9/26/14 – 9/28/14
(excerpts taken straight from my journal I kept during my 2014 study abroad experience)
9-29-14
This past weekend, I went to München, Germany for Oktoberfest. It was one of the craziest weekends of my life. We left Thursday night and drove through until Friday morning.
When we arrived, we headed straight to the tents at Oktoberfest. They let people in and it was a stampede of people into the tent. We luckily found a table and the waitresses immediately started serving. The beers were called “steins” and held about three beers each. The first beer we got was brewed just for Oktoberfest called “Märzen”. The second beer we got was mixed with half lemonade and called a “Radler”. I also tried a lot of German food, such as a giant soft pretzel, a rotisserie chicken “Hänchen”, a giant hotdog “Wiener Schnitzel”, dumplings “Knódelei”, fermented cabbage “Sauerkraut”, and potatoes. The tent that we were in was called “Hofbräu” and was considered the “American tent”. We drank, ate, and sang the traditional Bavarian beer cheers song.
“Ein Prosit, ein Prosit, Der Gemütlichkeit, Ein Prosit, ein Prosit, Der Gemütlichkeit.”
Some people even stood up on the tables and chugged their beer. Although if you couldn’t finish chugging it, the entire tent booed you.
After we had enough of drinking, we went back to the A&O München Hackerbrücke hostile to take a nap. My first hostile experience was very good because it was clean and I shared a room with seven other girls that I knew.
Then we went out for dinner for my friend’s birthday. We ordered quesadillas, but when they came out, they were just tortillas filled with chili. We had run into a local from Morocco, who suggested the German/Spanish restaurant.
The next morning, we had a beer walking tour. It was basically a tour of München while drinking, pulling around kegs in wagons, and playing drinking games. It was a fun way to learn about the city.
For lunch, we went to “Dubliner”, and Irish pub and sports bar. We ordered burgers, and of course more beer. We visited the “Hofbräu House” where they brew beer, but it was too full to sit. (I also found a Starbucks and had a Pumpkin Spiced Latte, finally).
We then took a train and a bus to the Dachau Concentration Camp. It was free to walk around and we also rented an audio tour for 2.50 Euro, which had information and stories from survivors. We saw the crematory and the gas champers, which were very eerie to be in. We walked through recreations of their bunks and bathrooms, and then through the museum. Some of the speaker’s names were “Zeev Rogalin, Oskar Winter, Harry Zaslow and George Tievsky”. We saw the religious temples that were built after the concentration camps were shut down, and the guarded walls and watchtowers. The Dachau Concentration Camp was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler. The prisioners walked through an iron gate that said “Arbeit Macht Frei”, which means “Work Sets You Free”. It was the longest lasting concentration camp; it lasted for 12 years. There were around 200,000 total prisoners and an estimated 35,613 deaths. Dachau has come to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps.
After visiting Dachau, we headed back to Oktoberfest. We went on a few rides, including the giant swings, ate a bunch of German food, and met some new friends. We tried getting into a beer tent, but it was too crowded so we went back to the hostel to check out the rooftop bar.
We ordered piña coladas (we were pretty sick of beer at this point) and made friends with a few guys from Denmark. They helped us out by translating with other people and kept the “creepy guys” away. I’ve become Facebook friends with a lot of new people, and I hope to keep in touch with them.
The next morning, we checked out and walked around München. We visited some beautiful churches and buildings, such as new City Hall “Neues Rathaus”, The Holy Ghost Church “Heiliggeistkirche”, and St. Michael’s Church “Michaelskirke”.
We bought some souvenirs, had lunch (and obviously more beer) and then headed back to the hostel to head home. I ended up buying a mug and t-shirt from Oktoberfest. Overall, it was one of the craziest weekends of my life.