Despite all these hurdles we faced before even leaving Rome for Germany, it was such a relief to finally hit the road to Munich and what an amazing weekend it was with Bus2Alps camping at Oktoberfest!
Christine, Jen, Risa and I signed up to travel to Oktoberfest through a tour operator called Bus2Alps. I highly recommend to anyone studying abroad going on a trip with them. Friendly staff, great locations to travel to and you will meet lots of other students studying abroad just like you! Throughout each of the 12-hour bus rides the guides played movies for us including: “Wedding Crashers,” “The Social Network,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “Crash,” and a crowd favorite that even had the guys on the bus cheering…”Mean Girls.” Most of the time on the bus rides everyone was either watching the movies or snoozing. There were no issues staying entertained for the long ride. Also, by signing up with Bus2Alps our package included camping with Stoke Travel.
We arrived at the campsite around 8:30 a.m. and were greeted with a hearty, “Goodmorning!” (from the Stoke crew) followed by four cups of beer. When at Oktoberfest! Breakfast was included every morning of the trip and all of us were anxious when we saw eggs and bratwursts served on bread rolls. Germany has the most delicious sausages. I even ran into my friends Karen (who I met at a Rebelution concert this past summer), Amanda (who was one of my first friends at Chico State and a Journalism major like myself) and Cameron (who I went to high school with); it was great to catch-up with each one of them while at the campsite.
I have never ridden or owned a cruiser and what a way to try one for the first time. All the participants were split into 4-5 groups with a tour guide and after everyone selected their blue or turquoise cruiser we were off and hitting the streets of Munich!
After the bike tour we hit the Oktoberfest Festival at night.
Originally, we were going to try and get into the Hofbrau Festzelt tent – which is one of the most popular tents – but it was full by the time we arrived at the festival. Luckily, out of the corner of my eye I noticed people running to the tent next door and I immediately followed after them. We stayed in the Hacker Festzelt tent and apparently this tent had the nicest decoration inside with the clouds on the ceiling and all its color.
To end our trip in Munich on Sunday Christine, Jen, Risa and I all headed to Englischer Garten Munchen and Chinesischer Turm Biergarten. We had visited these places during the Bike Tour and only had an hour for lunch so we wanted to visit one last time before heading out on another 12-hour bus ride. This place truly made me miss Bidwell back in Chico and if I ever live in Munich I know this is somewhere I will spend my weekends and free time during the day. The garden is absolutely gorgeous with lots of families, couples and friends either sitting on the benches by the water, jogging, drinking coffee while walking their dogs or riding their bikes. The Chinese garden serves delicious food and large pretzels. They even had the huge steins used at Oktoberfest for sale!