Monday:
Had class until 6:30PM like every Monday. The day went by pretty slow, yet fast? I know, doesn't make sense. Class went by really slowly, but the day zoomed by. Didn't do much after dinner, except homework.
Tuesday:
Again, had class until 12:45. Or was suppose to anyways. When I got to Intro to Florence at 11:45, Erin was waiting outside the classroom and talked me into skipping. Of course I said yes, and so instead of wasting an hour of our life doing nothing in class, we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside. We took our laundry to the tourist laundry place we use and then headed to the market.
We entered the building at a different entrance this time. We ran into the fish market, which we didn't even know existed. It smelled like Pike Place, home sweet home. Since we had the time, we wandered up and down every aisle. In the corner was this little bakery that had all sorts of goodies. In particular, they had this mini whoopie pie/cake pops. One being a lemon poppyside with lemon frosting and the other being a strawberry and chocolate frosting one. They were delicious! We vowed there and then not to share this secret discovery with any one else. Before we left we got some dried fruit for the weekend. I had to give my bag to Erin so I wouldn't eat any of it...
After lunch I got some homework done. And Erin and I went shopping down past the duomo. We gave ourselves only an hour so we could get back and do homework. I had plans later in the evening to work on my Holocaust presentation with Carl, but as we were walking Erin reminded me we had made plans with our Italian friends for tonight as well. It didn't look like I was going to be able to make it... and the other girls weren't really feeling up to it so Erin was a little bummed that we would probably have to cancel.
After dinner I went to the library to get some work done. While there I decided that it was worth going out with the guys, and that Carl and I would work on our presentation until 10PM and then I would leave. I mean, come on, Tuesday IS the night everyone does something fun!
So, after dinner and studying, Erin and I headed out to meet the boys. We went to the Red Garter again (the karaoke bar) and had a blast. Some of the guys we live with showed up halfway through the night too. We both seemed to forget we had a tour for Intro to Florence at 8:30AM and an Italian quiz... by the time we got home at 2AM we passed out.
Wednesday:
Somehow I managed to get myself out of bed and ready for the tour by 8:30AM. Not entirely sure how, but I'm going to attribute it to my young person bounce-back abilities.
The tour wasn't as interesting as last weeks, but still nowhere near as dull as the first.
My Italian quiz went off without a hitch. After, I could only think of one question I knew I had missed... good sign.
We went and got our laundry after class, and took a nap until lunch.
After lunch I had my Holocaust history class. I don't know why, but it seemed to drag on even longer than usual.
Once class was finished I went home and packed for London. We weren't leaving until 6:30 for the train, but I had nothing else better to do. I basically did nothing from 3:30 until 6:30, which was nice.
Getting our train ticket to the Pisa airport wasn't too bad. Except that there was no train going straight to the airport. We had to get off at Pisa Centrale and take a 4 minute cab.
We were running a little late, but we got through security and our passport checks with like 10 minutes to spare. Talk about cutting it close. Erin and I sat next to each other on the plane, and both fell alseep the minute the plane took off. We landed in London close to midnight and expected it to be an easy exit out of the airport. Oh no.
We had to stand in line for almost an hour and a half at customs. It was beyond ridiculous. THEN when we did finally get up to a counter, Gabby and Audrey had to act like complete idiots almost getting us sent to the back of line.
Since we hadn't expected customs to exist, or even take as long as it did, we had missed the last train to Greenwich. Some random guy saw we were struggling and told us the best/cheapest way to get to our hostel. So we boarded a bus, took it about 30 minutes, then had to take a cab the other 20 minutes. Thank goodness there was 6 of us so nobody had to pay too much of the bill.
We finally got to our hostel at 3AM... two hours after we had said we would be getting in. Lucky for us the owner had stayed up to let us in. He politely reminded us of this fact as he checked us in. Erin, Audrey and I roomed together in the 9 person dorm, while the other 3 were in the 8 person dorm. We said goodnight and passed out the minute our head it the pillow.
Welcome to London.
Monday, October 10th - Wednesday, October 12th
Monday, October 17, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Studyin Studyin Ya!
Saturday:
Erin, Audrey, Nina and Jo had plans to go to Venice on Saturday. Since I'm going with my mom in December when she comes I decided to bail and stay in Florence.
-Side note. When they got to the train station all the tickets for the train to Venice were completely sold out. They debated on whether or not to come back and get me (they decided to go to Pisa and Sienna), but ultimately decided not to. Thanks friends.
So, since I still thought they were in Venice until late Sunday, I had a very peaceful and relaxing day to myself. I again woke up at like 11, meaning this time I missed breakfast. I watched Grey's Anatomy and got ready for the day, so when the episode was over it was time for lunch.
I walked down Cavour and grabbed Subway and took a very long and roundabout walk back home.
For the rest of the day I alternated between doing homework, sleeping, watching Grey's Anatomy and repeating. I woke up at 6:30PM and went to get some dinner before it got too dark outside to walk around by myself.
The rest of the night I basically did the same thing I had done throughout the day. It was a little lonely. I'm not used to being by myself for that long here.
Around 11PM as I was getting ready to go to bed, I saw Erin get online. She came up and we talked about their day - that's how I found out about the mornings betrayal (she said she wanted to come get me...).
Sunday:
Since my friends were back, we all decided to wake up at a decent hour and get breakfast before they put it all away.
We all still had a ton of homework to do, but it was such a nice day and we didn't want to stay cramped up in our room, Erin and I packed up our backpacks and went in search of a cafe with WiFi.
We found a cute little place with outdoor seating right up the street from the duomo. We stayed there for a good 3-4 hours, drank 2 cappuccino's each, did some homework and people watched. It was a great afternoon. We only left because we started to get hungry and needed to get Audrey.
We went to a pizza place right up the street from our pensione and after lunch Erin and I continued to do homework on the patio of our hotel. That is until 5PM when we walked to the library to continue, you guessed it, studying. We were in the library until almost 8PM before we finally finished and headed to dinner.
We decided to go back to Mostodolce, and it is there we discovered the most delicious hamburgers we have ever eaten. It was seriously the best dinner we've had in awhile. The buns were hot, freshly made. And the patty wasn't dry like most of the other meat we are served here. It was yummy end to an exhausting day.
Once we got back we took on the task of finding a hostel in London for this upcoming weekend. We should have known it was going to be ridiculous. After researching and freaking out we finally decided on one that's close to the arena where the concert is being held. It's not in downtown London, but at least we have rooms. Only problem... 3 of us are in an 8 mixed dorm and the other 3 of us are in a 9 mixed dorm. Hopefully our roommates aren't creeps. But hey, we get free breakfast. Oh, the small victories.
Saturday, October 8th - Sunday, October 9th
Erin, Audrey, Nina and Jo had plans to go to Venice on Saturday. Since I'm going with my mom in December when she comes I decided to bail and stay in Florence.
-Side note. When they got to the train station all the tickets for the train to Venice were completely sold out. They debated on whether or not to come back and get me (they decided to go to Pisa and Sienna), but ultimately decided not to. Thanks friends.
So, since I still thought they were in Venice until late Sunday, I had a very peaceful and relaxing day to myself. I again woke up at like 11, meaning this time I missed breakfast. I watched Grey's Anatomy and got ready for the day, so when the episode was over it was time for lunch.
I walked down Cavour and grabbed Subway and took a very long and roundabout walk back home.
For the rest of the day I alternated between doing homework, sleeping, watching Grey's Anatomy and repeating. I woke up at 6:30PM and went to get some dinner before it got too dark outside to walk around by myself.
The rest of the night I basically did the same thing I had done throughout the day. It was a little lonely. I'm not used to being by myself for that long here.
Around 11PM as I was getting ready to go to bed, I saw Erin get online. She came up and we talked about their day - that's how I found out about the mornings betrayal (she said she wanted to come get me...).
Sunday:
Since my friends were back, we all decided to wake up at a decent hour and get breakfast before they put it all away.
We all still had a ton of homework to do, but it was such a nice day and we didn't want to stay cramped up in our room, Erin and I packed up our backpacks and went in search of a cafe with WiFi.
We found a cute little place with outdoor seating right up the street from the duomo. We stayed there for a good 3-4 hours, drank 2 cappuccino's each, did some homework and people watched. It was a great afternoon. We only left because we started to get hungry and needed to get Audrey.
We went to a pizza place right up the street from our pensione and after lunch Erin and I continued to do homework on the patio of our hotel. That is until 5PM when we walked to the library to continue, you guessed it, studying. We were in the library until almost 8PM before we finally finished and headed to dinner.
We decided to go back to Mostodolce, and it is there we discovered the most delicious hamburgers we have ever eaten. It was seriously the best dinner we've had in awhile. The buns were hot, freshly made. And the patty wasn't dry like most of the other meat we are served here. It was yummy end to an exhausting day.
Once we got back we took on the task of finding a hostel in London for this upcoming weekend. We should have known it was going to be ridiculous. After researching and freaking out we finally decided on one that's close to the arena where the concert is being held. It's not in downtown London, but at least we have rooms. Only problem... 3 of us are in an 8 mixed dorm and the other 3 of us are in a 9 mixed dorm. Hopefully our roommates aren't creeps. But hey, we get free breakfast. Oh, the small victories.
Saturday, October 8th - Sunday, October 9th
Saturday, October 8, 2011
We ownay peaksay in igpay atinlay
I'm going to do one big post for the entire week. Sorry again that it's so late..
Monday:
Well, after getting home at 1AM and not going to bed until 3AM, waking up at 7AM for class was a little difficult.
Classes were boring, nothing new. Other than taking our laundry to the guy we did absolutely nothing. It was great. I tried to go to bed early but that also failed. What's new.
Tuesday:
Had class. They were boring.
Tuesday is generally the night everyone goes out, but there was no way we were down for that. The school was playing the first two episodes of the new season of Glee so we all decided to do that instead. Great choice. Linda and Shelley even brought baked goods, whats not to love about homemade carrot cake?
Wednesday:
Went on the Intro to Florence field trip in the morning. It was by far the best one we've gone on so far; it was to Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.
After the tour I had more class, more boring.
The conversation partner meeting was at 8:30, so Allie and I headed over there while everyone else headed out. Our conversation partner is extremely awesome and this is going to be a fun semester hanging out with her, practicing italian and making some italian friends.
We were supposed to meet up with everyone after the meeting got over, but Allie and I knew there was no way we would make it through that so we went home. While everyone else was partying hard, we were laughing until we cried over random things we were remembering from Oktoberfest. And trying to speak German and pig latin. We were supposed to do 8 minute abs but after all the laughing we felt our abs had gotten a good enough workout.
Thursday:
I only have two classes on Thursdays, and that was enough.
After lunch we went to mercato centrale for some dried fruit. This is seriously the most delicious dried fruit we have ever had.
Allie and Gabby had to leave for the Amalfi coast at 6 so we didn't spend too much time wandering around the market.
I tried to get some homework done while they packed, and once they headed out I got ready for the night. Erin, Audrey, Nina, Jo and I decided to have a girls night. We went to Tijuana for dinner- the only Mexican restaurant in Florence. It wasn't exactly how we do things in the States, but still tasted great. Linda, Shelley, and Victoria were there and we bought them a round of tequila boom booms. We're hoping they put in a good word for us with our professors come finals time.
After dinner we headed out to this bar that Erin and some of the other girls had gone on Wednesday night. There was said to be karaoke.
It indeed did have karaoke, and the night was by far the best night we've had out in Florence yet. We met a bunch of Australian guys who are backpacking through Europe. They were a blast to hang out with.
The back part of the bar is karaoke and the front has a DJ so we kept wandering back and forth. Around 1AM we decided to bail and try and find the secret bakery.
We followed the directions Allie had left and we know we were on the right street because we could smell it. We knocked on every single door and.. nothing. We are going to have James take us there in the day and show us which door is the right one because we KNOW we were on the right street. It's hard to miss the smell of fresh baked bread.
Friday:
I woke up at 8:30, wandered downstairs and got some breakfast, brought it back up stairs, put it in my refrigerator, and fell back asleep until 11. I haven't slept that long since before I left home.
Audrey and I somehow talked Erin into going and chopping off all her hair, so we went out in the pouring rain and found this salon that had been recommended to us.
Her hair was almost as long as mine and it is now as barely over her ears, but it looks great!
We grabbed Subway for dinner on our way home and tried to do some homework before we went out for the night.
Nina and Jo showed up around 9PM and we decided to go to the bar across the street from Nazionale that everyone raves about. They are a brewery so we obviously had to try their beer. Compared to what we drank at Oktoberfest it wasn't great, but in comparison to beers from home it was pretty good. We also got fried pizza dough with salsa and french fries... the first fried fast food we've had since coming to Europe.
We decided we wanted to go back to the karaoke bar, but one our way we ran into the fish pub and hung out there awhile. We have become friends with some of the guys who run it, so we get free drinks/shots most of the time. Once we got the DJ to start playing some good dancing music the place filled up, we had a great time. We never made it to the karaoke bar.
That has been my week...
Oh, I forgot to mention. On Monday morning I was informed that I was going to the Katy Perry concert in London next weekend. I guess the girls found super cheap tickets online while we were gone and bought us all one. I love how in Europe you can do that... its no big deal to spontaneously buy a cheap plane ticket to London to go to a concert. We are having way too much fun.
Monday, October 3rd - Friday, October 7th
Monday:
Well, after getting home at 1AM and not going to bed until 3AM, waking up at 7AM for class was a little difficult.
Classes were boring, nothing new. Other than taking our laundry to the guy we did absolutely nothing. It was great. I tried to go to bed early but that also failed. What's new.
Tuesday:
Had class. They were boring.
Tuesday is generally the night everyone goes out, but there was no way we were down for that. The school was playing the first two episodes of the new season of Glee so we all decided to do that instead. Great choice. Linda and Shelley even brought baked goods, whats not to love about homemade carrot cake?
Wednesday:
Went on the Intro to Florence field trip in the morning. It was by far the best one we've gone on so far; it was to Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.
After the tour I had more class, more boring.
The conversation partner meeting was at 8:30, so Allie and I headed over there while everyone else headed out. Our conversation partner is extremely awesome and this is going to be a fun semester hanging out with her, practicing italian and making some italian friends.
We were supposed to meet up with everyone after the meeting got over, but Allie and I knew there was no way we would make it through that so we went home. While everyone else was partying hard, we were laughing until we cried over random things we were remembering from Oktoberfest. And trying to speak German and pig latin. We were supposed to do 8 minute abs but after all the laughing we felt our abs had gotten a good enough workout.
Thursday:
I only have two classes on Thursdays, and that was enough.
After lunch we went to mercato centrale for some dried fruit. This is seriously the most delicious dried fruit we have ever had.
Allie and Gabby had to leave for the Amalfi coast at 6 so we didn't spend too much time wandering around the market.
I tried to get some homework done while they packed, and once they headed out I got ready for the night. Erin, Audrey, Nina, Jo and I decided to have a girls night. We went to Tijuana for dinner- the only Mexican restaurant in Florence. It wasn't exactly how we do things in the States, but still tasted great. Linda, Shelley, and Victoria were there and we bought them a round of tequila boom booms. We're hoping they put in a good word for us with our professors come finals time.
After dinner we headed out to this bar that Erin and some of the other girls had gone on Wednesday night. There was said to be karaoke.
It indeed did have karaoke, and the night was by far the best night we've had out in Florence yet. We met a bunch of Australian guys who are backpacking through Europe. They were a blast to hang out with.
The back part of the bar is karaoke and the front has a DJ so we kept wandering back and forth. Around 1AM we decided to bail and try and find the secret bakery.
We followed the directions Allie had left and we know we were on the right street because we could smell it. We knocked on every single door and.. nothing. We are going to have James take us there in the day and show us which door is the right one because we KNOW we were on the right street. It's hard to miss the smell of fresh baked bread.
Friday:
I woke up at 8:30, wandered downstairs and got some breakfast, brought it back up stairs, put it in my refrigerator, and fell back asleep until 11. I haven't slept that long since before I left home.
Audrey and I somehow talked Erin into going and chopping off all her hair, so we went out in the pouring rain and found this salon that had been recommended to us.
Her hair was almost as long as mine and it is now as barely over her ears, but it looks great!
We grabbed Subway for dinner on our way home and tried to do some homework before we went out for the night.
Nina and Jo showed up around 9PM and we decided to go to the bar across the street from Nazionale that everyone raves about. They are a brewery so we obviously had to try their beer. Compared to what we drank at Oktoberfest it wasn't great, but in comparison to beers from home it was pretty good. We also got fried pizza dough with salsa and french fries... the first fried fast food we've had since coming to Europe.
We decided we wanted to go back to the karaoke bar, but one our way we ran into the fish pub and hung out there awhile. We have become friends with some of the guys who run it, so we get free drinks/shots most of the time. Once we got the DJ to start playing some good dancing music the place filled up, we had a great time. We never made it to the karaoke bar.
That has been my week...
Oh, I forgot to mention. On Monday morning I was informed that I was going to the Katy Perry concert in London next weekend. I guess the girls found super cheap tickets online while we were gone and bought us all one. I love how in Europe you can do that... its no big deal to spontaneously buy a cheap plane ticket to London to go to a concert. We are having way too much fun.
Monday, October 3rd - Friday, October 7th
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
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
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Lots of walking, and lots of tourists
Today, again, was extremely dull.
Had to wake up early to go on the Intro to Florence field trip. We wandered quite a ways, looking at churches and the places where the city walls used to stand. We had to walk past the Academia twice (where the David currently is) and each time it seemed like the amount of tourists was multiplying. I have got to see the David before I leave Florence, but I refuse to stand in line with a billion tourists for hours upon end to do so. I'm hoping tourist season is ending here soon because it would be a terrible shame not to see the David when I live less than 5 minutes away from where its on display.
Anyways, after the tour we headed back to school and I went to Italian. Then Erin and I went and got our laundry. After that was lunch and my Holocaust history class. After class I went home and studied/watched Greys Anatomy until dinner.
Dinner was weird again tonight. Yesterday we had scrambled eggs and salad, tonight we had hot dogs and salad. I don't like hot dogs. I also don't like their salad. Thank goodness they also give us huge bowls of pasta with every meal.
After dinner I continued studying until we had a late night girl fest with Allie's jar of nutella in Erin and Audrey's room.
We leave tomorrow night for Oktoberfest. I am very glad I am feeling better because this would be a terrible weekend if I wasn't.
Wednesday, September 28th
Had to wake up early to go on the Intro to Florence field trip. We wandered quite a ways, looking at churches and the places where the city walls used to stand. We had to walk past the Academia twice (where the David currently is) and each time it seemed like the amount of tourists was multiplying. I have got to see the David before I leave Florence, but I refuse to stand in line with a billion tourists for hours upon end to do so. I'm hoping tourist season is ending here soon because it would be a terrible shame not to see the David when I live less than 5 minutes away from where its on display.
Anyways, after the tour we headed back to school and I went to Italian. Then Erin and I went and got our laundry. After that was lunch and my Holocaust history class. After class I went home and studied/watched Greys Anatomy until dinner.
Dinner was weird again tonight. Yesterday we had scrambled eggs and salad, tonight we had hot dogs and salad. I don't like hot dogs. I also don't like their salad. Thank goodness they also give us huge bowls of pasta with every meal.
After dinner I continued studying until we had a late night girl fest with Allie's jar of nutella in Erin and Audrey's room.
We leave tomorrow night for Oktoberfest. I am very glad I am feeling better because this would be a terrible weekend if I wasn't.
Wednesday, September 28th
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
I'm a terrible student... oh, and a meeting with some Italian.. boys?
Well, today did not go the way I intended.
I woke up feeling not so great, still, but I decided to get ready and try and go to class anyways. I got my teeth brushed, make up on, and dressed when I just couldn't stand it anymore and went back to bed. My plan was to sleep until Italian, walk to the school and go to class, then bail on Intro to Florence and go home early to sleep more. INSTEAD I got woken up at 11AM by the cleaning ladies throwing our door open and barging in to clean. Once they realized I was still home they gave me this weird look and said, "Clean?". Totally out of it and not comprehending anything I replied with (in English.. what was I thinking), "Can you come back later?" Of course they had no idea what I was saying, gave me some more weird looks and said, "No." At that point I was done with the situation so I mumbled something along the lines of, "Okay, fine, whatever" and fell back into bed. Thank goodness they got the hint and turned the lights back off and shut the door.
Needless to say, I didn't make it to Italian. After my run in with the cleaning ladies I realized I was still not feeling well so I stayed in bed. I didn't even try to move until Allie and Gabby came home and told me I needed to come to lunch to eat something.
After lunch I did some homework and took another nap. Woke up in time for dinner. Again, just as at lunch, I ate like half of the food placed in front of me, and I'm pretty sure the cook kept giving me mean looks because I wasn't eating. Oh well.
After dinner I was told we were going out for gelato and meeting Erin's distant Italian cousin (and his friends). I was feeling a little better at this point and wanted fresh air and gelato, so I decided to go. We were "supposed" to meet them outside the duomo. We were there for like 10 minutes and it was almost to the point where Audrey and I almost left to get gelato ourselves and walk home when Erin finally saw them. Her cousin, Fabio, and his brother and friend showed up. None of them were good looking, and none of them were tall, so after 30 seconds I was no longer interested. Oh and they didn't speak English, except for one of them, so that made it even more fun. We went and got gelato, and at that point I started feeling sick. We tried talking to them but it just kept getting less fun and more awkward. I finally said I was heading home (because I honestly wasn't feeling good) and Audrey came back with me. We discussed how neither of us was having that much fun and it was pointless to go to the bar with them that the rest of the group was heading to.
So I came home, watched some Grey's Anatomy, and fell asleep by midnight.
I want to become friends with Italians... but it would help if I knew more Italian, or they knew some English. Oh and if they were good looking and tall. It may have been me being pessimistic because of being sick, but I kinda feel like I should have just gotten gelato myself and gone home. That sounds much more enjoyable.
Tuesday, September 27th
I woke up feeling not so great, still, but I decided to get ready and try and go to class anyways. I got my teeth brushed, make up on, and dressed when I just couldn't stand it anymore and went back to bed. My plan was to sleep until Italian, walk to the school and go to class, then bail on Intro to Florence and go home early to sleep more. INSTEAD I got woken up at 11AM by the cleaning ladies throwing our door open and barging in to clean. Once they realized I was still home they gave me this weird look and said, "Clean?". Totally out of it and not comprehending anything I replied with (in English.. what was I thinking), "Can you come back later?" Of course they had no idea what I was saying, gave me some more weird looks and said, "No." At that point I was done with the situation so I mumbled something along the lines of, "Okay, fine, whatever" and fell back into bed. Thank goodness they got the hint and turned the lights back off and shut the door.
Needless to say, I didn't make it to Italian. After my run in with the cleaning ladies I realized I was still not feeling well so I stayed in bed. I didn't even try to move until Allie and Gabby came home and told me I needed to come to lunch to eat something.
After lunch I did some homework and took another nap. Woke up in time for dinner. Again, just as at lunch, I ate like half of the food placed in front of me, and I'm pretty sure the cook kept giving me mean looks because I wasn't eating. Oh well.
After dinner I was told we were going out for gelato and meeting Erin's distant Italian cousin (and his friends). I was feeling a little better at this point and wanted fresh air and gelato, so I decided to go. We were "supposed" to meet them outside the duomo. We were there for like 10 minutes and it was almost to the point where Audrey and I almost left to get gelato ourselves and walk home when Erin finally saw them. Her cousin, Fabio, and his brother and friend showed up. None of them were good looking, and none of them were tall, so after 30 seconds I was no longer interested. Oh and they didn't speak English, except for one of them, so that made it even more fun. We went and got gelato, and at that point I started feeling sick. We tried talking to them but it just kept getting less fun and more awkward. I finally said I was heading home (because I honestly wasn't feeling good) and Audrey came back with me. We discussed how neither of us was having that much fun and it was pointless to go to the bar with them that the rest of the group was heading to.
So I came home, watched some Grey's Anatomy, and fell asleep by midnight.
I want to become friends with Italians... but it would help if I knew more Italian, or they knew some English. Oh and if they were good looking and tall. It may have been me being pessimistic because of being sick, but I kinda feel like I should have just gotten gelato myself and gone home. That sounds much more enjoyable.
Tuesday, September 27th
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
I have no idea what happened today
Today was pretty boring.
Woke up. Got ready. Went to class. Class was boring. Went home for lunch. Lunch was good. Started feeling a little sick. Went to class. Started feeling really sick. I have absolutely no idea how I made it through an hour and a half long class without puking, or running out. Went home. Slept until dinner. Went to dinner. Didn't eat much. Fell asleep again.
Ya, today was pretty boring.
Monday, September 26th
Monday, September 26th
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