Prost!

Munich City Hall in the Marienplatz city square

Late last night I returned from what has hands down been the best weekend of my trip so far: Munich, Germany for opening weekend of Oktoberfest! I traveled with Bri and two of our other sorority sisters who are staying in Florence, as well as four other Santa Barbara girls we've become friends with here. I had no real expectations of what Munich would be like so it completely blew me away--it's such a beautiful and fast-paced city and the people we met there were so friendly and eager to show off Munich.

We took an overnight bus from the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence and arrived in Munich Friday morning. All my friends complained about how long the bus ride was but I once again proved my ability to fall asleep pretty much anywhere because according to Bri I was passed out within 10 minutes of the bus leaving the train station and aside from a quick break at a rest stop in Austria, didn't wake up again until about 20 minutes before we arrived at our hostel in Munich.

View from the rest stop in Austria: Just a little more scenic than the Alameda Nob Hill gas station

Because Oktoberfest didn't officially start until Saturday, we spent Friday afternoon taking a four hour bike tour of Munich. Our tour guide was an Irishman named Steve-O and I don't want to perpetuate stereotypes but I'm 95% sure he was really drunk the entire time. On the bright side, he was hands down the most hilarious tour guide I've ever had.  We biked around Munich, stopping at churches and other landmarks. My favorites:

The Theatinekirche of St. Kajetan--We were there right when the sun was shining its brightest, so the inside (virtually all white) was completely lit up by the sunlight shining through the windows.

Gorgeous dome of the Theatine Church--I don't think I've ever spent so much time staring up at ceilings in my entire life as I have in the month I've been in Europe.

Altar of the Theatinekirche

Really liked the contrast of this black pulpit with the white walls and ceiling

The Englischer Garten, a huge, beautiful public park in the Center of Munich. We stopped at the Cheineischer Turm ("Chinese Tower") for lunch at the second largest beer garden in Munich. First sip of Bavarian beer... delicious. 

Biking through the English Garden!

Maddie, Bri, Lauren and me in front of the Chinese Tower

Turns out vegetarians don't have a whole lot of culinary options in Germany...  I learned to get really friendly with cabbage.

More biking through the English Garden. The whole park was gorgeous.

German government building

The next day we finally headed to Oktoberfest! It was opening day so at noon the mayor tapped the first keg and everyone went crazy. We quickly picked up on the different Oktoberfest drinking songs: Ein Prosit and our favorite, "Hey Baby"

The Hoffbrau Tent, favorite of the tents we went to. A lot of tourists but a lot of Germans, too and the youngest and rowdiest of the crowds.

Maybe this is common knowledge, but I had no idea Oktoberfest was partially a carnival. I was ecstatic and spent an obscene amount of Euros on roller coasters. In line with Myles and Juliana for roller coaster ride #29068769675

On the second day of Oktoberfest we befriended a New Zealand rugby team, who educated us on why Kiwi accents are better than Australian ones and taught us some New Zealand rugby chants

Kappas in Munich! Ignore the glasses--borrowed them from Russ, our Kiwi rugby friend.

Some other snapshots from Munich:

The Eisbach: A man made white-water river where locals surf. First time seeing people surf in a river!

Out for our first German dinner on Friday night:
Delicious Smoked Salmon Salad--dedicated to J. Hong

Mmm... So excited for käsespäzle

All in all, an amazing weekend that completely surpassed my expectations. The more cities and countries I visit in Europe the more addicted I get to traveling. We're currently trying to decide between the Amalfi Coast and Croatia for our next trip... though I just learned that there's a Chipotle in London so England has gone way up on my travel priority list.