📍Munich, Germany 🇩🇪

Oktoberfest: Very young, very party!
Munich: Very rainy.

Day 1: We flew to Berlin to meet Elizabeth, aka Eliza, who was traveling to Europe for her first time. We landed late and went to a small outdoor market to walk around, and then went to a Hofbrauhaus to practice for Oktoberfest.

Day 2: We took a 6 hour train to Munich and met up with Erin and Pronio who had just arrived in town.

We had rented our outfits for Oktoberfest and had to pick them up by 6 pm. New to the city, we were still trying to get our bearings and at 5:30 pm we realized we had a 30 minute train ride to make it to the rental place. We quickly hopped on the train and arrived at 5:58 pm…close call! 😅 We tried on our outfits (and learned the proper way to put them on) and then went to dinner at Augustiner Brau Mündhen.

This is a good time to mention there was a total of 10 of us and we did not all travel from the States together. Sarah was traveling with Jesus, and it was her first time visiting Europe too. This is important because this is the text I received while at dinner. Nice first European cab ride. 😯 (Mel and Ken, your baby is safe, I promise.)

Once everyone made it safely (for the record, Sarah and Jesus not only made it safe but are now best friends with their taxi driver) and were all checked into the hotel (Wunderlocke), we went down to the lobby for a welcome drink. The lobby was a bit quiet for a Friday night so we found a local bar down the street. Harry’s…get ready to see this name a lot in this blog, like a LOT.

Since we had to wake up early for Oktoberfest, most of us went back to the hotel to properly prepare ourselves for the copious amounts of beer we were going to consume the next day. Healthy.

Day 2: Oktoberfest. 🍻 I am actually very unsure how to even put this day into words, but I’ll try with the few brain cells remaining from this day.

1. Beer
2. More beer
3. Beer bitte (German for please)
4. Is that a guy wearing a blonde wig with braids?
5. Turkey hats
6. Drunk
7. FUN! A lot of fun!

The day started with what we deemed to be a life saving breakfast at the hotel. After we ate most of the carbs in Munich and got our outfits on, we took the train from the hotel to the grounds where the festival was held. We got to our tent, Schottenhamel Spatenbräu, right at 11 am because God forbid we miss a minute of available beer. We were immediately blessed with a meat plate the size of the table and 10 fat steins. 🍺 And then another beer, and another, and that my friends is called Oktoberfest. I looked around and somehow all 10 of us were drunk. I was slightly disappointed that my JMU career did not prepare me properly and then I realized one stein is equal to 2.75 beers, so my performance was outstanding. Parents, I hope you are proud my tuition is being put to very good use.

*Just a quick side note and perhaps an explanation on the lack of sobriety (other than beer). Our tent ticket came with food for each person. Now, they say to never throw your friends under a bus, but SARAH BAGE went around and ate the chicken legs off of EVERY plate on our table, so many of us did not eat enough. RIP to my 🍗.

Anyway, back to the happy parts of the day. Our table was next to a bachelor party. Imagine a Vegas bachelor party, now just add a British accent and add a wig with blonde pigtail braids and a red dress on the groom. Perfection. Clearly we became bffs.

There was also a group of 10 guys each with turkey hats. Also perfection. Also bffs.

Sadly, our tent time came to an end so we left to explore the festival. For Oktoberfest, you need to book a table months in advance. We booked one, but by the time we booked in June, the rest of the tables were unavailable. I truly cannot explain the next series of events because we truly hit the Oktoberfest lottery. We attempted to grab a beer (because that was what we really needed) at another tent and one of the guys working there approached one of the guys in our group. He asked how many people we had and told us to follow him. We followed and were brought to a table in the middle of the tent that was completely empty (for free). We spent the rest of the day/night singing, dancing on tables, and of course, drinking more beer. I can confidently tell you I am done with beer until my next Oktoberfest.

We left the tent at 10 pm (yes, after starting at 11 am) and walked around the carnival inside the festival. After 11 hours of beer, Eliza, Sarah, and I decided to go on a spinning, upside ride. Why you ask? I am VERY unsure but none of us puked so all is well.

We got home and as I was getting ready for bed, I heard my phone buzz. It was a text that read “Harry’s?” At this moment, I concluded my friends are crazy and up for sale if anyone wants them. Anyway, while a group of my friends went back to Harry’s, J & Eliza went down to the lobby for drinks. Jesus and I wholesomely put ourselves where we belonged. BED. The Harry’s group met some nice Scottish guys, J & Eliza met a German TV show host, and I had a lovely night sleep.

Day 3: When J & I were traveling in Peru, we met a really cool German girl who we kept in touch with. We were close to where she lived so she and her boyfriend kindly picked us up and we went to breakfast at Cafe Haidhausen. I had an authentic Munich sausage which, I must say, didn’t look so good but tasted very good.

We wanted to see the city but the rain had other plans for us. Since the weather was acting up, we decided to go see the BMW museum, which was cool, but rather aggressive for the day after Oktoberfest.

We then went to dinner in the center of downtown, which took about 3 hours. At this point I was very tired and ready for bed, so Jesus and I left the group to sleep and the rest had themselves yet another night…ending at Harry’s. Again.

Day 4: Rain. A lot of rain. We tried being tourist and seeing all of the amazing places our friends told us to go, but it was raining so hard you couldn’t see in front of you. We had taken the train to the English Gardens, walked about 5 minutes in the pouring rain, realized we had no visibility, and so ended up in a bar. I didn’t last long and had a very early night. My friends went to…HARRY’S. Yes. You read that right. AGAIN.

Outtakes 😂

Cheers to no more beer,
AK & J