Oktoberfest!

September 21-23

The good news: I went to Munich this weekend and it was awesome!

The bad news: I probably have lung cancer now from all the second-hand smoke I inhaled.


Munich was AWESOME. I had kind of forgotten what a real city was like, after living here for a month and having Heidenheim be "the big city", but Munich restored my faith in Germany. The city was great, the people were great, the public transportation was great (sidenote: all of the public transport was honor system. Like, "You better buy a ticket and validate otherwise there's a very small chance you'll be caught and have to pay a fine." I mean, come on.). I met up with two other aupairs, Meagan and Nadine, and we went to a pub crawl on Friday night (don't worry, I didn't drink). I was a little worried, but it ended up being a lot of fun, especially for me since I got to laugh at all the drunk people. Everyone was English-speaking (finally!!! I have missed speaking English to people who speak it back to me); actually, most of them were Australian. We went to a bunch of pubs and a few clubs, which was a great way to see Munich, actually. I even got a free Coke out of it!

Fri. night I stayed with Meagan. We got back around 3 AM and woke up around 8 AM, courtesy of her family's children. We headed into the city to see Oktoberfest. It was insanely crowded. I don't think I've ever been at anything that crowded before. It was pretty awesome though, being there on the first day, seeing all the people in their lederhosen and dirndls drinking tons of beer. The actual Oktoberfest was a letdown though--for all you USC people, picture the SC State Fair with beer tents. We stayed long enough to get separated (ha!) and for me to eat a crepe (delicious). After that we walked around Marienplatz for a little bit, saw the Old Rathaus and the New Rathaus as well as the Glockenspiel, then I climbed the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady) tower. Later we went to Schloss Nymphenberg and then to the Olympic Stadium (let me reiterate the wonderfulness of the public transportation!). Then we ate dinner in the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and went home. After getting only 3-4 hours of sleep the night before, we were more than ready to crash.

This morning we got up semi early and went back downtown, this time for the Oktoberfest parade, which was so cool! We went to Karlsplatz to watch, which was of cousre packed. I was able to find a spot where there weren't too many people in front of me so I could take a ton of pictues. The whole parade was bands from cities in Germany marching, as well as horse-drawn carriages carrying kegs of beer. And of course all the participants (as well as most of the people watching) were dressed in dirndls and lederhosen.

Okay, now let's go back in time to last week. I didn't do too much, but a few interesting things happened. First off, I bought a BahnCard 50, which saves me 50% on every train ticket I buy for travel in Germany! Plus I was able to get the student rate, so I got it 50% off, saving me 106€. The bad thing was, I had to have a picture for it. There was a little photo booth in the train station so I ran over there to take a picture, which was all well and good--except it is without a doubt THE WORST picture ever taken of me (honestly, it is HORRIBLE). But that freakin' photo cost 5€, so there was no way I was retaking it. I was almost embarrassed handing it over.

The second thing that happened, on the same trip into Heidenheim: I had some time to kill since the buses come, like, every 2 hours (yeah, the pub. trans. in Hdh does not rock as hard as Munich's), so I went into Mueller, which is kind of like Target without the clothes or food. I was browsing through the music section, and then I noticed that all the rap, R&B, and hip-hop music was grouped together into one section labelled "Blackmusic." Now, not many things have made me stop and stare here, including the rattails and mullets--but this was just crazy. All I can say is, thank goodness no Americans ever go to Hdh, otherwise they'd all go home talking about how racist the Germans are.

(Sidenote #2: I have seen about 10 black people since I've been here. Where are they all hiding??)

OK, I don't want to end on a bad note about Germany, so I'll talk a little bit more about how Munich rocks! If ever there was a place in Germany that I could see myself living forever, it's Munich. There are a ton of people and they all speak German, but there's a huge English-speaking community too. If only Jonathan didn't have to live in the U.S. for his job--darn those airlines! I'll just have to try harder to convince him to work for Lufthansa!