Cheers to Oktoberfest!

The most anticipated weekend of my study abroad adventure finally happened.  Oktoberfest 2012 in Munich, Germany!  Months of planning went into making this weekend one that we would never forget.  

Jade, Katie, and I flew from Florence to Vienna and Vienna to Munich.  Unfortunately, we started our trip with a delayed flight in Florence and a missed connecting flight in Vienna.  Thankfully, Austria Air was extremely helpful with getting us back on track and on a new flight to Munich.  When we arrived to Munich, we were completely blown away by the airport.  People think that LAX is big?  Oh there is no comparison.  The Munich, Germany airport is massive and extremely nice!  Everything from grocery stores to clothing stores to car dealerships can be found at the airport.  I was absolutely amazed.  

After we did a little exploring, we met up with some other friends at the airport and grabbed a cab to get to the Holiday Inn in Munich City Centre.  Thanks to some wonderful girls at Cal Poly, we had a hotel booked months ahead of time for us to stay at for this crazy weekend.  Somehow and someway we fit 8 girls into a room with 2 twin beds.  It was a bit of a squeeze, but we made it work and we were thankful to not be camping in tents without showers.  

The first day, we got up at 5 am and started getting ready for our first day of Oktoberfest.  We met up with all Cal Poly kids and headed to the tents to wait in line for a table.  There was a pack of 25 of us who waited in line for hours so that we could get inside the Hofbrauhaus!  Once they opened the doors, there was a mad rush inside with lots of pushing and shoving.  Luckily we got a few tables for all of us and then we waited to be served.  I am not a beer lover, so I was waiting in anticipating for my stein of beer.  At first, it was a little rough being that it was so early in the morning, but I think the atmosphere and energy in the room gave me some adrenaline.  Everyone was standing on tables, singing, and dancing with one another just having a good time.  I've never seen more happy in such a small space in my entire life.  Everyone was just loving life.  It was such an amazing experience being with people from all different countries!

Day 2, we got up once again at 5 am and made our way to Oktoberfest.  We decided to try a different tent that day, although we had an absolute blast at Hofbrauhaus.  The second day we to the Paulaner beer tent.  The energy was amazing here as well.  The crowd was a little older, but there was a band playing music and lots of people singing and dancing.  There is nothing like the feeling of standing on a table and singing with all of your best friends.  I don't think it would have had nearly as fun without all of my friends from SLO there.  For the first time I was really able to combine my two worlds.  My world at home, which includes Jade and Katie, with my SLO world, which includes all my Cal Poly friends.  

Katie, Me, Ashley, & Jade 

So many people everywhere!

I was so excited to be reunited with my roommate Kelly!  Once we're back from abroad, we will be living together in SLO again!

Katie, Jade, and I had an incredible time together.  I feel so fortunate to have two best friends that can get along with just about anyone they meet.  Even though they didn't know any of my Cal Poly friends before, they came right into our group and made friends right away.

Here's some of us at the Paulaner beer garden!  The days of Oktoberfest were long, but so worth it!

Later at night, we headed to the actual Hofbrauhaus bar in downtown Munich.  We were able to meet even more new friends and have a relaxing, but fun night.  

Jade and I discovered our new favorite beer drink.  It's called a Dark Raddler.  It's a dark beer mixed with lemonade.  It was absolutely amazing!!! We loved it!

After 3 days in Germany, we all headed to the airport to go home.  Some of my friends from Barcelona were on our flight to Zurich, which was fun.  We were able to all hang out before our flight and spend a little more time together before we parted ways.  The picture of us below isn't our best of the weekend, but we had to take it haha!  We all felt and looked like we had been run over by a train multiple times.  We hadn't slept much, but Oktoberfest was worth it! This was the best weekend of our lives by far.  We had such an amazing time!