So our next adventure was in Frankfurt. We went to celebrate Unification Day in Germany and to hang out with some friends that we had met that first weekend in the hostel. Frankfurt is a beautiful city, and bestows the nickname of "Mainhattan", for the fact that it lies on the Main River. Plus, it is also a very New York-like skyline, which includes the tallest building in Europe. The best part was the old-city quarter, including the old Rathaus, or city-hall. There we enjoyed Frankfurters and apple-wine, both Frankfurt specialties.
After a couple more days of school, we got ready for the first big trip of our program - Munich. And around this time of year, there is only one thing on peoples' minds when they Munich.....Oktoberfest! That's right, we were 5 of 6 million in the largest fair in the world. And it was all for a celebration of beer and food. We knew that hostels had been sold out for quite some time, so great ingenuity gave us the idea of renting a van. We kept our costs of the trip down by using the van as our mode of transportation from Cologne to Munich, and as our hotel.
We ended up arriving in Munich late Friday night, and we were all really tired so we decided to sleep right away and rest for the day ahead. On Saturday, we woke up at about 6:30 and started heading towards the festival. We were told to get there early, because all the tents fill up fast. We were also told that an 8am arrival would be good. That turned out to be some misinformation. By 7:30 when we got there, lines were already forming out the tents. We stayed about 2 hours in the first line, with no luck of getting in and switched to a different one. After about another hour there, we just decided to order beers outside. It was an absolute mad house with songs and drunken stupidity already on display by 11am.
Only three of us were able to get inside at first, and it was well worth the wait. The Haufbrauhaus Festhalle - (Celebration Hall), the most famous tent, was just a sea of people drinking, eating, and singing with anyone and everyone around them. The beer was overflowing, the food was great, and we had so much fun once the other two finally got inside.
Once we left the HB-Festhalle, we enjoyed the rest of the festival. It is pretty much an amusement park as well, as there are carnival rides everywhere and enough activities that even the little kids can enjoy this time. Of course, a lot of people were dressed in typical lederhosen, whether it be a cheap costume store knock-off, like Brooks, or the real thing passed down from generation to generation.
Unfortunately, I ended up feeling a little ill, and decided to head back the van a little early. I still had an amazing time; one that I will never forget. Plus, I was well rested for the long drive to Cologne the next day, while the other were hung over.
