Ahh... Venezia! At last!
I can not tell you all just how excited I was to FINALLY be going to Venice! To me, this is one of the most unique places in the entire world! And what makes it more stunning is the fact that it will not be around forever. I feel so lucky to be able to travel and see this beautiful place while it is still in existence. Since all the fast trains were sold out for the morning, our slow train departed at 4:30 a.m. and arrived in Venice at 9:30 a.m. Although I was running on 5 hours of sleep, the excitement kept me going. Venice! When we first stepped off the platform, I was greeted by my first sight of a venetian canal! For the last 20 years of my life, I have only ever been told of this city, and now here I am, seeing it with my own eyes. First, we walked across the bridge and decided to try and find Piazza San Marco. Ana bought a map and we slowly made our way through the streets of Venice. I think we might have taken the longest route possible to get there, but on our way, we stopped to window shop and look around. It was amazing. The city is so clean and well-kept, you feel like you are on a movie set just walking around. When we finally made it to the Piazza, I was stunned by how big it was. I have heard and seen the Piazza in movies before but seeing it firsthand was amazing. At that point in the day, we were fairly hungry so we stopped into a ristorante on a street off of the Piazza. The one down side to Venice is how costly everything is... My small pasta dish cost about 10 euro, and that was one of the cheaper places we could find. But at this point, I am kinda used to having to spend a lot of food... Italy can be very pricey if you don't know where to go. During lunch we noticed that all the other tables around us had a basket of bread on the table; not abnormal, just a little appetizer before your main course. But we never received a basket! This is not the first time this has happened to us either. Almost every time we have gone out to eat, they don't bring us bread. So Bree asked our waiter if we could have some and he said, "It comes with your meal." Well, call me crazy but our food came and left and I never once saw any of that promised bread sitting on the table... Maybe it's because we are American students? Who know... but I just thought that it was strange considering that we can obviously see other people munching on their bread. Anyway, just a random occurrence that keeps happening here. After lunch, we walked over to the Basilica and went inside. Of course, it was beautiful. It makes me sad to think that in as little as 20 years the whole place could be destroyed though. Even now, during heavy rainfall, the Piazza becomes flooded since it is already below sea level. It would be a shame to lose such a historical place. After the Piazza, we went across the Grand Canal to see another church on a different part of the city. But before we found the bridge, we came across an impromptu circle of cellists playing in a tiny little piazza. I couldn't believe my luck! There were about 12 cellos playing. It was a very special moment for me because it was just a coincidence for me to run into it. They only played one song and then packed up and left. I have it recorded for those of you interested :) I was so happy to run into that, it made my day.
It was quite strange to see absolutely no cars, buses, or even bikes in an entire city. We were thinking about getting a gondola ride, but it cost 80 euro for each! Maybe if we had 6 people, but the price was a little steep. We had about and hour and a half left before our train so we decided to start making our way back to the train station and window shop on the way. I bought a panino, nutella, and pretzels for the ride back and since we got the fast train, it was only an hour and a half ride instead of 4. I was very excited but pretty tired at this point. On Sunday, we were planning to go to Perugia for the chocolate festival and were taking an early train again. It feels like I live about half of my life on trains these days! But this trip was by far one of the coolest so far, and Venice did not disappoint :)
Monday, October 24, 2011
Day 51 Siena Hot Springs
Since you all know just how hard my life the past 2 months has been, I am sure you can all agree when I say that I deserved a relaxing day at the natural hot Springs in Siena.... ;) Friday morning, Ana, Ariana, Bree and I met up at Santa Maria Novella Station and got on a bus to go try out the hot springs in Siena. Since the weather is about to get pretty chilly, we decided we might as well take advantage of the last few weeks of sun. The ride to the hot springs was about an hour and a half. When we got there, it was a beautiful sunny day but super windy. The hot springs, which was more like a spa, offered massages, mud bathes, facials, and manicures for extra, but I was just satisfied with being able to use the bathes all day. Unfortunately, on the bus, our tour leader warned us that since the hot springs are natural wells, there was a high chance that the place would smell like sulfur.. and that it did. Once inside the locker room, the smell was very concentrated. So, not ideal, but I was willing to but up with it for the time being. So we changed and made our way out to the pools. I really did not realize just how cold it would be until we stepped out in our bikinis and felt the cold wind. Getting out of the pools was going to be fun! We walked over to the first pool only to reach down and feel the temperature... lukewarm at best. So we ventured over to another pool.. A little better but not by much. Now I am freezing, and anything beyond cold sounded like a good option. So we got into this pool. Once inside we started talking to some other people there about the other pools and everyone agreed that this was the hottest.. The hot springs just turned into the lukewarm springs. I can't say it wasn't relaxing.. just not what you would expect from a place who boasts naturally "hot" water. They also never mentioned the sulfuric-rotten eggesque smell coming from all around you, but alas... We decided to relocate to the inside pool where the smell was worse, but at least it was shelter from the wind. Basically, we hung out in there for the rest of the day, sheltered from the cold but not exactly doing what we had planned. Bree paid for a mud bath, so for an hour she was gone doing that. Around 5, we got back on the bus and headed home. Since we were planning on going to Venice in the morning, I was just going to spend the night at their apartment since our train to Venice was at 4:30 a.m. the next morning. The lukewarm springs were beautiful in person, but only by sight. I can't say I would recommend them to a fellow traveler but I am glad that I had the experience. Not many people can say they lukewarm springed in Siena, Italy, can they?
Days 39- 45 Genoa
Ciao a tutti!
This weekend, we planned on seeing Venice but unfortunately, all the train tickets and group trips were sold out. So instead, we planned a trip to Genoa, Christopher Colombus' home town. On the way there, we took a slow train so the trip was about 3 hours. We left Florence around 7 a.m. and arrived in Genoa at about 10:30. When we first got off the train, there was a huge statue of Cristoforo Colombo outside of the train station. You could tell that they take him very seriously, considering that he is probably the most important person that Genoa has ever produced. After that, we walked around the city, eventually making our way down to the water. Genoa is a port city located on the coast, north east of Florence. It is actually best known for its pesto, apparently Genovese style pesto is supposed to be the best there is in Italy. So, after walking around for about an hour, we decided to find a place to eat near the water. We chose a restaurant that we could see all the boats from. If you have been to San Diego harbor, this is pretty much what the harbor looked like. For lunch, I ordered pizza and salad but Ana ordered the pesto and I tried a little piece. The verdict? Nothing special in terms of pesto. I am sure we were not at the best restaurant that Genoa has to offer, but I wasn't especially impressed. The other famous part of Genoa is the aquarium on the harbor. Unfortunately, we didn't go in because the tickets were kinda pricey, but it looked cool from what I could see. Instead, we just walked around the harbor and looked at all the boats. There were a couple you could pay to see and go on like you can do in San Diego but we were fine with just looking. I also imagine that Genoa is a huge port for cruise stops because there were a couple huge cruise ships docked in the marina. Also, there were tons of yachts so my friends and I decided to each choose one for ourselves so that we could pretend that we were going to take one out for a ride. We decided to cut back into the city and see what else there was and of course, we found ourselves shopping. There has to be an H&M in just about every city in Europe now because we have found them everywhere so far. Anyway, Genoa was beautiful because of this location on the water, but I was somewhat unimpressed by the actual city. Some of the architecture and design did not make any sense to me; sometimes there were buildings in the city that had kinda tacky painted on windows and decks... very strange. Compared to the architecture in Firenze, and in other places I have visited, I was a little disappointed. We grabbed some pizza for dinner and then headed back to the station for the train home. Overall, an enjoyable day, but no match for my "home" town of Florence. We also decided to buy our train tickets farther in advance for Venice so that we could go the next weekend. I couldn't wait :)
This weekend, we planned on seeing Venice but unfortunately, all the train tickets and group trips were sold out. So instead, we planned a trip to Genoa, Christopher Colombus' home town. On the way there, we took a slow train so the trip was about 3 hours. We left Florence around 7 a.m. and arrived in Genoa at about 10:30. When we first got off the train, there was a huge statue of Cristoforo Colombo outside of the train station. You could tell that they take him very seriously, considering that he is probably the most important person that Genoa has ever produced. After that, we walked around the city, eventually making our way down to the water. Genoa is a port city located on the coast, north east of Florence. It is actually best known for its pesto, apparently Genovese style pesto is supposed to be the best there is in Italy. So, after walking around for about an hour, we decided to find a place to eat near the water. We chose a restaurant that we could see all the boats from. If you have been to San Diego harbor, this is pretty much what the harbor looked like. For lunch, I ordered pizza and salad but Ana ordered the pesto and I tried a little piece. The verdict? Nothing special in terms of pesto. I am sure we were not at the best restaurant that Genoa has to offer, but I wasn't especially impressed. The other famous part of Genoa is the aquarium on the harbor. Unfortunately, we didn't go in because the tickets were kinda pricey, but it looked cool from what I could see. Instead, we just walked around the harbor and looked at all the boats. There were a couple you could pay to see and go on like you can do in San Diego but we were fine with just looking. I also imagine that Genoa is a huge port for cruise stops because there were a couple huge cruise ships docked in the marina. Also, there were tons of yachts so my friends and I decided to each choose one for ourselves so that we could pretend that we were going to take one out for a ride. We decided to cut back into the city and see what else there was and of course, we found ourselves shopping. There has to be an H&M in just about every city in Europe now because we have found them everywhere so far. Anyway, Genoa was beautiful because of this location on the water, but I was somewhat unimpressed by the actual city. Some of the architecture and design did not make any sense to me; sometimes there were buildings in the city that had kinda tacky painted on windows and decks... very strange. Compared to the architecture in Firenze, and in other places I have visited, I was a little disappointed. We grabbed some pizza for dinner and then headed back to the station for the train home. Overall, an enjoyable day, but no match for my "home" town of Florence. We also decided to buy our train tickets farther in advance for Venice so that we could go the next weekend. I couldn't wait :)
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Day 34- 38 Oktoberfest!
Ciao Tutti!
Again, about two weeks since my last post.. I know you have all been on edge, just waiting for my next novel to be published. I am so so sorry that I have kept all my loyal fans waiting for me! Anyway, the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of events. Since my last post, I have led quite the life. Last weekend, as most of you know, I went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany! Let me just say.. no words. But I will do my best to try and recap with the best description that I can.
Thursday Night: Bus leaves the train station at 11:30 p.m. Get ready for an 8 hour bus ride to Germany! That part of the journey wasn't too bad.. Except for the pit stop at 3:30 a.m.. not sure why they think that is a good time to stop, but I suppose it's because it is right in the middle of the trip. I slept about 6 hours on and off on the bus, which I think is pretty good considering that we had absolutely no leg room.. We arrived in Munich around 9 in the morning on Friday and since we planned to meet up with our friends, we walked straight to the train station to find them. Once we got there, we all realized that our campsite was a train ride away from downtown Munich so we needed to buy a ticket for the weekend. But first, we HAVE to try a pretzel.. what else is there to eat in Germany? :) So Ana and I buy our first pretzel of many at the train station. Once we got onto the train, we had to figure out where we were going exactly. Our campsite was called Weisncamp. We knew the stop to get off at, but weren't sure where to go from there. After getting off the train, us and about 15 other people were having some difficulty finding the campsite... so we wandered around for about 20 minutes looking before someone eventually found it on a map and we were able to head in the right direction. When we got the camp, it was almost as I imagined it, although I was unaware that it was known to be a "party" camp so there was a big tent for dancing, food, and drinks right there. Since it was only 11 a.m., of course there were people drinking.. what else would they be doing? After check-in, we put of stuff in the tent, got changed, and decided to head to Okterberfest! Finally! Some of our other friends had been there since 9 a.m that morning. So needless to say, we were a little bit behind. We caught the train back into the city and found ourselves coming up the escalator to the funnest looking fair I have ever seen. Like the Del Mar Fair times one hundred. There were tents for all different types of food, rides, games, and best of all, the infamous beer tents. :) Since I had only eaten a pretzel all day, I decided to try a "hot dog", German style. Oddly enough, it was like a hotdog in a hamburger bun.. which was strange but pretty good. After that we decided to try and get into one of the beer tents to see the madness first hand. I am sure you have all seen the movies like BeerFest, heck, maybe you have even been to Oktoberfest before. But for those of you who haven't.. I will do my best to describe my initial reaction. First, when we finally push our way into the tent, all you can see are tables just jam-packed with people. Second, you see the steins. A stein is that huge "glass" that beer comes in but it holds a whole liter of beer. Everyone in the tent has at least one in their hands at all times. Most of the people in the tent (Hofbrauhaus) were either standing on the tables, or about to be. I have never seen anything like it. Randomly, we ran into a girl from our program and since she had a table, we decided to sit with her. You can only order a beer if you are "sitting" at a table. So you can't be walking around a expect to order a beer. Anyway, as a our first tent of the day, I am happy to say that it was my favorite when I look back on the whole experience. After that tent, we walked to another to find some friends, and then another after that, and another. Then, we thought it would be fun to go on a carnival ride. Let me tell you... twenty times scarier than normal... Couldn't believe that we all made it through alive. Around 7 we grabbed dinner, and decided to head back camp. When we got back, there was party starting in the main tent but we were all pretty tired. Ana and I headed to bathroom to wash our faces and low and behold, there was no hot water! Just the beginning of a very cold, showerless weekend. We we headed back to the tent, (we were staying with Matt and Jordan, two guys from Gonzaga) we realized just how COLD it was going to be. Ana and I both bought our very compact sleeping bags. [Shout out the the Knudsens for that one :) ] but alas, the tent was way colder than we thought. We decided to go to bed early so that we could get up early on Saturday. Unfortunately, you could literally feel the music coming from the main tent through the ground. But we were all pretty exhausted and fell asleep fast. The sleeping arrangements went as follows... Jordan, Matt, Ana, and Me. I had NO IDEA just how cold being on the outside of the tent would be. Around 3 a.m. [music still going at the party tent] I woke up freezy. I think I may have accidentally woke everyone else up with my teeth chattering so, like the gentleman he is, Matt offered to switch with me and go on the outside. Which would have made more sense initially because he had a better sleeping bag.. but oh well. The middle was probably 15 degrees warmer than the outside spot. We feel back asleep until 6 when Ana and I decided to get up and actually take a shower.
Saturday: We got all of our stuff and headed to the girl's bathroom. Although there was no hot water the night before in the sinks, we saw steam coming from the shower. But when we got inside, there was absolutely NO hot water AT ALL. Oh, and icing on the cake, the showers all had about 6 inches of water in them, collected from the poor souls before us who decided to brave the cold and take showers. Ana, a much braver woman than I, got in the ice bath and WASHED HER HAIR! I could barely bring myself to dip a toe in the water, much less dunk my head in it! I chickened out and just attempted at washing my body. Its really nice to go from a freezing night's sleep to an ice cold shower.. I live the life of a queen. Anyway, after that whole ordeal, I got out, shiver-dried off, and proceeded to get dressed. Unfortunately, the whole bathroom was flooded at this point. Guess who proceeds to drop all her clothes in the messy, dirty, wet floor of the public bathroom? I DO. I literally dropped everything except my pants and my jacket. So guess who had to wear those back to the tent and change there? I DID. Yes, I assume you are all imagining this vividly and chuckling to yourselves. And at the time, that's all I could do too. I laughed. Just my luck. So, not the best start to my day, but I made it work. After that whole situation was over, we went to the main tent and bought some crappy food for breakfast. For everything you purchased from the tent, you had to give them a down payment for the utensils! So strange. Anyway, we headed to Oktoberfest around 9 and half of us found a table in the Paulaner Tent. The other half got a table outside at another tent across the way. We drank a stein at the Paulaner and ate a pretzel then made our to find the other group at their outdoor beer garden tent. At that point in the morning, everything was already PACKED so just finding a table for everyone was a challenge. Around 12, a bunch of these Croatian guys asked a guy at our table if he would order then 6 steins for 80 euro, basically tipping him 20, because they wanted drinks but since you can only order if you have a table, they asked him to do it for them. Matt's mistake... we quickly found our table being taken over by a bunch of rowdy soccer referees from Croatia. To sum up my experience with them, let's just say that I will NOT be going to Croatia anytime soon to find a husband.. they were quite vulgar. I do not think one of them possessed a filter on the stream of thoughts running through their heads. I was privileged enough to hear all of them. At one point, Jordan and I left to get some ice cream because we needed a break from the sun/ the Croatians. But when we tried to get back into the beer garden, the guards would not let us! We tried every entrance to the tent but no one would give in. Finally, we were able to distract a guard and we snuck in under the rope and got back to the table. After that, everyone decided that they had been hanging out long enough, and we made a group decision to head home to get changed and then find a place to eat dinner downtown. Of course all the restaurants in all or Munich, we settle for an Italian food restaurant. Of course. But at that point, I was so hungry I didn't even care. Some people in the group wanted to go out after that, but the majority of us were too tired, so we just decided to head back to the freezing cold campsite and go to bed. We had to check out by 11 a.m. in the morning, and we wanted to hang out in Munich a little bit before we had to catch our buses back at 3.
Sunday: After another super comfortable night in the tent, except this time we got smart and put our extra blankets down first for more insulation, we got up around 8, packed up, and headed to the train station to catch a train to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside Munich. I was really excited to go to there because I have read so many books about the holocaust, but I've never visited the scene of where it happened. We got to Dachau around 1130 and walked around for a couple hours. I have never been so close to so much tragedy before. It was astounding to me how anybody survived there. Truly. I felt like such a baby for complaining about being "cold" in my clothes, sleeping bag, and tent. Holocaust victims were forced to stand shoeless, clothless, and hungry in the dead of winter outside for hours. And sometimes, they were forced to walk from camp to camp through the snow. Seeing the "living" quarters and barracks were also astounding. But the part that affected me the most was seeing the gas chamber and the ovens. I could not believe how many lives were ended in those rooms alone, a murder factory. There was even such a great demand for the first crematorium, they had to build a second, bigger one with more ovens and more killing capacity. The fact that humans, just like you and me, were putting other humans into ovens is a mind blowing thought in itself. I think about how fortunate I am; not being born during that time and place, because my family probably would have also been lost in the horror as well. And to the survivors, wow. Just simply unbelievable that anyone could have survived. They are ALL heroes. And should be examples for just how strong we are, and can be when faced with difficulty. Anyway, ending with Dachau was not the happiest thing we could have done that day, but it was definitely the most meaningful. I am so glad that I went. After that, we all piled back onto the bus, and then back onto the 8 hour bus ride home. I watched about 3 movies during that time and attempted at sleeping, but to no avail. We got back to Florence around midnight and Tommaso picked me up from the train station.
So there, in somewhat of a nutshell, was Oktoberfest 2011 for me. I hope you all enjoyed my story :)
Again, about two weeks since my last post.. I know you have all been on edge, just waiting for my next novel to be published. I am so so sorry that I have kept all my loyal fans waiting for me! Anyway, the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of events. Since my last post, I have led quite the life. Last weekend, as most of you know, I went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany! Let me just say.. no words. But I will do my best to try and recap with the best description that I can.
Thursday Night: Bus leaves the train station at 11:30 p.m. Get ready for an 8 hour bus ride to Germany! That part of the journey wasn't too bad.. Except for the pit stop at 3:30 a.m.. not sure why they think that is a good time to stop, but I suppose it's because it is right in the middle of the trip. I slept about 6 hours on and off on the bus, which I think is pretty good considering that we had absolutely no leg room.. We arrived in Munich around 9 in the morning on Friday and since we planned to meet up with our friends, we walked straight to the train station to find them. Once we got there, we all realized that our campsite was a train ride away from downtown Munich so we needed to buy a ticket for the weekend. But first, we HAVE to try a pretzel.. what else is there to eat in Germany? :) So Ana and I buy our first pretzel of many at the train station. Once we got onto the train, we had to figure out where we were going exactly. Our campsite was called Weisncamp. We knew the stop to get off at, but weren't sure where to go from there. After getting off the train, us and about 15 other people were having some difficulty finding the campsite... so we wandered around for about 20 minutes looking before someone eventually found it on a map and we were able to head in the right direction. When we got the camp, it was almost as I imagined it, although I was unaware that it was known to be a "party" camp so there was a big tent for dancing, food, and drinks right there. Since it was only 11 a.m., of course there were people drinking.. what else would they be doing? After check-in, we put of stuff in the tent, got changed, and decided to head to Okterberfest! Finally! Some of our other friends had been there since 9 a.m that morning. So needless to say, we were a little bit behind. We caught the train back into the city and found ourselves coming up the escalator to the funnest looking fair I have ever seen. Like the Del Mar Fair times one hundred. There were tents for all different types of food, rides, games, and best of all, the infamous beer tents. :) Since I had only eaten a pretzel all day, I decided to try a "hot dog", German style. Oddly enough, it was like a hotdog in a hamburger bun.. which was strange but pretty good. After that we decided to try and get into one of the beer tents to see the madness first hand. I am sure you have all seen the movies like BeerFest, heck, maybe you have even been to Oktoberfest before. But for those of you who haven't.. I will do my best to describe my initial reaction. First, when we finally push our way into the tent, all you can see are tables just jam-packed with people. Second, you see the steins. A stein is that huge "glass" that beer comes in but it holds a whole liter of beer. Everyone in the tent has at least one in their hands at all times. Most of the people in the tent (Hofbrauhaus) were either standing on the tables, or about to be. I have never seen anything like it. Randomly, we ran into a girl from our program and since she had a table, we decided to sit with her. You can only order a beer if you are "sitting" at a table. So you can't be walking around a expect to order a beer. Anyway, as a our first tent of the day, I am happy to say that it was my favorite when I look back on the whole experience. After that tent, we walked to another to find some friends, and then another after that, and another. Then, we thought it would be fun to go on a carnival ride. Let me tell you... twenty times scarier than normal... Couldn't believe that we all made it through alive. Around 7 we grabbed dinner, and decided to head back camp. When we got back, there was party starting in the main tent but we were all pretty tired. Ana and I headed to bathroom to wash our faces and low and behold, there was no hot water! Just the beginning of a very cold, showerless weekend. We we headed back to the tent, (we were staying with Matt and Jordan, two guys from Gonzaga) we realized just how COLD it was going to be. Ana and I both bought our very compact sleeping bags. [Shout out the the Knudsens for that one :) ] but alas, the tent was way colder than we thought. We decided to go to bed early so that we could get up early on Saturday. Unfortunately, you could literally feel the music coming from the main tent through the ground. But we were all pretty exhausted and fell asleep fast. The sleeping arrangements went as follows... Jordan, Matt, Ana, and Me. I had NO IDEA just how cold being on the outside of the tent would be. Around 3 a.m. [music still going at the party tent] I woke up freezy. I think I may have accidentally woke everyone else up with my teeth chattering so, like the gentleman he is, Matt offered to switch with me and go on the outside. Which would have made more sense initially because he had a better sleeping bag.. but oh well. The middle was probably 15 degrees warmer than the outside spot. We feel back asleep until 6 when Ana and I decided to get up and actually take a shower.
Saturday: We got all of our stuff and headed to the girl's bathroom. Although there was no hot water the night before in the sinks, we saw steam coming from the shower. But when we got inside, there was absolutely NO hot water AT ALL. Oh, and icing on the cake, the showers all had about 6 inches of water in them, collected from the poor souls before us who decided to brave the cold and take showers. Ana, a much braver woman than I, got in the ice bath and WASHED HER HAIR! I could barely bring myself to dip a toe in the water, much less dunk my head in it! I chickened out and just attempted at washing my body. Its really nice to go from a freezing night's sleep to an ice cold shower.. I live the life of a queen. Anyway, after that whole ordeal, I got out, shiver-dried off, and proceeded to get dressed. Unfortunately, the whole bathroom was flooded at this point. Guess who proceeds to drop all her clothes in the messy, dirty, wet floor of the public bathroom? I DO. I literally dropped everything except my pants and my jacket. So guess who had to wear those back to the tent and change there? I DID. Yes, I assume you are all imagining this vividly and chuckling to yourselves. And at the time, that's all I could do too. I laughed. Just my luck. So, not the best start to my day, but I made it work. After that whole situation was over, we went to the main tent and bought some crappy food for breakfast. For everything you purchased from the tent, you had to give them a down payment for the utensils! So strange. Anyway, we headed to Oktoberfest around 9 and half of us found a table in the Paulaner Tent. The other half got a table outside at another tent across the way. We drank a stein at the Paulaner and ate a pretzel then made our to find the other group at their outdoor beer garden tent. At that point in the morning, everything was already PACKED so just finding a table for everyone was a challenge. Around 12, a bunch of these Croatian guys asked a guy at our table if he would order then 6 steins for 80 euro, basically tipping him 20, because they wanted drinks but since you can only order if you have a table, they asked him to do it for them. Matt's mistake... we quickly found our table being taken over by a bunch of rowdy soccer referees from Croatia. To sum up my experience with them, let's just say that I will NOT be going to Croatia anytime soon to find a husband.. they were quite vulgar. I do not think one of them possessed a filter on the stream of thoughts running through their heads. I was privileged enough to hear all of them. At one point, Jordan and I left to get some ice cream because we needed a break from the sun/ the Croatians. But when we tried to get back into the beer garden, the guards would not let us! We tried every entrance to the tent but no one would give in. Finally, we were able to distract a guard and we snuck in under the rope and got back to the table. After that, everyone decided that they had been hanging out long enough, and we made a group decision to head home to get changed and then find a place to eat dinner downtown. Of course all the restaurants in all or Munich, we settle for an Italian food restaurant. Of course. But at that point, I was so hungry I didn't even care. Some people in the group wanted to go out after that, but the majority of us were too tired, so we just decided to head back to the freezing cold campsite and go to bed. We had to check out by 11 a.m. in the morning, and we wanted to hang out in Munich a little bit before we had to catch our buses back at 3.
Sunday: After another super comfortable night in the tent, except this time we got smart and put our extra blankets down first for more insulation, we got up around 8, packed up, and headed to the train station to catch a train to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside Munich. I was really excited to go to there because I have read so many books about the holocaust, but I've never visited the scene of where it happened. We got to Dachau around 1130 and walked around for a couple hours. I have never been so close to so much tragedy before. It was astounding to me how anybody survived there. Truly. I felt like such a baby for complaining about being "cold" in my clothes, sleeping bag, and tent. Holocaust victims were forced to stand shoeless, clothless, and hungry in the dead of winter outside for hours. And sometimes, they were forced to walk from camp to camp through the snow. Seeing the "living" quarters and barracks were also astounding. But the part that affected me the most was seeing the gas chamber and the ovens. I could not believe how many lives were ended in those rooms alone, a murder factory. There was even such a great demand for the first crematorium, they had to build a second, bigger one with more ovens and more killing capacity. The fact that humans, just like you and me, were putting other humans into ovens is a mind blowing thought in itself. I think about how fortunate I am; not being born during that time and place, because my family probably would have also been lost in the horror as well. And to the survivors, wow. Just simply unbelievable that anyone could have survived. They are ALL heroes. And should be examples for just how strong we are, and can be when faced with difficulty. Anyway, ending with Dachau was not the happiest thing we could have done that day, but it was definitely the most meaningful. I am so glad that I went. After that, we all piled back onto the bus, and then back onto the 8 hour bus ride home. I watched about 3 movies during that time and attempted at sleeping, but to no avail. We got back to Florence around midnight and Tommaso picked me up from the train station.
So there, in somewhat of a nutshell, was Oktoberfest 2011 for me. I hope you all enjoyed my story :)
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