2:30am last Friday began my first international travel experience since arriving in London. And what an experience it was. I left my flat at the same time as a few of my roommates were coming home from the pubs, ran after (and caught) a bus to Liverpool Street Station, boarded the Stansted express and caught my breath. It was in this moment that it finally set in that the one trip I had been planning for months was actually happening, and I realized how incredibly excited I was to see Tania! RyanAir was not as sketchy as I was led to believe and I was actually able to sleep on my flight, which is quite a rarity for me. After a few unfortunate events I found Tania and we started our journey towards Munich. Once in Munich we met up with Kelsey and the three of us made our way to Marienplatz, the main city center of Munich. It was so beautiful. You literally get off of the U-Bahn in the middle of the square surrounded by gorgeous architecture.
From there we went to Hofbrauhaus, one of the original German beer halls. We all enjoyed our first German beers, I don’t know what it is about it, but German beer is by far my new favorite.
From Marienplatz Kelsey and I hopped on the U-Bahn towards Goetheplatz where the Oktoberfest tents are. I don’t know if anything could prepare me for what we witnessed next. First off we were in the minority wearing “normal” clothes, it seemed everyone (except us and the other foreign tourists) were wearing lederhosen (men) or dirndl (women). Also the sheer number of people there was simply astonishing. I think the easiest thing to compare it to is Kennywood on a school picnic day. Kelsey and I made our way to the merry-go-round to see the whole of Oktoberfest.
It was crazy to see it from the air, but I would have never been able to visualize it if we hadn’t. This was also around the time when I really started to feel the language barrier. Munich was the first city I had ever been to where English was not the main language. Since I had very little knowledge of the language (danka and prosit were two of the few words I knew) ordering food and communicating involved a lot of pointing and hand motions. Needless to say we somehow managed to get by.
After our dessert of apple strudel and a funnel cake-like thing we headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before the craziness of Saturday.
Early Saturday morning we met Tania and her friend Maggie outside the Paulanerbrau Winzerer Fahndl tent. They chose this tent because it is special to the Ukrainians (which they both are) because of the blue and yellow streamers inside. After a few pleadings the security guards let us in the back door without a reservation and we made our way to their friends table. I loved meeting Tania’s friends and was so happy to be experiencing Oktoberfest with native Germans. But that’s not where the internationality stopped, sitting at our table were kids from Paris, Americans studying abroad in Florence, Budapest, London, Munich, and Milan, as well as the native Germans. At any one time there was a chance that someone was speaking French, Ukrainian, German or of course English. It was quite an awesome experience and they were all so welcoming.
After lots of singing, beer guzzling and pretzel eating we left the hot stuffy tent and made our way to Giselastr where the beer gardens are. Think central park with lots of little restaurants and pubs.
We ate underneath this tower and listened to the band play above us. We sat there for hours laughing and talking, much of it in Ukrainian, which led to a lot of just smiling and nodding from Kelsey and I. Once again it was so nice to sit and get to know Tania’s friends, I now have such a better understanding of her life pre-Syracuse. From there we went to a Munich club, had an interesting cab ride home and finally ended at Maggie’s house.
As I left Maggie’s quite early on Sunday I felt immersed in the culture. I walked from Sumpfmesisenweg to Vestastrabe to Henschelstr to the S-Bahn realizing that I really wasn’t in London anymore.
I had a few hours before I had to catch the train back to the airport so I spent them exploring Marienplatz. It was a perfect morning and I can’t wait to see my developed pictures.
I ran to my train (seemed to be a common theme of this trip) and relaxed while traveling through the gorgeous German countryside. It was quite picturesque with the farms and small cottages; the fields seemed to go on forever. Once in the Memmingen airport I was suddenly overcome with Americans. It is crazy how small the world starts to feel as you get older. From the five other Americans in the airport one other girl was from Pittsburgh and it was quite insane how many mutual friends we had. I have also started to really enjoy conversations I have with people on buses or trains. I am very happy that there is not a language barrier for me in London so that I can actually communicate. I was so frustrated on the bus to Memmingen when the little old lady next to me tried to start a conversation and I couldn’t even say, “Sorry I don’t speak German”.
I was exhausted but very happy with the outcome of the weekend when I finally arrived home at my flat. It is also so nice to come home to my London family, I really did miss my roommates over the weekend and it was so good to see them all!
The week started with news of Zac and Jess’s baby girl Eliza (pictures please!). Tuesday was a beautiful day which I spent reading in Hyde Park and then went to Shawshank Redemption (the play adaptation of the movie). I didn’t really know what to expect as I made my way into the Windham theatre, for I am much more used to musicals than straight plays, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was an intense and moving performance than made me miss Kirsten very much; you would love it Kir!
Yesterday I took the baby I baby-sit to the Tate Britain art museum. It is literally a 10-minute walk from their flat and was a perfect way to split up a very long day of babysitting. My two favorite pieces were this sea landscape- which made me want to surf of course.
And this bear that was in the modern art section of the museum.
I feel so lucky that I have the opportunity to make a few extra pounds and even more lucky that I am able to explore areas of London that I otherwise would probably not venture to.
Now as I write this I am busy preparing to leave for Dublin. I am leaving after class today and am visiting my friend Lindsay who is studying there. I am so excited to see Dublin and it will be so nice to have a personal tour guide (Lindsay) as well, takes a lot of the stress out of it.
I am also excited that I am visiting a city that my Dad has never been to. It is quite a weird feeling actually, for when I was growing up I felt like my Dad had been everywhere in the world, quite strange that I am traveling to a place he has never been. But I guess that’s what growing up is all about…
Hope all is well and I will be posting pictures of Ireland soon!
Cheers-
Kelli
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