OKTOBERFEST!!!!

Munich has quickly become one of my favorite cities in the world. This past weekend, I met up with a bunch of my friends from SCU in Munich, Germany for the lovely holiday known as Oktoberfest. For those of you who don't know, Oktoberfest is the largest fair in the world and a huge part of Bavarian culture....and a fantastic excuse to celebrate beer in general.

I met up with a few of my best friends, Liz and Kelly, on Friday, and we immediately celebrated our arrival and reunion in Munich with a long lunch, consisting of beer and falafels. Seeing as the Oktoberfest festivities didn't begin until Saturday morning, Liz, Kelly, and I decided to go to the Dachau concentration camp on Friday, which was a dusturbing, moving, and eye opening experience to say the least. It took a few hours to walk around the concentration camp, visit the museum, and listen to the audio tour along the way. We saw everything from the "roll call" area, to the barracks, to the gas showers and the crematorium. I have always had a great interest in WWII and the Holocaust, but walking through the gates marked with a German, mocking phrase meaning "Hard work brings freedom" and standing on the very ground where such atrocities occurred left indescribable feelings in the pit of my stomach.

After having some interesting conversation and kit-kat McFlurries to cheer us up a bit, we met up with the rest of our friends at our hotel, and had a traditional bavarian meal with lots of meat and something that could be classified as either potatos or rice. We went to bed early to prepare for the events ahead.

Quite honestly, I have never seen ANYTHING like Oktoberfest before in my life. What appears to be a carnival of sorts upon first arrival becomes so much more as you entered one of the dozens of beer tents. Liters of beer, giant pretzels, people in traditional German garb, live traditional German music, men carrying cases of beer in stacks on their shoulders while blowing whistles to get the crowds to move apart, rollercoasters, ferris wheels, sausages......quite the sensory overload, if you can imagine. and SO. MUCH. FUN. Here are a few more pictures just to give you an idea of how the weekend went:


way too much fun, to say the least! I'm off to Madrid this weekend to meet up with some more friends and go to a few art museums, so I'll try to post again shortly after that!

Love,
Mary