Thursday, The 21st Night of September
(See last blog for Thursday morning) Once I got back to the dorm, I used my new amazing tiny little stapler to staple my readings and packed for Oktoberfest in Munich! Sadie, Lilly, and Aislinn were able to convince me to go once I became aware of the souvenir beer steins. There was an API trip on Saturday I would be missing, but it was one I would be able to do myself at any point throughout the semester so I thought it made more sense to go to Oktoberfest while I had the chance.
I packed six peanut butter and jellies, four apples, a bag of pretzels, and we were off.
The bus to Munich was 5.5 hours, so I had plenty of time to read everything for class, and I was in the back middle seat with unlimited leg room.
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| Leg room for days |
Upon arriving in Munich, we navigated our way to The Tent, the most amazing $16/night sleep situation you could ever ask for. While waiting for the tram, I realized it was September 21st and made everyone listen to September by Earth, Wind, and Fire in its entirety so we'll have good luck until next September 21st.
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| We'll remember this 21st night of September 😌 |
We were each given a sleeping mat and three blankets and picked a spot on the floor of our communal tent. It sounds sketchy, but I loved the vibes. They had space for people to pitch their own tent, tents with bunk beds, and a tent with a gym-esque floor. They also had a campfire and barbeque each night of Oktoberfest. The food was super cheap and really good.
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Inside of The Tent
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We picked our spot in the tent, ordered some food and charged our phones, and planned Friday's itinerary. I slept like a log on our gym floor, it was incredible.
Friday, September 22nd |
| Entrance to Oktoberfest! |
Today is the day I had to suffer through Oktoberfest just so I could leave with a souvenir stein. We left for the festival around 10:30am and headed straight to Hofbrau-Festzelt, the largest tent that is mostly Americans. We each got our liter of beer and watched people chug until security told them to get off the table. I was having fun at this point in time because it was busy but not packed. Aislinn and I wanted pretzels so we all decided to leave and that was the biggest mistake of the weekend. We walked around outside (in the rain) for a while, got some food, looked in some of the other tents, and ultimately decided to try and go back into Hofbrau-Festzelt. I was ready to leave at this point, but others wanted to stay so we tried to see if we could get a spot. It was wild and I hated being in there; Aislinn and I made eye contact and were like, "Yeah, we gotta go," so we pushed our way through the rowdy Americans who don't know how to get out of an aisle back into the peace of the wind and rain. In hindsight, two of us should have stayed at the table while two more went to explore and then switched, because it was virtually impossible to get a table anywhere after 1pm and I really didn't want to stand in a group of drunk strangers. I won't be going back to Oktoberfest, so that's a bit of advice for anyone reading this if they find themselves there one day.
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Beer is gross
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| Unsuccessfully doing the arm loop and drink thing |
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| Guy across from us getting told to stop chugging |
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| Wandering around |
We reconvened outside, decided we were hungry, and went to the closest restaurant we could find -- a Vietnamese pho restaurant. I got glass noodle soup and it was really good, especially because of the chilly weather. We went back to The Tent, hung out on mega-bed (we squished our mats together and combined our blankets), and then Sadie, Aislinn and I went to Lidl, a European grocery store chain, for some snacks. I don't know who was in charge of directions, but either Aislinn or Sadie took us on a trail through the pitch-black woods for 10 minutes. I really thought that's where my study abroad would end, but, finally, we came out the other side just in time for a kid on a scooter to almost run us over. I love civilization.
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Soup!
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Having the time of my life in my rain poncho
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| Hanging out in The Tent |
We got the goods and walked back to The Tent (the civilized way). We spent some time at the barbecue and realized The Tent's beer steins were cute, so I sent Lilly to ask if they sold them. The man said, "It's a 50 Euro cent deposit*." Lilly asked, "Yeah, but can my friend buy one?" The man said, "It's a 50 Euro cent deposit" and winked at me. I bought a 4.50 Euro beer, dumped the beer out, and now have two souvenir beer steins!
*In Germany (and probably other countries but I haven't experienced it yet; and maybe not even all of Germany, Oktoberfest could have been a unique situation), when you order a drink, you pay for the drink and pay a deposit for the container it comes in. When you return the container (stein, bottle, whatever it came in), you get your deposit back.
Saturday, September 23rd |
| Leaving the tent :( |
We awoke, we packed, we checked out, we had breakfast, and we headed out for the day. I booked myself a walking tour at 10:15am and the others were going to the Deutsche Museum. My tour went through Munich's Old Town and it was interesting, but I found Munich more underwhelming than other places I've been. Most of their interesting architecture is a direct copy of a building in Italy; I did see the original Hofbrauhaus and got to experience Americanization in action because there's a Hard Rock Cafe across the street.
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Interesting statue I encountered and am still contemplating
 | Apparently the devil left this footprint
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 | I thought this was a pretty picture
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 | | Hofbrauhaus carriage in front of Hard Rock Cafe |
 | Watched the Rathaus-Glockenspiel
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After the tour, I met up with Aislinn, who had finished at the museum early, for lunch at the largest outdoor market in Germany. I got tomato soup and a panini that was essentially a grilled cheese.
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| More soup! |
We then headed to the English Gardens to meet up with Lilly and Sadie. I spent my time in the Haus der Kunst, which is "a museum for modern and contemporary art in Munich, Bavaria. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park...Haus der Kunst was the first major architectural project commissioned by the Nazis. The founding stone was laid by Adolf Hitler in October 1933. Haus der Kunst is an example of totalitarian classicism and was built in stone...For the Haus der Kunst opening the Day of German Art was staged on 18 July 1937. On the day, a parade with 6,000 participants and floats depicted the values, aesthetics, and grand aspirations of Nazi art. However, the carefully selected Nazi art did not attract the expected number of visitors. The Nazi elite had to purchase a large number of Nazi artwork to give the opening the veneer of success" (Wikipedia).
After WWII, they (I don't quite know who they is, but it's a group of people that decide things) chose not to tear down the building and use it instead as a gallery and exhibition space. I appreciate that the building is now used to house modern and contemporary art because those are the styles that Hitler hated and were displayed in the Nazi's Degenerative Art Show (which you can read about on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_Art_exhibition). I think using this space to display modern art is one of the only ways to continue utilizing the building without inadvertently promoting the original ideals it symbolized.
I walked around the English Gardens for my remaining 10 minutes, saw some people surfing in the river, and met up with the others to get the bus back to Prague. During the ride, Julianna texted and said she had to go back to Český ráj, the API national park trip they had taken that day, to get her Go-Pro that she forgot at a restaurant at some point during the hike. I responded and asked if she wanted anyone to go with her because I wanted to do the hike anyway and knew it would be easier to get there with someone who was familiar with the public transportation route. Suddenly, my birthday gelato crawl was no more (which was fine with me because the more I thought about it the more I realized how much it would cost).
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| Cowabunga dude |
Nature
There were some slugs and snails out and about this weekend!
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Foot for scale
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| No foot for scale |
