Blondes, Braids, & Bus2Alps

Hallo Oktoberfest!!!

Thursday afternoon my friend Megan Bolan (from USD) flew all the way from Ireland, where she is studying abroad, to embark with Lindsay, Kaitlin, and me to Munich for Oktoberfest. We left at midnight with Bus2Alps for the 9 hour drive. I liked leaving that late because I slept the whole time and was ready to go when we got to Germany in the morning. We camped for the weekend, which was bittersweet... Being from California, I have never slept outside in temperatures under 70 degrees (after the first night I learned how many layers were needed). The campsite had lots of cool Aussies who ran "Stoketoberfest" who we also got a few perks from... including breakfast and unlimited beer and sangria for 5 euro... What more could a college kid want?

When we first got to the campsite, we took a scenic 6 hour bike tour of Munich where we made a ton of amazing/historical stops...




First stop: Theatinekirsche. Our witty bike tour guide told us that we could remember the name by "Tina Turner", hehe. This church was built by the royal family because the king and queen had six daughters and needed a son, the king prayed that if he had a son, he would show his gratitude by building the most beautiful church. Hence, he had a son and began building this-
which of course carried into the next generation.





2. We made a quick stop by a piece of the Berlin Wall which came down in 1989.





3. We then rode through an English Garden and rode all around the park, ending up in a Bier Garten for some snackies.



After all that riding, we needed some snacks...

Kaitlin and I shared this! We had sausage, country potatoes, and shared a weissbier. Yummm. Trying to gain my adult taste buds by drinking beer. All this for 10 Euro! I love massive pretzels, they are so much cooler than average sized pretzels... I don't know why, we Americans love to supersize!





3. Surfers in Munich?
Saw something I will probably never see again.... surfing in a river. It's like those fake waves that you can ride at water parks for $5 extra. One kid would hop in the river and surf till he or the one girl fell. Then another kid would jump in. It was really fun to watch. They must have been freezing!




A Few Tidbits of information I learned from our Irish bike tour guide. . .

1. The Bavarian flag is blue and white checkers, like BMW, as in Bavarian Motor Works... I'ma genius.

2. Hans and Sophie Scholl were college-aged German World War II activists. They went to the University of Munich and had an anti-Nazi-propaganda leaflet called Weisse Rose which lasted six editions from June 1942-February 1943. An edition of Die Weisse Rose got into the hands of the Nazis and in 1943, the Gestapo stormed into their college. Hans saw them coming and knew his fate. He broke the windows overfacing the street and through copies of the Weisse Rose out the windows. Hans wanted the world to know what the Nazis were doing and he let the papers fluttered down into the street. Hans, Sophie, and the four other members of the Weisse Rose were killed guillotine style, which hadn't been used in over 100 years. I wish I had the courage to stand up for something like the members of Die Weisse Rose. The Scholls' lives had barely begun, and they would even jeopardize everything, at such a young age, just to stand up to the Third Reich, when they knew the consequences of being caught. Young Heroes.

3. Over 6.5 million people visit Oktoberfest every year!

4. If you rub the lion across from the Theatinekirsche, you will have good luck and wealth! There is a lion facing the church with his mouth closed which symbolizes that one can never speak up to the church. There is also a lion facing the palace, meaning you can question the royal family but not God.


1st Day at Oktoberfest:

3. Reasons Why I love the world's largest carnival....
1.Beer and Schnitzel Galore!!!



We went to the Hofbrauhaus. Our Bus2Alps tour guides took us there because they knew it would be the easiest tent for us to get beer. Thanks for the tip Joey! There were so many people inside but we wanted to make sure we got a table because you can't be served standing up. So we ran outside and snagged a seat quickly. We were lucky and got a table by the parade!



A few minutes after they opened, we got served.



A full liter of beer!



Prost! Look each other in the eyes, or you will have bad sex for seven years? . . . crazy Germans.



Lindsay and I got weisswurst with sempf for 1 euro....My German friend Luisa says that it's brain, Wikipedia says it's finely minced veil.... but it looks like brain. Idk what to believe... But I also got my favorite, SCHNITZEL!!!!! I love me some crusty German bread.



I wish we had a pretzel castle back at home!




2. Rides, Rides, Rides!!!



The cutest ferris wheel I will ever see.



Rockets soarin high.



An olympic roller coaster.





Too scary to even try...







This roller coaster had the theme song to Indianna Jones playing. Haha.



Lots of fun houses.



Crazy coasters.



Don't forget a log ride!







My favorite ride- the swings!


3. Dirndls and Lederhosen Everywhere!!!



Sooo many dirndls on so many different aged people... from the babies to the grandmas. And I'm surprised so many boys wore lederhosen, even teenagers. Wish I brought my dirndl, then again I might have froze in place...















Lots of Hansies and Heidis....I love, love, love how all around the world, whenever locals see tourists taking pictures, they give the peace sign.


Oktoberfest Day 2!!!



Megan and I shared this little tent, conveniently located next to Kaitlin and Lindsay. We didn't do much sleeping because the campsite was a party in itself every night. Such a deal with breakfast and unlimited wine and beer for 5 euro. The sangria was delish. I'm beginning to memorize every beat to "Papa Americano". One of the leaders, Joey told us about all the trips he's been on and the different options Bus2Alps has, so now Kaitlin, Megan, Lindsay and I have the travel bug. Yay for my diminishing bank account!





Kaitlin, Lindsay, Megan, and I all went on the ferris wheel. We loved sitting in our cute little German gingerbread houses. Germans aren't cheap, we got a lot for our money with this in that the wheel went around 6 times. Before coming to Oktoberfest, I didn't know how big the carnival actually was. It's massive.



Lindsay and I went on "Play Ball".... more like "Puke Ball". These buggies would spin in the opposite the direction of the spinning platform. Then the whole platform reversed. We were going sooo fast and screaming "Oktoberfest" the whole time. Good thing we only had a little bit of schnitzel before we rode. Barffff.



Ready for the long drive back to Florence... at least we have the countryside in Bavaria to look at, reclinable seats, and multiple movies to watch! Thank you Bus2Alps for planning this inexpensive 4 day trip for us, including some transportation and fun activities, without us having to lift a finger... Now back to my rough three day school week..