Bavaria, Bretzeln, Bayern Tickets and Bier

10.3
I was looking forward to Friday this week more than ever! We had our first essay due in Senior Seminar, plus an essay that had to be written in German, a German quiz, and generally more homework than usual. Needless to say, we were all counting down the minutes until 12:00 on Friday when we would be let out of class for the weekend. It was just at that time that our professor asked us if we wouldn't mind sticking around an extra 10 minutes or so. We didn't want to, but of course we obliged. He proceeds to give a little spiel about how well our first-month in Salzburg had gone and that Friday marked our 'one-month anniversary' since orientation began. He said he had a little something for us from program funds, and he pulls out a shot glass for everyone. Then, he whips off his bow tie and says this next part is from personal funds and pulls out two bottles of schnapps! So, I had my first shot ever with my program director! It was honestly the best part of my week, even though the schnapps was, in my opinion, quite disgusting!


10.4
One word: OKTOBERFEST!
We decided to take the 6 am train, meaning I had to get up by a little after 4 (fortunately all my early mornings at Subway prepped me for functioning on a lack of sleep!). Luckily, with the purchase of a Bayern Ticket, 5 people can ride all day long for E27, so it only cost me E 5.5 to get to Germany and back! Without a doubt, the best deal of the day! The train ride into Munich was a little over two hours, and was interesting to say the least. Lederhosen and Dirndln and lots of 'pre-gaming' at 6 in the morning, I think our group was the only one NOT drinking on the way there!

we made it!

Once we had arrived in Munich, we weren't really sure where to go, so we decided to just follow the large mass of people, which luckily worked out in our favor. I ended up in a group with 6 others, and we decided it might be a good idea to find the bathrooms before trying to enter one of the tents. By the time we got back to the tent, we were welcomed by having the doors slammed in our face. We had heard that most tents imposed a 3 hour limit, so we figured they'd probably let more people in every hour or so, and as we were now at the front of the line, we'd definitely get in. The hours passed, and we were getting pretty impatient. Once noon rolled around, we figured we'd definitely get in, however, that was not the case. The security guard at our door held up a sign that said "Sued 7" implying entrance would only be at door 7, and were standing at door 2. By this time it was starting to rain again, and we were getting frustrated, but we tried for door 7 anyway. Of course there was a line at that door too.

waiting, waiting, waiting

Eventually a table outdoors cleared out, so we decided we may as well just sit outside, in the rain! It was the best decision ever! We had our liters of beer within 5 minutes of sitting down. And let me tell you, these women are impressive. They can carry 8-10 liters of beer at one time! Needless to say, I was impressed! As most of you know, I'm not much of a drinker, but boy was that first sip satisfying! After waking up at 4am, traveling for three hours, and waiting in line for three hours, it was definitely worth the E 8.25! I didn't think I would be able to finish my whole liter, and not only did I, but I was the first of the girls to do so! We had a great time prost-ing (German equivalent of 'cheers'. There was madness every time the sun decided to shine!), chatting and quoting 'the Landlord' (for those of you who don't know it, watch it! I've added it below!) as two of the girls who each had a liter and a half realized that essentially equaled out to 4 cans, setting aside the fact that German beer (well, European beer in general) is much stronger than American (7-7.5% compared to 4.5%).

Paulaner was our brew of choice

my first beer, EVER

PROST!

mission: successful

See more Will Ferrell videos at Funny or Die

'the Landlord'

After our Oktoberfest beer, we made our way back to the bathrooms, and then decided to check out a little bit of Munich before we had to meet the rest of our group at the train station later that evening. We headed towards the Glockenspiel and waited around to hear its very out-of-tune song. After that we found a moderately priced restaurant to grab a bite to eat before we headed back 'home'.






All in all it was a GREAT day! I enjoyed myself a lot more than I thought I would, I guess a liter can have that effect!

10.5
After Saturday's festivities, I planned on hanging low today, and not doing a whole lot of anything. However, I was awoken at 9:30 by the SUN! It's the first nice and sunny day we've have in over a week. There is NO WAY I could waste a day like today indoors! So, after I had some breakfast, I packed a snack for later and my knitting, and I headed on my way to find the Sound of Music house (it turns out Schloss Hellbrunn was simply the current location of the gazebo, and not the house like I had originally thought). The house was only a 10 minute walk from my dorm, and since the weather was so gorgeous I decided to keep going along the path and take in the wonderful views! I ended up walking around for nearly 2 hours! It was wonderful! I looped back around and found a nice park to sit in for a while and did some knitting...it's not perfect by any means, but I'm definitely getting better!









All in all, this weekend was definitely my favorite so far (well, possibly a tie with last weekend in Vienna!) If the weather holds out this week, I plan on taking a cable car up the Untersberg, and also taking a trip out to the Eagle's Nest, both of which offer amazing views of Salzburg, and even into Germany!