La vita è bella....in Firenze.: Oktoberfest: Betcha can't have just one beer....

This past weekend I ventured north to Germany for the one and only Oktoberfest. It was held in Munich and it was absolutely amazing.

The adventure went a little like this....

Thursday night we started off with some predeparture cocktails, which was possibly the best idea ever because we had a 9 hour bus ride a head of us. So we leave Florence around 11:30 p.m. I slept the ENTIRE way to Munich.

After arriving in Germany around 9 in the morning we went and settled in at our hostel and got ready for what was a head of us that day.

I don't think any of us really knew what we had gotten ourselves into. We finally got to Oktoberfest and the first thing we did was go to a beer tent, possibly the biggest one called Hofbrauhaus (HB). This one, according to our tour guide, is known to be the one where all the foreigners go for beer and a good time.

Each tent (a total of 10) has only one type of beer, being their own beer because each tent represents famous breweries in Germany.

In the HB tent we quickly found a table. We were there from about 10:30 till 2:00 hanging out and drinking beer. I am usually not a beer drinker but since I was there I had to try it. You were able to get a half beer and half lemonade which was actually quite good. I ended up drinking two beers each being one liter. After two beers I was definitely in my happy place. The beers themselves were 10 euro, but so worth it.

In the tent it was absolute craziness. Beer mugs clinking everywhere, a million different languages being spoken, drinking songs being sung, people standing on the tables and chugging while everyone would cheer them on, and of course there was not a soul who was having a bad time.

I really wish I could have bought an outfit to wear there. Everyone was dressed up. The girls would wear a Dirndl which is a dress that the German girls wear, the guys would wear lederhosen which are leather trousers, and everyone would have a Gingerbread hanging around their neck (also called a Lebkuchen) shaped like a heart with different sayings on them. I did buy a Gingerbread that said Oktoberfest and wore it around for a while.

I also had some of the best food there. I was able to have a bratwurst which they usually put on a hoagie roll, corn on the cob, crepes with nutella, and their potatoes were delicious. I was amazed at how good the food was. Definitely different than Italy, but reminded me more of home.

After our first day there we were extremely tired and ended up sleeping in the next day and then going back to Oktoberfest at night. This was the last weekend of Beerfest and so Saturday and Sunday are generally a lot busier. We were not able to get into a tent again, especially in the evening because people have reservations for lunch and dinner. At night it was beautiful. It is basically a huge carnival with rides and game booths and lights. I felt like a little kid. I was able to ride the Farris wheel and look down on the thousands of people that were attending Oktoberfest that evening. We ended up later being able to get into one of the beer gardens (which is like an outside tent) of the HB tent and met up with some people we had met from the day before. That is where I ended up getting my most prized souvenir, an HB beer mug. Let's just say I'm glad I brought my backpack :]

On our last day there, we got up early and headed to Dachau where the first concentration camp of Germany was. This camp was the first of all of the camps in Europe. It started as a prisoner camp for people who threatened the government when Hitler became chancellor.

This day had to have been the most eery day. When we got off the train in Dachau it was very foggy and dreary. We arrived at the camp and started walking around and it was just very creepy. I have been to a holocaust museum and it really doesn't compare to seeing some of the real things that went on there. We were able to go into a barrack where they slept, walk through a gas chamber and see the brick crematories where the dead bodies were burned. It was a very moving experience and definitely one of the things I have always wanted to do in my life. I have always been interest in the Holocaust and just trying to understand how anything like that could happen and this by far taught me a lot more than I had ever known.

So my trip to Germany was a complete success. I really did love it there and hope to go back again some day!