You'll Find Me at Oktoberfest-- Part 3

Catch yourself up with part one and two of my Oktoberfest adventure!

This was my second time to Munich, so when Bus2Alps offered us a bike tour on our last day at Oktoberfest, I didn't think I wanted to participate, assuming that I had already seen everything Munich has to offer. But Carly and Lindsey wanted to go, and I figured that I could use a little exercise after all of the beer and hearty German food I had been eating all weekend..

Frankie's Bike Tours has been voted the best bike tour in Germany quite a few times, so I had pretty high expectations for the day ahead of us.

Carly ready to go

We started off seeing some sites I had seen before, like the Hofbrauhaus, but during the tail-end of the tour we rode to some spots I hadn't been to before, such as the gorgeous English Garden. It was huge-- it's even bigger than Central Park in NYC. We were able to see some historic areas, gorgeous flowers, and even a marathon going on. The tour brought us through much of the park and to a beer house in the middle for lunch and drinks.

I had recently heard about a place that you can surf in Munich, and our guide brought us to this spot. A few years ago, the city put in a huge rock to slow down the flow of water through this area, and one day a guy in a wetsuit hopped in the river and started surfing on it. Now it's a world-famous bucket list item.

After the tour was done, the girls and I walked around Munich for a bit, then headed back to the campsite to (sadly) pack our stuff up and hop on the Bus2Alps bus back to Firenze. It was a great weekend and I'm so glad I finally got to experience Oktoberfest! 

The view from the bus on the way home!

You can use gift code "DANTE" for 5% ALL Bus2Alps trips, including Spring 2013 study abroad adventures and post-graduation trips! 

You'll Find Me at Oktoberfest-- Part Two

Don't miss part one of the Oktoberfest craziness!

On the second day, after only four hours of sleep, I woke up at 6am, got myself together, and we all hopped on the bus to get to the tents nice and early.

By the time we got to the Hofbrauhaus tent, found seats outside, and ordered our first stein, it was 9am. It was about to be a very long day...

First beer of the day

The beer maids at the tents are absolutely crazy. They can each carry ten 1-liter beers at a time and I have no idea how they do that for an ENTIRE day... must be a German thing.

After a couple of beers, we knew it was time for some "brunch". Everyone who had been to Oktoberfest or Springfest before had told me about this amazing chicken that I just HAD to try. And they were right... it was unreal. Really, all of the food we ate this weekend was SO good, and the chicken was only the beginning. And the best part was there was no pasta or pizza in sight!

After a few beers outside, we met two guys who were able to sneak us inside the tent so that we could hang out with the rest of the people from the Bus2Alps trip. It was absolutely packed inside! The line for the girls' bathroom easily had at least 500 women on it and we almost got squashed to death. But the atmosphere was SO happy and fun, and you can't help but sing along with the German drinking songs (even if singing actually means mumbling along with the melody since you don't know a lick of German).

Around 5pm, after eight hours of beer, huge pretzels, and singing, we went back to the campground to take a little nap and get some dinner. But as soon as we got back, we saw how many people were at the campsite bar and just couldn't pass up some good mingling time. Needless to say, it was a long night.

Part three... coming up soon!

You can use gift code "DANTE" for 5% ALL Bus2Alps trips, including post-graduation trips! 

You'll Find Me at Oktoberfest! Part One

The weekend I had been waiting for for months had finally arrived-- time for Oktoberfest!!

Last weekend we jumped on the Bus2Alps bus at 11pm (with 300 other students) with wine bottle in hand, ready for an insane few days.

I woke up on the bus at 7am (after only about an hour of sleep) to our arrival at the Stoke Travel campground. Yes, you read that right. Jessica Dante....camping. I can still barely believe it myself. But the campground was pretty cool and it was housing hundreds of people ready to have a great Oktoberfest weekend.

 We checked into the campsite, threw our stuff in our tents, and were ready to head to the beer tents! Another great part about the Stoke campsite is that for 10 euro, you can get unlimited beer and sangria for the entire weekend at the campsite bar.

First beer of the weekend, waiting for the bus !

Leo representing...

We started the day at the Hofbrauhaus tent around 10am-- I was so excited to go here since it brought back memories of our great time at the actual Hofbrauhaus when I studied abroad... the place was packed but we met up with a bunch of the Bus2Alps guides and other students on the trip with us.

First stein of the weekend! There were naturally many more to come.

After downing a few steins, Becca, Leo and I went on a hunt for Ox sandwiches, which were supposed to be one of the best foods to get at Oktoberfest. If you've been following me on Twitter, you may have seen that I've recently began to eat as vegetarian as possible, for health and financial reasons, but there was absolutely no way that I was not eating meat this weekend.  So we found our oxe sandwiches, which were... interesting. A bit chewy, and not a ton of flavor. Smothering ketchup all over it helped a bit...

Around 7pm, I grabbed dinner at the Hardrock Cafe with a bunch of the trip leaders, then we went back to the campground to meet up with everyone else. We had a 6am wakeup call for the next morning, but the bar on the campsite was bustling with people, so we all decided to have a good time there for a bit before passing out in our tents.

Bed at 1am, up at 6 the next morning... 

Day two coming soon!

You can use gift code "DANTE" for 5% ALL Bus2Alps trips, including post-graduation trips!