Since before I studied abroad, I had always wanted to go to Munich and experience the events of either Oktoberfest or Springfest. So when I got to Florence, Springfest was one of the first trips I booked, and boy am I glad about that!
We hopped on the bus Thursday night and were off. Unfortunately our tour guides from Bus2alps didn’t inform us that we would only be making one stop, and it would be at a convenience store, so none of us brought food and were starving by the time we woke up Friday morning.
Bright and early on Friday we woke up for our 4 hour bike tour around Munich. Mike’s bike tour is the #1 rated tour in Munich and they were great! Being that there is never a dull moment in my life, I ended up riding right into a sign. Mallory, bikes, and stationary objects don’t get along to well. Since the weather was so great we stopped for lunch at a beer garden where we drank beer and ate sausages, not exactly my preferred meal but I had to try it being that they’re both traditionally German. Much to my surprise, the beer was very drinkable (I HATE beer) and the sausage was pretty good, too. After the bike tour we headed to Springfest, which is a mini version of Oktoberfest. It’s pretty much a huge carnival in Germany that they have for 3 weeks in April. It’s filled with carnival rides, food, and beer’s the size of my face! Not to mention LOTS of drunk people. We spent the day in tents drinking, dancing, going on and off rides, and experiencing the magical world of Springfest.
We walked around for a bit Saturday morning stopping at Starbucks (grab it while you can) and wandering around the beautiful city of Munich. It was already about 75 degrees when we left the hostel at 10AM so we knew it was going to be an extremely hot day. After wandering aimlessly, sweating lots, and picking up some souvenirs, we were all starving but couldn’t stomach any traditional German food so we opted for the Hard Rock Cafe. We sat and enjoyed our traditional American food, everyone craves it at some point. Around 3 we decided to head over to Springfest yet again because we felt the need to frivolously spend all of our money going on rides. We spent about 2 hours and a lot of money having the time of our lives on all the rides. We were all smiling the whole time and completely loving life and the fact that we didn’t need to have a care in the world. At this point we were running out of steam and decided some good ole German beer would give us the energy boost we needed. We initially sat outside and a had a few beers but somehow ended up in the tents, dancing on tables, singing, and just being absolutely absurd! After what felt like an eternity we decided to go home but that idea was quickly thrown in the trash when we saw all the rides lit up in the night sky. I swear you would’ve though we were 5 year olds with severe ADD. We spent an hour going from ride to ride and spending every last penny we had. Not too responsible but there was a bank near the hostel.
Sunday morning we woke up early to take the train to Dachau, the concentration camp in Munich. It was an overcast, gray day unlike the other two days that were 80 degrees and sunny which was a bit ironic since we were walking around a concentration camp. When we arrived we found out that it was the 67th anniversary of the Liberation at Dachau. There were families and survivors present as well as a memorial taking place. We walked around the camp and went into a sample barrack which had the beds that they had to sleep in, the small rooms, the toilets, and pictures of the victims being tortured. When we walked further we were able to stand in the actual gas chambers where they were murdered. As a descendent of a Holocaust survivor (my grandpa survived, while his parents were killed) it was a very emotional day and made me nauseous to even think about the fact that he had spent a portion of his life living in very similar situations, and that my great grandparents had been killed in a similar version of the room I was then standing in. It was an amazing experience seeing the camp but it was definitely a very solemn day and I was glad we were going to be heading home afterward.
While Munich was not my favorite city that I have been to, this weekend was absolutely my favorite thus far (and with only 1 more trip left I’m not so sure anything will surpass it).
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