Ein Prosit Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit

This past weekend I met up with all my friends from Richmond in Munich and went to Oktoberfest! It was so great to see everyone and catch up with them! I waited in the airport for a while to meet up with Hannah and Jessie. While I waited for them, I saw so many Richmond people come through arrivals. So comforting to see familiar faces. We all got to the hotel around 10ish and by that time we were all hungry after a long day of travel. Unfortunately, Germany is not like Spain where in Spain, every restaurant would be open. In Germany, all that was open was McDonalds, but we were starving so we went. We headed to bed early because the next morning we were up at 7 to get to the tents early to get in line. You had to get in line early because you had to get a table. No table means no beer. And really, why did we come to Oktoberfest? haha. That was enough motivation for all of us to wake up early. While we waited in line to get in, we found so many more Richmond people. It was so exciting to see so many people. Once we got in we ran to a table but in the end there was plenty of open tables. Once we got our table and found all of our friends, we quickly sat and as soon as we did the ladies came with steins of beer. We all got some beer and hung out for a while. Once we finished our first beer we got another one and headed over to "Richmond Territory" as I referred to it as. On Friday, we as Richmond dominated about 6 tables right next to each other. There were so many Richmond people in one area that someone referred to it as just an Oktoberfest themed lodge! It was so much fun seeing everyone from school.

Basically the tent for Americans

Think I could be a lady?

Richmond friends at Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest Rule #1: Do not stand on the tables. You could dance on the benches as much as you wanted but as soon as you placed a toe on the tables, the ladies would come yell at you. Unless you were chugging your beer, where in that case, the whole tent would cheer for you

Oktoberfest Rule #2: You must at least try to sing along with Ein Prosit, which the band plays every 20 minutes! "Ein Prosit" means "good cheer"Here is a just an idea of what it was like...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0xvDceYgqg

After hanging out at actual Oktoberfest for a while, we left and went and got some lunch. I then went and explored downtown Munich a bit. 

Dirndl Store

Glockenspiel

Onion Domes

While I was down in Marienplatz, I asked some lady where a good place to eat was. She told me about a restaurant right off of Marienplatz. I think we went where she told me to go, but I am not positive. I had some sausage and sauerkraut for dinner. #sogerman

We headed back to bed relatively early because guess what? We got to do the whole thing all over again the next day!

Saturday, there were even more people. So many people to the point that it was ridiculous! When they let us in the tent, there were so many people that I got squished between people, elbows in my ribs, could barely stand. Once we finally got in the tent, it was much harder to find a table. I found my friend Angela and joined her table quickly! I had a pretzel and it was delicious! Since we were in the tent that all the Americans were in, the band played Sweet Caroline at one point. It awesome! Basically, Saturday was like Friday on steroids.

Oktoberfest was a great time to catch up with friends and see everyone from Richmond. And I mean if you go to Richmond and are studying abroad in Europe for the semester, I saw you at Oktoberfest! Prost!