Oktoberfest

Getting to Munich was stressful! I allowed myself 50 minutes to catch the train to Mannheim where I was to meet my cousin, Annika. I arrived to the bus early and it never showed! After waiting for half an hour, I caught a bus and made it to Heidelberg Bahnhof. I found a nice student to help me operate the machine and purchase a ticket. When I arrived at the track, I found that I had missed the train that I was meant to catch. The next one was only 15 minutes later which I thought would be cutting it close. I made it to Mannheim where my cousin told me that our train had been delayed 80 minutes! Ha! All that stress and worrying about catching a train that was delayed! We went to the information booth and they let us get on the next train to Munich which was slower than the I.C.E. but it would still arrive much earlier. We spent the next 3 1/2 hours on the train.

We arrived in Munich and hopped on the U-Bahn to Oktoberfest. It looks like a big state fair or something; it has tons of rides for all ages, some for small kids and some for crazy adults. We walked around so that I could see all the vendors and tents before deciding what we wanted to do. Annika decided to ride in the Ghost House and I decided ride on the ferris wheel. I should note that this was my first ferris wheel ride EVER! We ate TONS of food which was all really good. First, we got this Baverian pizza thing which was vegetarian and good. There is lots of meat and eating half a chicken is really popular but of course that is not for me. There is a lot of fruit covered in chocolate and candy and glaze. I had strawberries covered in dark chocolate on a stick. We also had a HUGE pretzel which was fantastic but now I don't want to eat one ever again. You can see just how HUGE it was by looking at the picture. We met some Aussies and one asked if he could have some of our pretzel and of course I gave him a nice big piece. If I hadn't, I think I would have exploded from all the food. Beer was a must but all the tents were at maximum capacity. Apparently you need a reservation or you need to get there really early to get in. So we went to a smaller vendor with a mini beer garden and I had my Paulaner. No, I did not steal a stein!

We even had enough time to walk around Munich. It was really interesting to see because it's where I originally thought I was going to be an Au Pair. It is a wonderful city with lots of old gates and churces; bells seem to be ringing ever 5 minutes. But the German is so different in Munich that I don't think I'd ever be able to carry on a conversation!