Oktoberfest

We weren't prepared. All of the warnings, the cautionary tales...I think Oktoberfest is like discovering America or giving birth in that it changes you. The experience cannot be conveyed. At the end of the day maybe we didn't create life or dock the Mayflower, but you cannot deny that Oktoberfest.is.revelation.

Here's what happened.
A group of us took the 5:45am train from Salzburg to Munich, followed the dirndle-clad crowd to the Promise Land. Once there we entered our delightful beer tent, a festive haven for bulging beer bellies and foolish students.



 

We ordered our first round of liters, and subsequently fell in love with one another..."WE ARE FRIENDS! WE ARE FAMILY!" etc., etc. it was a delightful time, even when we realized it was 10 in the afternoon and we were drunk. If only someone had told us then not to order another liter. If only we could have ridden out that first beer...but no--in our ignorance another round was purchased and our trying time commenced

Soon our glorious tent made us all a little claustrophobic...people with white powder (It wasn't cocaine, y'all) were dancing on tables...Cassie and I fled outside *great timing on our part, because soon after our table was reserved and Richie and Jill vomitted.

I told Cassie I need water, food, a toilet and to sleep. literally an impossible combination at Oktoberfest, and yet there I was post-toilet, eating french fries and sipping mineral water (ew), surely we wouldn't find a place to sleep...

Drunken Utopia appeared before us, a white light of hope and beauty. We had made it out of Egypt, these were our people! Now what you don't see are the medics darting to and fro, the stomachs liberally exposed, the hundreds of souls avoiding a noon-hangover.

I fell asleep *we did everything on the list!*, and when I woke I was pleased to find myself no longer a sloppy drunk, but a comparably able young woman. Cassie and I had entered Drunk Utopia as mere peasants, but with our semi-soboriety had become royalty.

Side note: Italien men are uncomfortably forward. As I stood by Cassie I felt someone fondling a blister on my left heel. Clutching my pearls, I turned to find a handsome Italien man enamored by my nasty feet and cooing, "Bella, bella..." It was time to leave.

As we walked through the streets, I found a small fountain. "Just let me freshen up!" I called to Cassie as I bent to splash water on my face...I don't want to talk about it

Wasn't Water

Our luck had been immense, we had had food, water, we'd taken a pee and a nap. We were feeling good and could now laugh at the fools stumbling past us, the men vomitting from trees. THIS WAS OKTOBERFEST! WE HADN'T PUKED! and of all the people at Oktoberfest (7.5 million) we run into the broest bro of the bros, BRENNAN!!<3! It was so good to see our Salzburg big brother! Except for Hanna, nobody could ensure our relative safety and happiness.

After talking for a while and walking through the streets Brennan and his cousin went to look for food. As we turned from saying goodbye we bumped into Laura. 7.5 million people and we find Laura! LAURA! As we went on with our found friend we see, out of 7.5 million people HANNA AND JOHN. I got on the ground (plank.because.pee) at Hanna's feet.and hugged John.

HAVE TO MAKE DINNER. MORE LATER

...and I'm back. Making the group dinner was SO fun because a) Laura is in my cooking group and I LOVEHATE her so much...more on that later. b) My ipod was plugged in so you know I was getting my Robyn on..and Celine.. c)I LOVE my Salzburg family!

Back to Oktoberfest.

We ran into some more people with John and Hanna...

So at this point life.is.good, except I know my odds of finding Gwen, Karly and Natalie are 1 in 7.5 million...and they had my return ticket home...

Laura, Cassie and I headed to the train station, and I realized I was going to have to buy another ticket (UGH) and considering it was a late notice purchase during Oktoberfest I knew it would be a ridiculously expensive ticket. and it was. until I started talking to the ticket man in German...we got 3 tickets to Salzburg for 7 Euro each, and Nicole ended up buying my ticket when I was nowhere to be found...success. The train ride home was hilarious--the closest I came to puking the whole day just from laughing.

Most people had absolutely terrible experiences which only made ours more positive by contrast. It was great, GREAT! What more can I say?

Oops..I did it again

More things I forgot to mention:

We went to a MILLION museums in Vienna that were awesome, including the Hundertwasser museum. Cool artist who hated straight lines and wanted to be reincarnated as a tree...Here is a building facade he designed in a neighboring, uh, neighborhood.

Little things:
1. Being vegan here is harder than at home, but not especially difficult
2. The MirabellGartens are still my favorite place in Salzburg. 
3. This post is really me just putting off a HUGE Oktoberfest post becuase Oktoberfest was HUGELY awesome and CRAZY

Writing scholarship essays for travel money and hoping to run a half-marathon in Spain & meet Viola or visit Brussles, Belgium with Hanna and Laura.

The next post will be OKTOBERFANTASTIC...yeah...

"Ok. I need to write a stupid blog post."

Vienna.

Pros:
Well, it's incredible
The architecture...unreal
Bonding with all my Salzburg Fam
Got my hair done *strikes a pose

Salzburg Family <3

Before Sick (at Schoenbrunn Palace)

Better View of Schoenburnn

St. Stefan's--climbed the back tower with Sam

Cons:
Went to the WORST opera ever. Praying someone got a picture of Frau Loos sleeping.
Got sick on the first day, and when I saw the replica of Sisi with all that hair and I gagged dramatically.
Everything is SO expensive

After sick in Schoenbrunn Palace Gardens

ProCons:
Roommate's alarm didn't go off so we were like 10 min late...meaning we couldn't make Mass ;)
Father Mark is Polonious sometimes, but SUPER nice

Me and Cassie--all the hair jokes from this day (Megan, did you intend for your hair to do that?) prompted my cut and color. We were bus buddies and DIED laughing the entire trip

More Vienna stuff later when people upload more lovely pictures of me...

More things I forgot to mention

At this one old fancy graveyard there were thousands of skulls with the former owner's name painted across the forehead...It was eerie. But cool, maybe. I don't know. I'm just posting to give Mariya something to read.

Walking back to Salzburg on a very fine afternoon. Stopped to practice my German with a sweet old lady--ahh, the simple country life, so quaint, so peaceful, and I, so out of place.

Going to maybe dye my hair lighter today and scope out tattoo parlors...To AVOID visiting, duh. Lots of women here have short hair or bobs and I LOVE it.

Oh and here's a photo of the ridiculously picturesque lake in which I bathed my ridiculously picturesque body...


It was Wolfgang lake.

Today is the last day of Salzburg's fashion week ,where clothes are 30% off, so I'm going shopping with Richie and probably doing my hair then, too. Soll Ich auf Deutsch schreiben? Ich hasse meine noten hier, aber Ich muss practicen so Ich kann ok Englisch sprechen in 8 monaten.

A final note: European feminine products are different

Salzburg Weekend

Me and Karly in the Altstadt, 10 min walk from my dorm
















Weekends here start Friday, so the festivities usually begin Thursday night. Today we were supposed to hike to the ice caves, but due to directional problems and warnings from some locals we ended up walking the 7 kilometers from Fürstenbrunn back to Salzburg. Stopped at a cafe, though, and had AWESOME weather.

My writing on this blog is just obscene, I apologize to anyone falling asleep on their keyboards.

Worst Blogger Ever

Ok...here are things I forgot to mention, show pics of, etc.

BIRD SHOW UP AT FORTRESS
Big birds flying around and doing cool stuff...




CHURCH from the sound of Music, where Maria gets married. Over 42 churches in the altstadt, Austria is FULL of them.







Little Things: Mozart's Geburthaus is a short walk from campus, surrounding fortresses are nice hikes nearby, I have a banana, toast and mint tea everyday for breakfast and a large salad at lunch.

A while ago (oops) we went here, to Emperor Franz josef's crib. It was his hunting mansion, where the declaration of war was signed. The desk where WWI began is upstairs in his study.









Ok, Now this blog is a bit more fleshed out...but equally lame.

Lake District

Forgot to mention our beautiful day in the Lake District. Went swimming in the water--SO clean we could drink it. It was also crystal clear, so my decision to skinny dip may not have been the wisest, but it was certainly the most fun. Classes started yesterday, blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Quick recap

We went to the salt mines and wore these funky cover. There were these long wooden slides we had to go down until we were deep in the mines...it was cool--














Then we went up to this fortress--INCREDIBLE.
Such a long hike up there, after viewing the fortress (which was rebuilt after peasants destroyed it during a peasant war--they later had to rebuild it) and climbing up to the Bell Tower, we watched a bird show. They had hawks, vultures, eagles flying around and landing on Robinhood-esque trainers.






On Sunday morning Bethany, Hanna, and I went hiking up the trail Clemens showed me. The view was incredible...see! There were some old Austrian couples up there who were better hikers than us. Skillz that killz.

After the hike, Bethany and I walked around Salzburg and accidently stumbled upon the Mirabelle Gardens. We saw Richie and Nicole there so we toured the place for a bit. The gardens were meant to be a better reproduction of the ones at Versialles, however beause of lacking funds they were never completed. I don't see how monetary issues weren't predicted as Versailles bankrupted France...whatevs these are AMAZING.

Salzburg is unreal and we're all having so much fun!!! What else can I say?

BIER!

Ok, breakfast is in a half hour and I need to get ready, but until I have more time (which seems to be never) I'll have to settle for a recount of my time at le bars.

There are fine drinking establishments everywhere here, and they are so unique--authentic Ol' Irish pubs, Old school German pubs, Funky Musik bars, etc., etc. Here Cassidy, Jill and I had our first draft Guinness under Brennan's recommendation and it.was.so.good. I could not believe how much better an authentic Guinness was compared to that canned sludge I've had.

Later Gwen and I went to Ladies Night at this nearly deserted bar, but I am SO glad we did. The bartender was from Michigan, but also raised auf Deutschland. She was super nice and served me my first absinthe! No hallucinations...Her friend there (whose name I cannot now recall...) was 26, and if we were in America I would have completely ignored him. he kind of had a rocker look, long hair and a soul patch, but we ended up talking for hours because I needed to practice my German and he was SO nice. Because I was pretty drunk I didn't really understand what he was saying, except when he complimented my german. *Neither the bartender nor the rocker drank, which I found very cool-it's funny how if someone doesn't drink in America we assume they're a recovering alcoholic.

Anyway, it was a very successful evening. I'll write more later about things besides the nectar of the gods. Things like this, for example

I MEAN RIGHT? THIS IS WHERE I LIVE. THIS IS REAL LIFE.

Salzburg, Österreich

I'm here!

The wifi at the center is incredibly slow, so this post will just be a quick recap of the past 48 hours.

-Zach dropped me off at the airport and gave me some sagacious advice
-Plane to Denver, plane to DC, plane to Vienna, plane to Salzburg
-Luggage didn't arrive, will get here tonight
-LOVE the other Salburgers. SUCH a good group
-Walked around the city with Gwen, Michaela, Hanna, Grace and Sam for a few hours, can't even describe to you...
-Bought an avocado, hummus, tomato and wasa crackers.
-I'm tired. My room is amazing. My shower is amazing.

I'll write more when I'm no longer jet lagged. Sorry this is so lame.