oktoberfest

 I am back in Athens after 3 days of being in Munich, Germany for the world reknowned Oktoberfest and a little bit of sight-seeing around the city. Me and Julia left Friday morning from Athens at about 4a to catch our flight into Munich. After a quick check into our hostel we quickly figured out the U/S- Bahn system (which is very similar to NYC's with less stops and chaos) and headed over to Oktoberfest. It wasn't hard to find- just follow the crowds of dirndl and lederhosen-clad people (see below for examples of the style).

The top right picture is of one of the entrances. There are multiple ones because it is such a huge festival. We were thoroughly overwhelmed by the tents and sheepishly asked one of the waitresses if we were allowed to just sit down or if there is special etiquette for the event. Most of the waiters speak enough English to serve us beer, bring us to a seat if there is one available, and to kick us out when they decide we have slowed down too much and are not bringing in enough profit to deserve a seat anymore. Our first tent was Augustiner Brau which we also have concluded to be the best beer out of the ones we tried throughout the weekend. 

Each tent is unique both inside and outside. And they aren't really tents. They are more like Harry Potter halls. They are solid built wooden buildings that are very unlike what you imagine when you think of a tent. Augustiner's interior was kind of  Christmasy but I don't think it was supposed to be Christmas-themed. As far as I know...

This weekend was evidently "italian weekend" so if the people at your table didn't speak German than they only spoke Italian. At our first table, we were seated with 6 italians and a Japanese couple that just moved to France and could speak a little bit of English but were quiet for most of the time. This picture is of our first beer at Oktoberfest- a very exciting time for us. Our table was fun even though there were a lot of blank looks and obvious confusion due to language barriers. Eventually we all just kept laughing anways, most likely for different reasons though.

They sell ginormous pretzels to soak up all the beer. 

The vendor lady posed so I could take a picture of her :)

We got kicked out of that haus after almost 2 beers (let that be noted that they are liters, almost 3 of the puny bottles that we are used to in America) and walked around the festival area. The only thing we went on was the ferris wheel and the views were AMAZING!!!

 

The first is a view of the entire festival from the top- well, as much as could fit in the photo.  The next one is of me and Julia on the ferris wheel.

 This is one of the other tents that we were in. I forget the name of it. But I really loved the decorations in it. All the streamers. It's so awesome to see in person though- pictures are so limited. And every haus is so different.

Some of the gingerbread hearts that Oktoberfest sells all over the festival. 

 So Friday we did Oktoberfest, got back to our hostel around 7p and went right to bed because we were so exhausted from getting up at 3:30a and being at the festival for the majority of the day. Saturday we actually toured the city. We visited the Deutches Museum which is mostly aeronautic technology and different mechanical/engineering things. I would've preferred an art museum or something but we don't speak much german so we went with the museum that was on the train system map.

After the museum I got a durum doner which is like a Greek gyro in Munich and then we headed to the zoo. Everything was way more open and it made me feel like Rochester's zoo is very bad for the animals. This zoo didn't have any of the chain link fences that all the Rochester animals are in. Most have a pretty good sized roaming area and sometimes it seems that the animals could easily walk out of their area. For some reason they don't though. Anyways, I'm convinced we should free all the animals in Rochester's zoo because it is way too small for them.

Last thing before heading back to the hostel on Saturday was a trip to the Olympic Stadium in Munich. It was cold and rainy and I was wearing sandals so once we got to the pool we sat for as long as we could to avoid going back out. We were too cold and unprepared for the weather to see the stadium so we agreed that we were satisfied with getting to see the olympic sized pool.

Sunday we got up at 8:30a to make sure that we were able to get into a tent at Oktoberfest. We were at a table with an older italian couple with whom we tried to talk to but after about a minute we realized this would not work. On the other side of our table was six older Russian men who also had extremely limited English but still fed me lots of meat as "a gift from Russia". Two creepy German guys joined the table after a bit and later we ended up having to use some sly maneuvering to lose them amongst the crowds.

This is a super long blog thing but still I feel like I have barely been able to give a good account of all the things we saw and people we met. Despite the creepy drunken men and language barriers, I'd say this past weekend was pretty awesome.

More pictures on my facebook :)

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Ok so the picture uploading thing is working now. So here are a few of the ones I've taken.

so if you stand outside one of my housemates balcony this is what you see when you look to the left. this is the main church in Athens where all the important church things happen (or so I was told). i'll take a picture of the main entrance sometime because it's pretty gorgeous.

this is the view looking directly across from the balcony.

the view landing in Athens. It was amazing- there were parts where you could see whole islands from end to end.

This is the campus. Small. I know. Just the red windowed building. Each floor has about 4 classrooms and there are 4 or 5 floors I think.

arrived

Yia su!

It is Monday and I've been in Athens, Greece for 2 days now.

My flights over from New York left me 30+ hours deprived of sleep and completely exhausted but I believe I am now getting back to a daylight = awake schedule. Just now I realize this shouldn't be completely true since I am writing this as the daily siesta from 2p-5p ends. Greeks are brilliant. All people, not just small children, are happier with naps. This is a tradition that I gladly will try to grow accustomed to.

Speaking of getting accustomed....
the bathroom situation is a bit different than America's. I'm sure many have already travelled and learned to deal with these changes but it is still quite new to me. For those who haven't had the joy of experiencing this, let me share. After using the toilet, whether it be number 1 or 2, the toilet paper you use does NOT go into the toilet with it. Rather, it goes into the small garbage waste basket that sits next to the toilet. I'm sure some people would read this and be like....yea AND?  But it is still strange. Me and the 5 girls were extremely hesitant to be the "first pooper" because essentially everyone gets to see/smell the leftovers. This is grosssss... So sorry to those who are reading this. Moving on.

My first long flight from JFK to Munich, I got to sit next to a very sweet girl named Prina who was on her way to India to shop for her wedding. That's weird I thought.
She also had lasik surgery done 2 days prior and was not wearing sunglasses. That's weird too I thought. Apparently they aren't really doing the sunglass thing as I had heard they did. This $6000 surgery took about 20 minutes to complete. She has eye drops that she has to put in pretty frequently for a week or 2 and some clear science-lab looking glasses to wear at night so she doesn't scratch or rub her eyes. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to get to wake up in the morning and be able to see.

I want lasik surgery. I guess the only downside is having 6k to spare.

I had my first airplane meal on this flight. Dinner. And free wine! The chicken was very questionable and sweet potatoes were weird but I usually don't like them so I can't say it was their fault. It was still fun to get a meal on a plane though. When not chatting with Prina about her very speedy engagement and wedding which she needs 4 different dresses for, I watched Zoolander, Modern Family (thx to Jennie Dixon), and the Mentalist.

My brain was mostly fried during my flight from Munich to Athens and I slept for a short period on my food tray (ooo also which I had BREAKFAST on which was more delicious than the dinner). When I woke up, the lady next to me started chatting. She had a really strong Greek accent so I had assumed she was just visiting America and was on her way back home. Not true- she has been living on Long Island for 39 years and comes back about every 5 or 10 years for short visits. She was very sweet and told me not to be stupid and get into trouble while there. Thank you Greek lady! :)

Finally at the Greek airport, me and 2 other students from the program waited for the remaining 14 students to arrive. A few hours later we were driving through Greece to our apt in the heart of Athens. I am in a lovely apt with 5 other girls. The common area and kitchen are small but adorable. Two other rooms have balconies where we can hang our clothes to dry. Dryers are rare in Greece. One balcony has a wonderful view. Ooo also- if anyone has seen the new Karate Kid movie with jackie chan (ahem*phil) they do the switch thing to heat up the water for showers. So far the water doesn't warm up a ton. Either that or we aren't waiting long enough before we take showers because it usually gets cold pretty quickly. It's fun though. I like it.

I missed grocery shopping today because mondays and wednesdays the stores close at 2p and don't open up. The other days of the week they close at 2 and open back up at 5p. The siesta thing is real!!!!

Today we took a walking tour just around the main blocks surrounding the small campus and our apartments. We got to see where we can buy our groceries and fresh produce and bread, good places to eat, the one mcdonalds in the area, the main Syntagma Square, bus/tram lines, banks, post office, shopping area, all that good stuff. One of the head guys of our program took us to a store where we all bought phones and sim cards.

My first class was today- greek language. We didn't learn anything today but I am excited about it because it truly sucks to not know how to say anything in the language of the country you are in. I'm very eager to get going with that one.

I miss people at home. There is so much that is new here. Well i guess everything is. I'm ready for a siesta.