Oktoberfest! Oh and Munich, I guess.

After a long stay in the quiet, reserved, and extremely classy city of Paris, I decided to take a more relaxed weekend detour.  So I decided to go to Munich, Germany to meet be with three of my friends, Alex, Smiley, and Kristi.  I definitely missed my train the first time and had to pay another 180€ to get there the at a later time, but I won't go into that.  Let's just say I was NOT a happy camper.  Though, it was Oktoberfest, so I knew it would be a lot of fun.  Me, Alex, and Kristi decided to book a room through Airbnb since most hostels were either booked, or so expensive people were paying with limbs, so we booked a room with two German college students about a 10 minute metro ride from the city center, Marienplatz.  

Our German roommates.  From left: Kristi, Alex, Markus, Me, Markus.  Markus is wearing traditional "Lederhosen" in preparation to go out to Oktoberfest. 

This was a good decision, since these guys were very, very fun.  The first night they taught us a typical German drinking game out in a park, which was a lot of fun.  Then the next morning Markus and Markus had made us some typical Bavarian white sausages with sweet mustard for breakfast.  Oh, and of course, beer.  They drink beer at every meal in Germany (which I’m not sure how I feel about.)  That day, my friend Smiley had booked us to go on a Sandman’s New Munich “Beer tour.”  So at 18:00 we all met up with other beer-tourists at the Starbucks right outside the Munchen Hauptbahnhof.  During this tour, we walked around Munich and learn some facts about the city, and of course had a few beers inside a couple of beer gardens.  This was a blast.  

Me and Kristi wielding "Oktoberfest" beers.  A stronger brew and in a 1L glass!  Kristi is wearing a traditional Dirndl outfit.  

Munich is a very cool city with lots of connection to the Third Reich and Hitler era.  My friend Smiley is actually working in a Museum where Hitler had once housed plundered art that he was saving for “HIS” art collection of the “BEST” artworks in the world.  Later that night, we hit up the beer tent in central Oktoberfest, which was again very fun.  We got to meet many Germans, and even met a couple of Delta pilots! 

The site of Oktoberfest.  Very packed, and almost appeared a glorified MN State fair!  Maybe this is the "Great German Get-together?"

We had planned to leave the next day, but we ended up enjoying Munich so much that we decided to extend our stay a few days.  So the next day we decided to do another Sandman’s New Munich tour of Dachau.  Once again meeting outside the Starbucks at Munich HBF, we departed for Dachau at 11:00 with our very knowledgeable tour guide.  This was a very sobering tour, but a very important one for every human to go on in my opinion.  I had been to Dachau about three years prior as well, but actually having a tour guide was incredible because she knew so much about Dachau and how the events unfolded.  One thing that surprised me most about Dachau is that for a good part of its functioning, it actually housed Germans who were “in opposition” to Hitler’s party.  That, I think, is a common misconception.  I will admit, I always thought that concentration camps were all about the Jewish population, but no; there was a lot more going on in concentration camps than I ever knew.  On that depressing note, it was time to leave Germany for Salzburg, Austria!