So. Much. Beer. And sausage. Oktoberfest is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I don't even know where to begin so I'll just start with getting to the campsite. Campsite? That's right, my friend and I stayed in a tent for 3 nights in Thalkirchen, a town just outside of Munich. When you try to book a place to stay for Oktoberfest about a month before, the cheapest option is camping. Which isn't a big deal because I've been camping before. But I haven't been camping without a sleeping bag. Probably should have somehow found a sleeping bag but layers and a blanket made the icy cold nights bearable. For the most part.

After arriving at our campsite and throwing everything in the tent we took the train to the festival grounds where Oktoberfest actually takes place. The best way I can describe Oktoberfest is it's a huge German carnival with lots and lots of beer halls, or biergartens. There are rides everywhere along with food stands, souvenir booths and overpriced games.

The first thing we did was go into the Haufbrau beer hall. To be served beer you have to be standing at a table, which can be difficult to maneuver when there are thousands of people cramped into one large hall. Thursdays don't get as packed as the weekends though so we found a table and made some German friends.

One thing I was not prepared for was seeing so many people in Dirndl's and Lederhosen's. Actually, before then I didn't even know what these were called. I also wasn't prepared for how large the Stein's were going to be. Even though the bar maids are big, burly women, I don't understand how they carry up to 10 Stein's at a time. I could barely hold one with one hand.

So Thursday was spent drinking beer and then eating my first German sausage. What a wonderful culinary experience. I'm sure it was enhanced by all the beer I had had but delicious non the less.

German beer doesn't leave you with that bad of a hangover so Friday morning we went into Marienplatz, the center of Munich, and walked around trying to find Dirndl's so we would fit in. Dirndl's are expensive so I settled on this awesome hat that turned out the be the best 10 Euro I spent that weekend.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we started drinking at 10:30 that morning because it's Oktoberfest and in Germany drinking in public is legal. It's also didn't seem to be a common occurrence until after 12 but whatever. It was Oktoberfest. After investing in funny looking hats we went to the Haufbrau beer hall in Marienplatz. It was like a less crowded version of the one we went to at the festival, and you actually get to sit down and eat while you drink beer. Once again, I had some kind of sausage along with potato salad and a pasta dish. And obviously beer. And once again it was delicious. Germans know how to do beer and sausage.

In the beer hall people would randomly start German chants and then cheer really loudly. This happened a lot throughout the tripe, especially in the biergartens at the festival. While we were eating, I can't even remember how many people pointed to me and came up to get a picture with me because I was wearing my hat. It's safe to say I'm in a lot of random people's Facebook pictures.Afterwards we went to the English Gardens, a gigantic park with- wait for it- more beer and sausage. On the way there we saw people surfing in a river. I can't remember what it's called and I'm too lazy to look it up so if you're really curious you can Google Munich river surfing.

After drinking more beer at the English Gardens we went down to the festival and met up with our German friends in the Haufbrau hall. The Haufbrau hall was one of the only halls that didn't require a reservation after 4pm (reservations are like $1,000 per table) so it was the easiest place to go. Getting in was not an easy task. Friday was about ten times more crowded than Thursday and I'm really shocked it only took us about half an hour to get in. One of my favorite parts about Oktoberfest was the band in the hall played songs the whole time and lots of them were German songs that everyone sang and did weird hand motions to. By Friday we were pretty much experts on singing and dancing to these songs. By the time 11pm rolled around I was exhausted from almost 11 hours of drinking. Saturday morning I didn't even want to think about beer. We went back to the festival in the afternoon, did one of the rides, got some schnitzel and then realized beer still didn't sound like a good idea. So we left the festival and went back to the English Gardens to recuperate.

Near the English Gardens is the University of Munich, which is where a student during World War II named Sophie and her brother protested Hitler. Since you can't go anywhere in Europe without getting a history lesson, here's mine for the weekend: one of the professors at the university helped Sophie and her brother make flyers protesting Hitler, which they threw off of a balcony in the middle of university. One of the janitors saw them throw the flyers and reported them, which led to their murders, along with the professor who helped them. Outside the university in the ground are original copies of the flyers...pretty crazy stuff. OK history lesson over.

Once we got back to the campsite I was recovered from the previous day and ready to start again. We spent the rest of the night at the bar by our campsite and met some interesting people dressed in monkey costumes, knight costumes, men in Dirndls. Any other occasion this would be totally weird but it was Oktoberfest so anything goes. Most people staying at the site were Australian so I was in heaven because I love Australians. They have the coolest accents and like to make fun of people...what's not to love? I don't know how many times I had to say "soccer" to them just so they could mock my accent. They also knew a lot about American sports. I met a guy from New Zealand who was obsessed with ice hockey and went to a Sharks game when he visited San Francisco. This made me ashamed because I was born and raised in San Jose and have never been to a Sharks game. How is it possible that someone from across the world can make it to a game before I can? Oh well, hockey clearly isn't at the top of my list of sports to watch.

Sadly Oktoberfest came to an end Sunday at 4 in the morning. Booking a flight at 7AM after spending the weekend at Oktoberfest was a poor life choice, but somehow I made it back. What an amazing weekend. Anyone who ever has the opportunity to go to Oktoberfest should seize that opportunity, suck up the cost of flights and lodging and GO because it is a one of a kind experience. And no, Oktoberfest anywhere else besides Munich doesn't count.

Although I do miss Oktoberfest I can't complain because I leave for ITALY tomorrow for my fall break! And contrary to popular belief, I have been doing work for school. A lot of work for school, surprisingly. So no, I don't just get to travel to cool places and explore London. There is some academic involvement.