The former exchange student's visit. (We read den Besuch der alten Dame in class when I studied abroad.)
I went back to Holzkirchen and it was absolutely fantastic. I left on Friday morning, spent that night there and came back the next day. It was a short trip, but it cost less that way!
The first leg of my trip was on the Erfurter Bahn. It's pretty similar to the BOB - not as fast as the ICE, but somehow much more relaxing.
View out of the window of the Erfurter Bahn.
The country was so pretty, but my hand & camera kept on reflecting too much to get a good picture.
One of the first graders' mom used to live in Bamberg, so when the ICE stopped there I took a few pictures.
I don't know why this sign was sitting in the middle of a train station. The train didn't end there, and I was sitting in the middle of the train.
I bought my train ticket on Monday, but on Wednesday I found out that my host family wouldn't be home when I first got to town. So I did what most 22 year olds would do, and headed over to check out Oktoberfest. It was surprisingly easy to get there - the subway wasn't very crowded. (The Hauptbahnhof was crazy though.)
When the train stopped at Theresienwiese, the announcement said "Next stop: Theresienwiese. This train ends here." (pause) "Oktoberfest visitors, please exit here and have fun at Oktoberfest!!"
There was a really big police presence, and although it was pretty crowded, it still felt really safe. The overall vibe reminded me of the state fair. Or maybe that was just the smell of cinnamon roasted almonds.
They also have rules about alcohol sales and consumption. From what I saw (and this is just my inference based on that. I could be totally wrong.), it appears that you aren't supposed to bring in bottles of beer, and you can only buy beer in the giant beer halls. Wine & liquor were being sold at stands, but you had to consume that where you bought it.
There were a few people stumbling around drunk, but not that many since I was there at about 3 pm.
Something from the Augustiner Braeu.
Ah, the Hofbraeu's giant fest tent. I took most of these pictures with lots of people in them on purpose!
Augustiner Braeu
Hacker-Pschorr. I recognize them because I took a coaster from a restaurant last summer that said Hacker-Pschorr on it and used it all last year.
Spatenbraeu. They had my favorite slogan on a tent: "Lass dir raten, trinke Spaten."
This tent says Pschorr. Maybe Hacker-Pschorr had more than one area? (I think most of the breweries had more than one area.)
Paulaner.
Loewenbraeu, which had a lion at their entrance. (Loewen means lion.)
This is the side of the Paulaner area.
The entrance I came in was the U-Bahn entrance, so I saw the good-bye sign before I saw the welcome sign!
Lebkuchenherzen. They're very real. So cute!! My favorites said "Mia san mia!," which is a team slogan for FC Bayern Muenchen.
After walking around Oktoberfest for 45 minutes, I got bored. (There isn't much to do if you're alone and can't go into a tent because you don't have a reservation/don't want to wait! Also I didn't want to spend any money.) So I went to a mexican restaurant near the train station that Kaylee told me about.
Above you can see the best guacamole I've ever had in my life. It was so delicious. The salsa was also good, but I acknowledge that I only thought it was excellent because I really miss mexican food.
This is the restaurant! It's really cute and small. Yay Taco Libre!
This hotel was between the taco place and the train station - "living hotel" sounds like it should be an episode of Doctor Who.
The Muenchen Hauptbahnhof is one of my favorite places in the world. It was ridiculously crowded with Oktoberfest visitors - I'd say there was 10 times more people there yesterday than there were last summer.
There were so many English speakers there! I quickly came to the conclusion that Munich-area Fulbrighters have it much easier than I do - you don't even need to know much German because there's so much English around!
Guys wearing matching shirts for bachelor parties is quite a trend in Germany. I think these guys may be Scottish though - they were wearing kilts and their shirts said "so-and-so's stag do."
The Subway (sandwich restaurant) in the train station does not mess around. During Oktoberfest, they only close for an hour on Fridays & Saturdays!
Then I took the Bayerische Oberlandbahn, my favorite train ever, back to my favorite place in the entire world, Holzkirchen.
It was lovely! Everything was just as I remembered it, and it was great to see the Hartls again. We had fajitas for dinner and Antonia made me a friendship bracelet.
When I was falling asleep, I felt the same way I always do at my grandparents' house: I couldn't sleep as easily as I could at home, but it was okay because I felt super safe and I knew there would be an amazing breakfast in the morning. It was nice to be with a family again, even if it was just my host family!
In the morning, Antonia and I went on a short tour of Holzkirchen. I saw all the places I frequented last summer, including the VHS! Then we met Erika and got something to eat at the ice cream place that all the American students went to every day because it was between the school and where most of us lived.
I was a few minutes early for my train back to Erfurt. (Actually, for the ICE to Saalfeld.) So I took a few more pictures of the madness in the train station. Bis spaeter, Muenchen!!
This trip reminded me of how much I love Bayern. It's such a beautiful area; it's true that you can see quite a difference between former-east Thueringen and former-west Bayern.
Notice that although the shopping part of the station is busy, the platform part is eerily empty.
These were the nicest ICE seats I'd ever seen. I think the train was actually older than most of the other ICEs I've been on. (ICE stands for InterCity Express. It's the fastest train you can take in Germany.) Anyhow, the train felt really nice until we started running late and I was worried that I would miss my connections! It turned out that since the main purpose of the Erfurter Bahn routes from Saalfelt-Arnstadt and Arnstadt-Erfurt is to transport ICE passengers, they waited on us.
So servus, Bayern! I can't wait to visit again!!
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