Can I Say Wicked in England?: Oktoberfest 2011...

   Last weekend, my friends and I met up in Munich for Oktoberfest...the world's biggest beer festival. Now before I tell you about the festival, I'd like to share my first experience traveling alone in a non english speaking country. I was very nervous for this trip for many reasons.
1. I didn't have a working phone to contact my friends (how did they do it without cellphones!?)
2. I don't know any German...at all
3. I had to take the metro...alone, from the airport to meet my friends at a predetermined location.
4. NOTHING WAS IN ENGLISH!

   With that being said, everything was successful and I had a blast getting caught up trying to figure out which train I had to be on and trying to make my way through Munich with my huge backpack and hotel directions. Haha that sounds sarcastic, but I really did enjoy my adventures!
   Seeing my friends Margaret and Meimei made me realize how much I miss them when we are all off in different countries. It was great to catch up with them and just explore Munich at night, which was amazing! We went sightseeing pretty late that night because we knew we might not have an opportunity to see the city after Oktoberfest. We saw so many beautiful buildings in the city center and I was really impressed by the intricate architecture of the buildings. It was kind of odd: like a city stuck somewhere between trying to preserve their medieval history through old buildings and a new, completely modern city which is entirely focused on progress and the future. I'm not sure if this analogy makes sense, but I think you get the idea. Nonetheless, we had a great time just walking around for hours! And, we even met up with our guy friends who we had been looking for all evening! This was pretty exciting because they were staying with us in our hotel and we hadn't heard from them all day (typical boys). Although you probably won't believe this, we were in bed by midnight on that Friday so that we could get up at 6am on Saturday...YES 6AM!!! Clearly our priorities were making it into the tents at the festival! We took the metro to the site and we were in line by 745, where we waited for an hour for them to open the doors to the Haufbrau tent. So one unusual fact about this festival...Everyone dresses up! The boys all wear their traditional outfits and the girls all dress like beer wenches! This was something I wasn't expecting at all! When we were finally herded into the tent like cattle, we managed to find a table in a crowd of at least 5,000 people!!! THAT'S SKILL!
   So we were pumped and then the day just got wicked crazy. At 9am sharp the beer wenches brought out the first steins of beer (the litter jugs that you drink out of at Oktoberfest)...People started chugging them and everyone was chanting! I think we were all in awe when this happened and I seriously doubted that we were going to drink a beer at 9am...but we did! We had our first beer by 930 and this was followed by a 10 minute long photo op. So as we sat and drank more beer and ate a really large pretzel, people started to stand on the tables and everyone got up and danced! The band was great and the national anthem was a popular choice (German anthem). So this was a lot of fun for us! We also had the pleasure of meeting people from all different countries! Just at our table there was France, Belgium, New Zealand, Germany and USA!
   After we left this tent about noon time, we wandered to another tent, The Paulanergarten, where we wanted to sit outside in the sun. Luckily we found seats and spent the afternoon there and met people from Brazil and Italy! Sometime in the afternoon, we wanted to be real Germans...so, we went to the lawn where people take naps at Oktoberfest and we took a nap with thousands of other people! This was hilarious and everyone was pretty wiped at this point in the day. After deciding to get up and leave, I noticed the sea of drunken zombies around me which was really funny to witness. I was surprised at how calm everyone was and I think it's because everyone was just tired. On our way out, I captured on last glimpse of the festival and I realized, there is no adjective or verb that is every enough to describe or show the magnitude of Oktoberfest. Now I understand why people come from all over the world to experience it and why people say it's a once and a lifetime event. Also, the fairgrounds are insane...there are more roller coasters than any amusement park I've seen and that's saying something. How people manage to get on these rides? I still can't imagine.
   So although the above paragraphs are full of short and disconnected sentences...it's the only effective way I can describe my weekend. It was amazing but there was so much going on that I can't write it all down and describe every detail! If I can try to be concise...I had the best weekend ever, with the best friends ever, at the best beer festival ever and I hope someday I can go back to Oktoberfest! I'm going to post some pictures that at least show the progression of our day, and hopefully I can post a video as well!