Hey!
Oktoberfest was amazing!
I flew into Nuremburg and took the train to Munich where I met my friends from home on Friday afternoon. I was trying to save some money, so I went to Nuremburg instead of flying into Munich direct. It started off as a hassle, but it ended up being amazing. More on that later.
I spent a couple hours in central Munich seeing the sights and getting a dirndl (the traditional German dress). Dirndls for women or lederhosen for men can be very expensive. If you buy each part separately, the dress, apron, and white top that goes under the dress, it will be around 100 euros. However, you can buy a dirndl with all the pieces for about half the price. Those are just a bit simpler. After the dress shopping, we went up a clock tower to get a 360 degree view of the city and explored some of the markets. We ended up going to Oktoberfest that night and wandered around the festival. There were so many people! Everyone was wearing their outfits which made us that much more excited to wear our own the next day. We went into one of the tents and it was crazy! There was a live band in the center of the tent, singing and dancing on tables, massive beers, and fantastic vibes. It was perfect. We got on one of the tables with some random German people. They were so friendly and just ready to have a good time! We eventually got back to the hostel and settled in for the next day.
Next day we got ready for a full day of beer drinking and German sing-a-longs. We got there around 9-10am. The later it gets the fuller the tents are. Once the tents get full, they close them and stop letting people in until the crowd dies down a bit. We first went in the Hofbräuhaus tent. A famous tent. It was fun, but full of Americans. We hung out with my American friend’s college friends that were on the same study abroad as her. It was really interesting to be around a massive group of American college students because I haven’t really done that these last couple years. It has gotten to the point where I can see the American stereotypes and let me tell you these people were as stereotypical as you can get. It was hilarious. We got a couple beers and sang some songs before heading out of the tent to get some food and visit another tent. We tent hopped for a bit and then went to the fairground rides. We went up this massive rotating swing. It was super fun and gave us some gorgeous views of the grounds.
After we went to a couple more tents before my friend and I left to go to the famous English gardens in Munich town center. This park is bigger than central park, has a lake, and two beer gardens. We went to one and had some dinner. We were in the park just as the sun was setting, so the most gorgeous light was hitting the trees and reflecting on the water.
On Sunday, we took a walk around the hostel grounds. It was slightly out of Munich city center and in the countryside. It was gorgeous to wake up to lovely fields and trees. It was the perfect temperature and really complimented the smell of the trees as we walked on a trail through the trees. After we went to Munich’s train station and I headed back to Nuremburg. My friends had an earlier flight than me, so I went to Nuremburg to explore another city that I have always wanted to go. Nuremburg is somewhere I have always wanted to go to because of the Nuremburg Ring: the hardest race track that is used to test the performance of most cars. Those of you who have watched Top Gear, you will have heard of this track. I didn’t actually go to the track, but explored within the walled city. It was AMAZING! Gorgeous architecture, picturesque river running through the center, markets in every courtyard, diverse cathedrals, and a castle that overlooks the city. There was some really interesting history to the place. It used to be a center for the Nazis and had a lot of the city destroyed by bombings. Its crazy to see how far a place has come in such a short amount of time. After I saw the center of the city, I went to the Nuremburg Nazi Party Rally Center. It was an incredibly impressive museum. It had audio guides and amazing visuals. There was something really haunting about learning about the extent of control and destruction the Nazis had from a German perspective and on the very grounds such plans and acts were executed. They covered each aspect of the rise, control, and trials of the Nazi party very well. I highly suggest learning the history of the places you visit first hand.
Exploring Nuremburg was the perfect way to end the trip. I loved it there. Honestly I preferred it to Munich. It was what you would want a German city to look like. I had similar thoughts when I went to Portugal and visited both big and small towns. The smaller towns hold the heritage and pureness of the country better than bigger cities in my mind. I have decided that I am always going to try to go to a smaller town and not just the big city when I travel. The same can be said about London. London is lovely, but the smaller English towns, express what “real” England is all about.
That’s all for now!
Holly
