Ein Prosit!

Sorry for the delayed posting... this past week/weekend has been crazy!
A bunch of us girls went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. It was seriously the time of our lives.
Since the weekend consisted of many long hours drinking beer and partying, I am going to try and narrow the weekend down into a synopsis of sorts.

Friday:
We left Florence Thursday night around 11 and didn't get into Munich until close to 7:30AM. We basically got off the bus, changed our clothes, and headed out to the fairgrounds.
We were in line at the Schottenhamel by 9AM and got in a little before 10AM. Most of the tables inside the tents are reserved so you have to be in line early to get a seat at an open table. We managed to grab one with a couple from Germany. They were super nice, and eventually three more German guys would join us. The table right next to us had 5 German guys around our age, and by the end of the night we would be partying with them all day.
Jaclyn and I were at the tents for a good 12 hours on Friday. While everyone else left to take a nap and re-cooperate, we toughed it out and only left at 8PM to take Felicia home. We promptly returned at 9:30 and didn't leave until the tents closed at 11PM.
We made friends with the five German guys who were all from Munich. Four of them were studying at the university in Munich while one of their buddies is actually studying in Milan. I hung out with him for most of the day and we had a good time.
All throughout the day they had friends coming and going so we met quite a few people. Towards the end of the night a few of their friends decided to stick around and we had a blast with them. It was said when 11PM came since it meant the festivities were over for the day.
We headed home and crashed. Day 1 of Oktoberfest = Success

Saturday:
Today was explore Munich day. We took a bike tour of the city, and I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is. We saw everything. I love how much history can be in one city.
We rode through the English Gardens, which is 3 times bigger than Central Park. Unlike Central Park they have a nudist meadow. That was an experience. Inside the park is the largest outdoor beer garden. We stopped there for lunch, it was quite delicious. After our lunch break we went and watched the river surfers. There is a man made river that runs through the park. When it was first built they realized the water was moving too fast so they put a cement rectangle in one section of it. This created a natural wave. Two guys from California saw it and decided to surf it. River surfing didn't become legal until last year though! It was crazy.
The bike tour ended around 4PM and Allie, Jaclyn and I booked it back to the hostel. We made a quick wardrobe change and headed back out to Oktoberfest. Saturday night is famous for being the most crazy night in all of Oktoberfest. We had been told all day that there was absolutely no way we would get in so late. We tried to get into the tent Allie had been in on Friday, but that turned out to be a fail. So at 7PM we started standing in line outside of the tent Jaclyn and I had spent the previous day at and gave ourselves an hour to get in. If we couldn't get in by 8PM we were just going to call it a night.
As we tried talking the security guards into letting us in, we quickly realized that unlike Friday, they were all about business tonight. It had only been twenty minutes, but we started losing hope fast. Then all of a sudden a waiter came up and asked us how many were in our group. We told him 5 (for us 3 and our 2 American friends we had met at the first tent) and he led us under the rope. We had made it half way in. Our friends found their comrades and the waiter led us to a table with 5 guys and a woman sitting at it. Turns out they had been watching us since we had shown up and decided to share their open table with us. As they said, "no one should be left out of the fun on Saturday night."
We hung out with them for awhile. They were all from Nuremburg... two were around late twenties/early thirties while the other three were our age. They were fun and nice, but we were out at the beer garden. We wanted in the tent. Not that we weren't having fun, but its a completely different atmosphere inside compared to outside. And we wanted to dance on tables and sing at the top of our lungs. Trying not to be rude we asked them if they thought we had any chance at getting inside of the tent. They pointed us to a door and told us that it would be our best shot. We told them that if we couldn't get in we would definitely come back and hang out the rest of the night; they assured us we would get in and we said our goodbyes.
It seemed as if everyone had the exact same idea, at the exact same time right then. The door got swarmed with people and it didn't take us too long to realize we weren't getting in through that door either. As we started walking back to the table, feeling very defeated, we saw another door with no one around it except the security guard. We asked him if he could let us in and he told us that once we finished our beers he would. We stepped aside and looked down. We had just gotten the steins 30 minutes prior, which meant it was still 3/4 full. We weighed our options and decided it would be worth it just to give it away or leave it to get into the tent. As we walked up to ask him this, he quickly opened the door and told us to hurry and get in. Thank you new best friend, we were in!
After celebrating our victory we wandered around the crazy party tent looking for open spots at a table. We only had 3 criteria:
1. Cute boys
2. Cute boys with no girls and
3. Enough room to fit 3 of us
After looking around a bit we found a table of Swiss guys. They ranged in age from 22-28 and they were a blast. We spent the rest of the night dancing, singing, laughing, and having a blast. Jaclyn made friends with a German guy our age at the table over and he joined us for the evening. When the tent at 11 we headed out and tried to find a club since it was still so early in the evening. First attempt would have been great, had us girls had our IDs. Second attempt would also have worked if the bouncer had decided to let all of us in, not leaving one person out.
At that point in the evening it was 2AM and we decided we would run home and grab our IDs. It would have been a great plan had we not lost the German guy. We only had a small idea of how to get ourselves back and we didn't want to get ourselves lost in Munich at 2:30 in the morning. So our night ended. Day 2 of Oktoberfest = Success

Sunday:
We got a late breakfast and decided to spend our short afternoon wandering through the festival. We had all spent the last 2 days in the beer tents and hadn't really seen the rest of the fairgrounds.
We went on a few rides, including the ferris wheel which gave us an amazing view of the fair as well as the city.
We grabbed some food and a chocolate covered banana and finished off the afternoon with some souvenir shopping and people watching. It was a fantastic way to end a great weekend in Germany.
Around 2 we decided to head back. The bus wasn't leaving until 3:30 but we had finished everything we had wanted to do and wanted to grab our stuff. Good idea. When we got back the luggage room was PACKED almost to the ceiling with bags. Sucks for everyone who got their last. Bags were getting tossed everywhere and the room looked like a volcano had erupted.
And so at 3:30PM we departed from Munich back to Florence.
Our weekend spent at Oktoberfest will never be forgotten. It's been a week and everyone still talks about it constantly. Probably because we have never experienced something like it.
It's so hard to describe the experience... we all try and every time it ends with, "you just have to go and see."
Before this I had already decided I loved Germany more than Italy. After the bike tour of Munich I can say without any hesitancy that I have fallen in love with the country. It's modern, yet historical. It reminds me a little of Washington with how green and open it is, completely unlike Italy.
Sorry, mom.

Friday, September 30th - Sunday, October 2nd