Oktoberfest

Munich has to be one of the best cities I've ever visited, I LOVE Munich!! My friend Sabrina lives there (we met on study abroad in Chile, yes the logical answer) so I got to stay with her and get shown around by a local! The big event was obviously Oktoberfest, which was celebrating it's 200th anniversary this year! Oktoberfest is basically a 2+ week long fair with rides, games, tasty food, and of course beer tents! It's also an excuse to wear lederhosen and drindls (traditional German outfits). Sabrina has 2 drindls so I got to wear one! In addition to the liter beers (they only serve one size) and giant pretzels, I also had roasted almonds- they were so good! They were coated with a sugar mixture and delicious! The entire place was packed, and unless you got there really early it was hard to get inside the beer tents. There were overflow beer gardens which were also packed, but the main party was inside the tent. There's a band that plays traditional music for the first part of the day and then plays more modern (generally American) songs, including Sweet Home Alabama! They also play this toasting song every 20minutes and everyone has to sing, toast, and drink. Someone there told me every time they play that song about 2,000 gallons of beer are consumed in Oktoberfest- crazy! Everyone stands/dances on the benches and tables, and only a few people actually sit down. The table we were at was full of really cool people. The people in the group next to us were Germans, but had all done a 6 month internship in New Bern, NC?! small world!! Another guy at our table was from Aix en Provence, France visiting his friend in Germany (also at our table) and neither of us spoke German, so we ended up speaking in French for awhile! There were also 2 girls from Madrid at our table who ended up being on the same flight back to Madrid with me! It really was a lot of fun!

Sabrina also took me around town, and we went for a traditional German dinner which was delicious! I got to walk through some of the markets and see the famous sites in Munich. On Monday Sabrina had to work, so I went to 2 of the famous parks in Munich- OlympiaPark and Englischer Garten. They are both gorgeous! It was perfect fall weather on Monday (a little cloudy/rainy during the weekend), crisp and sunny! OlympiaPark has a giant hill, and from the top you get a great view of the city! The picture above is looking from the top of the hill down to the Olympic stadium. The BMW facilities are also located right next to the park. From there I took the metro to Englischer Garten which is larger than Central Park and has a famous Chinese Tower. There's also a lake where you can rent boats, although I only saw 2 boats (one canoe & one row boat) out on the lake. There was also a ton of grassy space and lots of gravel trails winding throughout the trees. There were tons of people running in both parks which was really nice to see! All in all in was a great dose of fall, good to see friends, and I really love Munich!!