campsite obviously had quite the sense of humor. We had two tents, each for two of us, and they barely fit two people inside them. Its all part of the Oktoberfest experience, even if I really don't enjoy camping.

Entrance to Oktoberfest

Naeemah and I decided to walk around and take in the festival before going in any tents. There isn't a lot going on outside the festival; most of the important parts of the city of Munich are a few metro stops past the festival. We got off at the Hackerbrücke stop where the festival was occurring. The festival is considered to be in "Theresienwiese." We did see a beautiful Gothic cathedral literally right down the street from the festival. It was called St. Paul's Kirche (church), and it could be seen from inside the festival. I found it amusing looking up and seeing spinning carnival rides with a couple hundred year old cathedral in the background.

The festival itself is a sight to behold. The tents are all huge, and they seriously question a person's traditional definition of "tent." They all hold thousands of people, and most have biergartens outside to hold even more people. We walked around, and both got Bavarian pretzels. They also taste amazing, and you realize just how bland American soft pretzels really are. You can eat these without any mustard or anything, and they taste even better with beer (though I may be biased, as apparently my general dislike of mustard is strange). They also have carnival rides right next to all of the beer tents that young and old all enjoy together. There are also a lot more families at Oktoberfest than you would expect to see, but I suppose its because alcohol isn't as "forbidden" in Germany as it is in the United States. A lot of the children were even wearing lederhosen and drindl, which are traditional Bavarian clothing worn at Oktoberfest. Most of the women, of all shapes and sizes, wear drindl. They had so many styles and colors, and I would have bought myself some had they not been so expensive. Maybe next time.

At the Hippodrom biergarten

Later on Friday, we tried to get into a beer tent with Mackenzie and Amanda. The tents were pretty crowded by then, but we managed to make our way in to the Hippodrom beer tent toward the entrance. It looked like a large circus tent, and we found seats in its biergarten. We were sitting at a table with some Germans. The Germans at our table were very friendly and fun, and it was really interesting talking to people who live in other countries. One of them brought fake mustache, as they are "always a hit." This turned out to be true, as the four of us and other Germans (waiters and visitors alike) stopped at our table and took pictures with mustaches with us for the majority of the night. We had three rounds of beer, which turned out to be some of the best beer I've ever had. It was called Spaten-Franziskaner, which is the speciality of the Hippodrom tent. It was a lighter beer, and it had a great taste. I will have to try to find it at home. Our tablemates also bought us a round of beer and roses. The steins of beer are steep in price and size. They're about 9-10 euro, but they're about 3-4 American beers, so its worth your money. The steins are pretty cool to hold and drink out of. It turns out that in most German bars and clubs that this is what they drink out of, so I guess Americans just aren't as cool when it comes to drinking beer. We discovered that Europeans all really know how to party, and they all were accommodating. We realized that they didn't buy rounds of beers for just girls as you would in America. They are just accommodating in general, and would buy beers and food for any group of people if they were all having fun together.

Beer stein + mustache = a good night.

The night in general was great. Mackenzie and I did end up getting lost on the metro and going the wrong way twice in a row, but the amount of beer we had may have had something to do with that. We did get directions from some nice people on the metro, so we did find our way eventually. Friday night at the campsite was absolutely freezing. Germany is at least ten degrees cooler (Fahrenheit, will probably never get used to Celsius) than Rome, and all we had were thin sleeping bags. It was definitely an experience, especially since our complementary shower tokens only allowed us five minutes of hot water. Wah, more realizations of how good we have it in America.

On Saturday, we decided to go to the Hofbräuzelt beer tent. We all woke up around 5:45am to be able to get there around 7:30am. They opened the doors at 9am, so we were waiting in a very long line for at least an hour. Its crazy to me how many people will get up to be able to get into a tent, but Oktoberfest is a huge deal to most Europeans, especially Germans. This tent had a variety of nationalities, mostly German, Italian, American, and Australian. We only stayed for an hour or so initially. We had a round of beer, and I had a tasty sandwich with bavarian ham. It was good and tasted a lot like Lebanon bologna. The beer they served here was called Hofbräu, and I personally didn't like the taste as much. It was German beer though, so it was still good. Mackenzie and I decided to browse around a bit, and look around at the merchandise. We ended up buying beer steins, though I was tempted by the Das Boot shotglasses/glasses they had. They have some really nice metal and ceramic beer steins, but most are the better part of $100. I'll stick with glass for now. We met up again with Naeemah and Amanda who had met up with a group of Italians. They kept singing "Bevo! Bevo! Bevo!" which is an Italian translation of one of the popular German drinking songs. It was very catchy. We explored the carnival rides as well, and got a lovely view of the entire festival and the surrounding city. We also tried bratwurst, which was basically a very very tasty hot dog, and about three times as long as an American hot dog. Being able to eat German food was definitely a nice change from eating pasta all the time, and it was really enlightening to see how German culture and food differs from Italian.

Germans love the Spice Girls

Our last stop for the night was the Armbrustschützenzelt beer tent. We had to wait a little while, but it didn't take us too long to get in. We were talking to an Italian and a German. We were trying to explain American football to them, but I don't think we made much of an impression. I was enjoying practicing my (very broken) Italian with the Italian guy though, as he only knew some English. It turns out him and his friends were from Venice, and I was proud of myself when I was able to tell him in Italian that we'd be visiting Venice in a month or so for school.
Once we finally got in, we were sitting in the biergarten here as well. Some random guy bought all of our beers for us, and I still can't remember who it was. The generosity still amazes me, and I don't think it was only because we were American girls. We had fun just having friendly conversation with the people sitting around us. Everyone at Oktoberfest was pretty friendly, or at least fun-loving and drunk. The beer they served at this tent was the Paulaner, which was also very good. We met a group of Germans (all wearing lederhosen, so they were pretty awesome in my opinion) who all loved singing Spice Girls. It still amazes me how much Europeans love American music, but this fact really surprised me. He knew all of the words and tunes to their major songs. It was absolutely hilarious. All the Germans just wanted to have a good time, and they all really enjoy their beer. I think Americans should definitely take a lesson out of their book.
I also ordered a plate of the chicken at this beer tent. I don't really even like chicken very much, but this chicken was delicious. It was basically half of a chicken, but it was salted and seasoned just right. The Paulaner beer went very well with Bavarian food. What I really enjoyed about Oktoberfest in general is that the people there were drinking a lot, but they were still enjoying themselves. They weren't drinking only for the sole purpose of being drunk.

Main plaza of Marienplatz

On Sunday, we had to leave in the early afternoon, so Mackenzie and I decided to go to Marienplatz to see the Munich City Center and look through some of the local shops. It turned out that mostly everything was closed because it was Sunday, but it was still nice to see some of Munich other than just the festival. In the main plaza, there was a gorgeous building that housed a restaurant and some shops. It looked somewhat Gothic or Medieval in architecture, and it looked like it had once been a church. Munich's architecture and city structure in general is very clean and simple, and very much not like Rome. Rome has a lot of ruins, and many of its walls and buildings are worn. Munich's buildings are all much newer and are more cohesive. I don't know if there is a city I like more, but I love thinking about the contrast between the two. It is really refreshing to be able to visit other places outside of Italy while we're here. It helps to put Italy's culture and tradition into perspective.


Mackenzie and I stopped at a local Starbucks. The chocolate mocha and chocolate muffin tasted delicious, even fresher and tastier than a Starbucks coffee would in the United States. They also served our coffees in mugs and we sat at tables with sofas and armchairs. It was a much more formal setting than most Starbucks in America. I found it very interesting that a chain franchise even differs in different countries.

Vineyards outside the window of the bus

The ride home was a long one, but the views on the way home were absolutely breath-taking. We think we drove through Austria in between Germany and Italy. We were able to see the Alps and all of the towns that have been nestled into the mountainside. We also saw several churches and castles, which I would have loved to hop out of the bus to see. It is amazing to see how much of Europe is left untouched, and how much of it still looks natural. We also saw several miles of vineyards through Austria and Italy as well. Seeing the mountains and all of the towns was just majestic, and it can't even be expressed in pictures. The scale is something you have to experience in person. That is why I'd really love to visit the Alps again sometime while I'm here. Hopefully I am able to.


Now we are back in Rome for our third week of classes. Last week we visited the Via Salaria, which was an old salt route in Rome. We were also able to see some of the remaining ruins of the old aqueducts, including a still functioning portion that feeds the Trevi fountain. Its fascinating seeing something that has lasted and functioned for so long. Tomorrow we are visiting the St. Clemente church near the Colosseum, and this week we are also visiting Ostia Antica, which is Rome's original port. It all should be nice to see, and it will be nice to see more of Rome for a weekend. In the next weekend or so, we may be trying to go to Southern France, so hopefully we will be able to do that.
Well, that is all I have for now. A presto, as I leave you with a picture of my first (and definitely not my last) Italian cappuccino. I never liked coffee much, but as usual, the espresso and cappuccino here tastes much different and sweeter than it does at home.