During the last week
of my time in London, I had my parents come visit… one, because they wanted to,
and two because I needed to use their suitcases to bring home four months’
worth of belongings. They had told me before I had even left for my studies in
January that they wouldn’t mind going outside the UK for a short trip while
they were visiting. I knew that the ‘sister’ festival to the Oktoberfest would
be happening in Munich during the week that they’d be with me in Europe, and so
that was it, I decided for them- we were going to Germany.
So I got initial approval for
our trip from my parents and booked the flights and the hotel. This trip was
especially exciting for me because it would be the first time that I get to
really use my language skills in a real life situation. Also, who doesn’t love
a beer festival?! So back to the last week of my trip, on the Thursday of my
parents stay, we got up and into a taxi to Gatwick airport at 2:30 in the
morning for our 6 AM flight. We took the hour flight and landed at Flughafen
München around 9AM. From the moment we stepped foot in Germany there was a test
of my willpower in not caving in and speaking English.
Our first test was to buy a
train ticket to get ourselves from the airport to the hotel. Google maps
suggested it was about an hour… reliable, right? We ended up on the straßebahn
(over ground train) and settled in for our journey. After a good bit of time we
ended up at our stop. Next challenge? Finding the correct exit and then walking
in the actual direction of our hotel, which we (I) was not successful at and
eventually had to go into another hotel to ask for directions. After being
pointed in the right direction and a few hiccups meaning we crossed the street
waaaaaay to many times, and in way to many high traffic situations, we finally
found our hotel.
We checked in to our hotel
and made our way to a sunny spot in a center square of the city. We promptly
found a little pub, (Irish, funny enough) and sat outside in the sunshine. It
was so warm and sunny after an hour and a half we each ended up with a sunburn,
but it was well worth it because I had felt like I hadn’t seen the sun in England
for months. After sitting at the pub we made our way to Thereinwise which was
the fairground that the Frühlingsfest was held on. Seeing as it was the middle
of the day on a Thursday, there wasn’t a huge crowd so it was easy to get food
or beer fairly quickly. Our first stop was the very traditional beirgarten, and
we were surrounded by people in their lederhosen and dirndls (Shit! I forgot to
pack mine!). After the first beirgarten, we walked through the fest, and the only
thing I can liken it to would be the Woodstock fair in Connecticut, EXCEPT that
everyone was speaking German (obviously). After sampling a few German goodies,
we decided to walk back to our hotel.
Upon arriving back to our hotel
room to find that it had been broken into, we went to the desk to report that
our first floor room had been broken into as out of our own stupidity left the
smallest of the three windows open and someone had reached through and pushed
the larger one open and climbed in. luckily they didn’t take anything, and
luckily we hadn’t left anything of importance in our room. As youkan imagine,
it wasn’t ideal, and definitely put a wrinkle in our plans as now we had to
wait for the police to come and “inspect the crime scene”- at this point we
were a few beers in and feeling a bit peckish though, and as part of our
compensation for the trouble we had the hotel offered us drinks while we waited
for the investigation to commence. By the time that wrapped up, we were very
very hungry.
 |
| So viel Wurst! |
We decided it would only be
appropriate to have very typical German food for dinner, because as my parents
were concerned this could potentially be the only time they visit Germany. So we
went to a restaurant which I believe was actually called “Das Wursthaus” and as
you can see from the picture below, fitting name. After our dinner we went
promptly back to the hotel, and went to sleep. Being awake for almost 22 hours
straight really tires you out.
The next day we packed up our
things and checked out, and had the entire day to explore the city before our 9
PM flight. We walked all around to find the English gardens which we were
advised to see by the receptionist at our hotel, we also stopped at street
market on our way to the gardens to see all the food and handmade goods that
were being sold, and of course, to drink some more German beer. By midafternoon
we had made it to the gardens and walked through them in the lovely sunshine, as
it was again warmer than any of us had expected it to be. By then we were
hungry for some food before our flight. We made our way to a restaurant before
heading off on the train to the airport again to fly back to London.
 |
| Ich liebe München! |
Overall our trip to Germany was a
success, we saw so many things, and got to experience something so similar yet
very different to English culture, or American culture. I am so happy that I got
the opportunity to visit Germany, and I certainly plan on going back to spend
bit more time there, so I can get a real feel for the German culture that I have
yet to experience, as I have only visited one city, and there is so much more to
Germany that I could see!
That’s all for this
week! I hope you enjoyed!
Cheers!!
xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment