A taste of beer and a taste of home.

Only three short days after my skydiving adventure, it was time for Germany! Yes, I can now check Oktoberfest off of my long list of hopeful life accomplishments. We took an overnight train on Thursday in order to arrive in Munich bright and early Friday morning. Yawn. After our bakery visit number 1 (yes we went all three mornings because it was so delicious), we ventured to Oktoberfest! I was excited to finally be hanging out with some people I have missed an EXTREME amount since I have been away. Kacie and Taylor, my Barcelona buddies, sucked up the cold weather in Germany and drank some liters of beer to warm up. Christine and Madeleine bussed from Florence and I almost forgot how much I missed “Weenie Marie’s” hugs and kisses. Miss Alexandra Parking Meter was deeply missed and I am fortunate enough to see her TWO weekends in a row – she will be visiting my humble abode in Amsterdam this upcoming weekend. I was also lucky enough to see two other Manhasset reps – Ryann and Jaclyn. Ryann was the first person I saw as soon as I walked into the tent the first day and I spotted Jaclyn on Saturday from afar with help from her blonde hair and fast paced chatter. Loyola had a pretty good crowd there and going back to Craigsfest at school will probably seem a lot less crowded and crazy from what we experienced this weekend. Instead of getting a burger at Swallows or pizza at Yia Yia’s from Ash, I enjoyed a rotisserie chicken (as encouraged by previous Oktoberfest attendees) and possibly devoured multiple foot long hot dogs… The chicken was delicious and well worth it - the hot dogs were JUST as tasty. Colleen - - you will be in hot dog HEAVEN.



The tent I spent the most time in this weekend was called the Hofbrau tent – one of the more popular ones with lots of young people! One of the things I enjoyed most was simply lifting up my beer and saying “ayyyy” and immediately everyone surrounding you lifts their beer up, clinks mugs together and cheers. You can do it every 5 seconds and people won’t get bored of it. Another thing people don’t get bored of at Oktoberfest: singing “Heyyyyy, heyy baby, oh.. ah.. I wanna knowwwwww if you’ll be my girl!” Other popular hits were Sweet Caroline and a German anthem they played in between every song that pretty much translates to “drink beer!”



Saturday night was our last visit to the tents. We left Hofbrau around 11pm and as I was about to walk out the doors I had a realization – I’m supposed to steal a mug! Woosh – did a casual 180, used my excellent peripherals and 20-20 vision to scope out security guards and grabbed an empty mug on the table. My purse just fit the liter mug and I was able to zipper that baby closed. I strolled out of that tent like I invented beer and passed through security no problemo. My friend Taylor, on the other hand, was not so sneaky. Her attempt to steal a mug was to hold it almost visible under her thin maroon coat. She basically walked up to the guard, who gave her a look, shook his head, and she surrendered her mug. Good try though Taylor. Maybe next time.



On Sunday, a bunch of us girls attempted to see a little more of Munich than just Oktoberfest. We ended up at the BMW showcase museum and the Olympic Stadium. We walked around for a few hours there and it was good to get some fresh air, even though we all walked around with our luggage. Although I only had my turtle shell backpack with me, the mug I captured added a little weight to the bag. Christine looked fashionable as always in her Uggs, Loyola sweatshirt, peter pan hat, and rolling suitcase. Miss you. We all parted ways and me and my three Amsterdam ladies traveled back home on the train. Getting sleep was near impossible in the chairs due to some rude and smelly Dutch men sitting in front of Mara and I. The ride started off with obnoxious beer farts from these annoying guys who were watching Two and a Half Men at volume 100. As they proceeded to be loud when it was appropriate sleeping time, an Australian sitting in the seat in front of them spoke up. A near fistfight finally ended by “I like Australia, but I don’t like you.” Well, Amsterdam finally welcomed us home around 9:30 am with lovely spits of rain. Perfect weather to come back and take a nap in my bed, which I have missed for the past 4 nights.

I am looking forward to having some visitors this weekend and not have to move around much for the next two weeks. The month of October, however, will be full of movement. I am gone for about 21/31 days of the month. YIKES. My places of travel in Oct. are almost confirmed to Prague→ London → Madrid → Barcelona → Budapest → Vienna. Don’t worry – I’m only missing ONE class the whole time. Mom, Dad, and Katherine – can’t wait to see you guys. I will soon be sending you my list of things to bring me… Chloe’s on the top of the list!

So this is a video with pics and clips but the sound has been disabled for some VERY unfortunate reason. I have tried every type of export and size and it just hasn't been working. I'll try my best but enjoy the visuals!