NINE.

I wanted to write an update sooner but I had a lot of housekeeping to do this week after coming back from Germany! Better late than never though right?

Last weekend was the infamous Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. Lauren, Mike, and I flew into Memmingem Airport and took a bus and a train to get into Munich Central. From the moment we hopped onto the train we started seeing women in their 'dirndl' and the men in their 'lederhosen' which was exactly the story book German clothing you thought didn't actually exist. We trekked off to our hostel- "the hangover hospital" and were greeted by an australian girl in a nurse outfit. enough said about that hostel. We jetted out of there and off to the festival as fast as possible.

Where do I even begin with Oktoberfest? It was just magical. I pictured it to be out of control beer drinking fest- which it was...but they had rides and games and all different attractions for all ages. I was surprised to find you can actually only get a beer sitting down in a beergarden or in a tent and you can't carry it around with you. I learned really fast that Germans are practical and efficient. They've got there stuff together.

We pretty much just stuck to wandering around and exploring the whole festival on Friday night and got back to the hostel and to sleep early before the other people staying there got back and we wouldn't be able to get to sleep. Plus we were told to get to the festival very early on saturday if you want to get into a tent, which we obviously did.

Saturday we got to the festival around 9:30 am and waited on line from the Hippodrom for a half hour when they opened the doors and the beer started flowing. At Oktoberfest they don't drink out of the standard glass size in America or even England. Oh, no. They drink by the litre. We found ourselves at a table with a few German girls and a couple of college kids from Missouri. The German girls taught us how to toast and sing the drinking songs and were very warm and welcoming. At this tent you're only allowed to stay for 3 hours at a time so they can rotate more people in, but we managed to stay for about 5 hours. I guess our charm translates even in German. We also made friends with Italian men who flattered our waitress into letting us stay longer. After leaving the tent we wandered around more and bought our souveniers and headed back for a power nap at the hostel. We then made our way into the center of Munich and did a little sight seeing and had dinner.

Sunday was a veryyyy long day. We woke up at 5 am and were travelling via train from 6:45 am to 6:45 pm. Literally 12 hours of switching on regional German trains throughout all of Germany from Munich to Hamburg. It was great since we got to see so much of the German countryside but it was exhausting. We finally got back to our flat at around 1:30 am just in time for bed so we could wake up for class in the morning!

This week was just a lot of school things- I saw the play Orphans by Dennis Kelly and wrote a paper on it and I finally made it to Notting Hill! Still haven't seen the movie but I think that means my trip there was more legit because of it. I also finally met up with my friend Trisha from Randolph who's studying abroad at London School of Economics for the year. I loved catching up with her and I am so excited to hang out with her the rest of the semester!

Also this weekend my friend Caitlin from Randolph/Fairfield is in town so we'll be meeting up on Saturday and I can't wait!!!!

I also heard about a diner in Camden so I think it's a given that I'll be going this weekend...