Hello my dear readers. I hope you are all enjoying your lives and will enjoy this next blog post about (drum roll).... MUNICH, if you couldn't tell by the title.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of going to Oktoberfest. Hands down best decision of my life. But more than that I got to explore Munich and a concentration camp... okay I'm getting ahead now. Forget everything after Oktoberfest...
Friday morning my roommate and a few friends of ours left for the airport at 6AM. Our flight took off at 7:30 and we landed in Munich at 10:00AM. Immediately I was both in shock and in love because not only was the airport amazing and unlike any airport I have seen, all the signs were in German.. -_- So for once in my life the couple languages I actually know were unable to help me. If you have never heard German, I recommend you find a German and listen. It is quite interesting and sounds like they are shouting basically.
Any who, we left from the airport and went to the city center. Beautiful. Amazing. Spectacular. I could go on and on. Munich is hands down one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen. We climbed their town hall and I even signed my name at the top on a wall. We overlooked all of Munich it was unlike anything I could imagine. The weather was perfect as well. All the stores were unfortunately closed because of a holiday, not like I could afford those expensive stores on a poor college students budget but hey, I just wanted to pretend I could. Here my friends and I enjoyed a mix variety of German nuts and yes they were delicious from the Pecan's to Cashews to Walnuts to everything. They were made right in front of us and the smell was so enticing that you had to walk over and buy some.
 |
| Signed my name on the Town Hall |
 |
| The nut lady making them fresh |
From the city center we went to the Residence Palace and it was so nice with the fall leaves. It is basically like any palace you have seen but in Munich so... it's cool. After that we went to the Englischer Beer Gardens. This place was packed. The walk was extremely beautiful and there was music going on. This is where my friends and I enjoyed our first German beers. Note to the readers always ask your friends what is in the beer if you didn't go up and get it with them. My friends told me that the Stein (German beer glass) was full of 50% beer, 30% vodka and the rest sprite just as I was about to chug it. Nonetheless 2 of those and you will be feeling gooooood. Here we also stole some Steins as a memory and yeah I am proud of that. Those things are expensive. Again, college student, do they not understand that?
 |
| Residence Palace |
 |
| Town Hall |
 |
| Selfie from the top of the Town Hall |
After we went back to our campsite and just hung out there with our friends. We had so many people staying there that it was a nice relaxing night plus our tent reservation came with all you can drink sangria and beer so that may or may not have been a plus. Anyways, I made friends with so many people this night especially this one girl who kept making me talk in a Boston accent because she loves Boston so much and a Norwegian who bought his pants in the woman's section... yeah that happened.
 |
| First German Beer |
 |
| Look at all the Pretzels |
THE DAY YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR:
OKTOBERFEST, OR AS I SHOULD SAY THE GREATEST DAY TO EVER BE INVENTED.
 |
| OKTOBERFEST |
We got up at 6:30AM which was miserable because I practically froze to death the night before. If you go to Munich at any point in the next few months bring better clothes than shorts and a light weight running jacket and bring a pillow or you will severely suffer. I promise. Caught the bus at 7 with some friends and headed over to the Hofbrauhaus. We didn't actually get into the tent until 9 so you can picture 6 starving college students out in the cold for 2 hours... it's not pretty. Once the doors opened it was a free for all. Literally a free for all. No order, no structure, it didn't even matter if you had been waiting for 2 hours or 2 minutes, you just ran and pushed and shoved. We finally got a table with our friends and ordered our first round. It was amazing. The atmosphere was crazy and people were singing and chugging. YES the chugging. You stood up on a table and chugged your beer. People clapped and cheered you on if you succeeded and booed you if failed. One girl failed miserably so she just poured her beer on her, props to you girl. You do you. Finally I met up with other friends from school at this tent on accident, I was just trying to find the bathroom but I played it off as if I was looking for them. I bought the most delicious cinnamon pretzel I HAVE EVER HAD oh and my friends and I split two bratwurst. So good.
 |
| Introducing the hook up couple |
 |
| Seflie with 4,000 people |
Finally around 3PM after about 5 steins we decided we wanted to go on some rides. I bought a killer shirt while we were walking around if I may add. We went on three rides, the Ferris wheel which featured a couple whose sole purpose was to hook up the entire time.. Are you kidding me. They didn't even look out of the Ferris wheel once.. DON'T YOU NEED AIR AT SOME POINT. Anyways after that we went on a ridiculous fast version of the teacups but it was with cars and it was amazing. All the Europeans were laughing at my roommate and I because we kept dancing in our car to the music... It was great music what can I say. Also, outside of the bumper cars my friends and I started to break it down dancing due to the music and people clapped... so you could say we were kind of like celebrities for that split second. After this we went to go into another tent but we didn't feel like waiting so we left and returned to the tent site and just hung out with some friends and enjoyed our last night of camping in that god awful campsite.
 |
| These are my friends |
The next morning before our flight we decided to be tourists again. We went to the Dachau Concentration Camp and this was a remarkable site to see. I've been to a concentration camp but it's never any easier when you go to a new one. People cry and have to stop half way through to catch their breath and take a moment to recollect themselves. But every time I go to a new one I learn so much more and I learn things I never knew before. This one camp had 20+ other sub camps and this camp alone saw 200,000 people in it's 12 years. It was also the only camp that was open from start to end the entire time in Germany. We got to see their barracks, their shower arrangements, photos of people being operated on for testing purposes, photos of people in the gas chamber, photos of dead bodies on top of dead bodies. It was insane. Being Jewish, it definitely hits me. Even if I wasn't Jewish it would still hit me. The fact that this didn't even happen 100 years ago is something that still gets to me. The events that took place at these concentration camps are unbearable and unthinkable and utterly repulsive but I am glad that I got to see this and read letters of survivors and families who lost or found their loved ones. I highly recommend you come here if you get the chance. You won't be disappointed just teary eyed.
 |
| Dachau Concentration Camp |
 |
| 1933-1945 |
All in all, I am in love with Munich. It is beautiful. Yeah the nights may suck and get cold but whatever I could deal. There would be nothing stopping me from studying there for a semester if I could. The buildings are beautiful, the food is to die for and the people are so amazingly nice. I will go back to Oktoberfest again in the future and I'll make sure when I have kids that they go to this remarkable celebration. You just meet so many people from around the world, it's hard to pass up an opportunity like this.
 |
| Now introducing the beer that had vodka: Rabbler |
Munich, I will be back. Don't you worry!
Ich liebe dich.
 |
| Casual fall photo |
