Current mood:	EUROPE'S GREATEST BEER MACHINE
Current music:	!!!, "Hello? Is This Thing On?"
Entry tags:	across the atlantic, cityhop, mosh, picspam

DIE GROßARTIGE BIERMASCHINE VON EUROPA
This entry is an entirely inadequate recap of the most surreal 24 hours I ever experienced.

hours spent on train: 15
liters of beer consumed: 1
marriage proposals received: 1
inappropriate places fallen asleep: 6
moments thought "NOT DRUNK ENOUGH FOR THIS SHIT": uh lost count
times hit on, accosted, violated, & molested in differing languages: also lost count

OKTOBERFEST 2007? PRICELESS.

Let me preface this post by giving you some more numbers. 18 of us went to Munich. Of those 18, 6 knew how to speak German, and none were an RA. The tickets cost 7 euro each way from Dresden to Munich and back again, i.e. 14 euro roundtrip. Our train left Dresden at 7 AM on Saturday and arrived in Munich at 2 PM; the return train left Munich at 5 AM on Sunday and arrived back in Dresden at 1 AM. No, we did not stay at a hostel.

Before I talk about the shitshow that was Oktoberfest and sleeping on a subway bench and the train station floor. . . . have some pictures of Munich first! (München Flickr set.) Almost everyone wanted to immediately go to the beer tents, but Kari and I decided to walk around the city for a few hours before subjecting ourselves to beer overdose and ugh, best decision ever. I spent 6 hours at Oktoberfest and it was 3 too many (should've pre-gamed hardcore, omggg). Munich is absolutely beautiful, though; it's filled with hidden passages and sweeping arches and clean symmetrical architecture. It reminded me of Dresden on a larger scale, a cross between Prague's picturesque streets and Berlin's urban skyline. We mostly only walked around the Marienplatz and surrounding streets due to time restraints, and I still managed to take over 100 pictures of the city before we even hit Oktoberfest. THERE ARE SO MANY CLOCK TOWERS IN MUNICH; Kari and I wanted to see the famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel, and there was seriously a moment when we stood at the center of the square surrounded by 6 different clock towers in every direction and we just ran in a circle when the hour struck trying to see which one had little people popping out. T_T (Now that I've flipped through my pictures and looked up the tower online, WE WERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT AT 4 PM and didn't notice anything aslkdjf, how anti-climatic).






















THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. I really don't know the people who actually live in Munich do it every year, having to put up with a constant torrent of drunk tourists for a solid month. Kari and I wandered quite a bit away from the city center and we ended up stopping at a fruit stand and asking the woman running it. . . . "Wo ist Oktoberfest?" LKASJDF I KNOW, DUMBEST QUESTION EVER BUT IT WORKED, OKAY. :(( She didn't even blink an eye; she's probably used to desperate foreigners by now. She gave us directions to the nearest subway and the name of our stop; so nice. :)) The subway, on the other hand, was an experience in and of itself; HOW CAN SO MANY PEOPLE FIT INTO SUCH A LIMITED SPACE. . . . I'm pretty sure I didn't breathe for two stops because there wasn't enough room for my lungs to expand. :T

I don't even know how to begin to explain the size and scale of Oktoberfest; it was just so ridiculous. It's the type of thing that you can't ever properly put into words, because the entire festival is a nonstop sensory overload. The blinking lights, littered trash, strench of beer and sausage, rising screams. Fights broke out every minute; I saw guards literally toss people out of tents and doors. I ALSO SAW SO MANY LEDERHOSENS, IT WAS GREAT. *_* The evening became super freezing super fast, and there were still so many girls in dirndl dresses; GERMANS ARE IMPRESSIVE.

I am apparently an Italian sleaze-magnet; as soon as Kari and I met up with our group at the Paulaner tent, a group of 30+ married Italian men kept (...) trying to pinch my cheeks and telling me how cute and beautiful I am; one of them told me, "MY WIFE IS ALSO ASIAN. . . SHE IS ALSO VERY CUTE. . . ." I was just like "T_T GRAZIE. . . ." And then this Brazilian one table over grabbed my hand and attempted to kiss it and alskfjd THIS WAS WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR OF MY ARRIVAL, OKAY. He's studying in Italy right now and he asked me for my age, and I told him 19, and he grabbed hold of my hand (again) and said solemnly, "YOU CAN GET MARRIED IN ONE YEAR. . . . IF YOU MARRY ME, YOU CAN BECOME A EUROPEAN WOMAN. . . . DO YOU WANT TO BE A EUROPEAN WOMAN?" T_T T_T T_T It got to the point where I was seriously really uncomfortable because he wouldn't stop touching me and so Kari and I escaped to go to the bathroom. . . . ONLY TO BE ACCOSTED TWICE (2) ON THE WAY THERE. One guy grabbed hold of my arm and slurred, "YOU ARE VERY BEAUTIFUL" and just as I shook him off, another guy came out of nowhere and shrieked, "I LOVE ASIANS!" god I thought I was going to die. AND THEN ON THE WAY BACK FROM THE BATHROOM, I got snagged by another boy who turned out to be a West Point graduate, asfldkj. He and his friends followed us back to our table; he was actually pretty cute but not my type at all. He gave off such an asshole vibe, ugh; he kept feeding me lines and had his arm in an iron-grip around my waist and repeatedly asked me to leave him with him, and his friends were so obnoxious. One of them wouldn't leave Kari alone and she finally was like, "I HAVE A BOYFRIEND >:E" (false) and he gave her a skeptical look but at least stopped touching her. I REALLY WISH SOMEONE HAD PRETENDED TO BE MY LESBIAN LIFE PARTNER; IT WOULD'VE MADE THE NIGHT SO MUCH BETTER. T_T I'm normally not averse to in-the-moment hook-ups but I make it a rule not to hook up with drunk boys who are in desperate need of a shower. :T

I remember asking what time it was and then realizing IT WAS ONLY 8:30 PM; ALL OF THE ABOVE HAPPENED WITHIN 2 HOURS. Looking back, I'm really not sure how I survived the night. Just before we left the beer tent at ~11 PM I stole an Oktoberfest hat from yet another Italian boy who tried to hit on me, because I figured that was acceptable payment for all the shit I had to put up with from the great country of Italy. Unsurprisingly, got felt up (again) on the subway back to the train station but at least this time it was a cute German boy in Lederhosen who winked at me twice; I should've stolen his hat too when I got off the subway. Hindsight. :T
























The beer really was incredible; I avoid beer if I can help it, and I still managed to drink a liter, which is huge for me. I initially didn't plan on going to Oktoberfest, but you can't turn down 14 euro tickets and 24 hours of surrealism. The entire experience was just, god. So insane but also so indescribable. I'm definitely glad I went, but I would never repeat it. Well, maybe, if the temperature had been 20 degrees F higher.

Midnight - 5 AM was pretty much spent illegally sleeping in various places: napped for an hour in a cafe before we were kicked out; then napped for another hour in the Munich subway station before the police kicked everyone out after a couple guys uhhh pissed in their sleep; after that slept on the train station floor for two hours before I woke up in a freezing fit and thought I honestly was going to die from the cold and sleep-deprivation and a pounding headache. I REALLY CANNOT STRESS JUST HOW FREEZING THAT NIGHT WAS; I wore 4 layers, and my teeth wouldn't stop chattering. Our train leaving Munich had no more seats left when we got to the platform, so the 18 of us ended up sprawling out on top of each other on the floor; good times.




As soon as we got back, I took a long shower and passed out on my bed for 5 hours. BUT AT LEAST I SURVIVED OKTOBERFEST THE REAL COLLEGE-STUDENT WAY WITHOUT GETTING RAPED OR MUGGED, WHAT A SUCCESS.