Next stop....

Oktoberfest!! I mentioned before that I was really excited about 2 trips. Salzburg was one of them, and this trip was the other one. I've always wanted to go to Oktoberfest, and ever since I was very little and Hobbs brought be back a puzzle of the Neuschwanstein castle I have wanted to go there too, and I did both!

I went on this trip with the George from the Paris trip, and with another boy who we'll call PJ. Now George had gotten the train schedule, but he had gotten the train schedule to get to a place called Fussen, which is completely different from Füssen, and you end up going North. So there the 3 of us were on the trail, travelling through Germany, sitting in our little booth, and it suddenly occured to me that something did not seem quite right. I asked for the little sheet with out schedule on it, and sure enough we were in the wrong place. We ended up going pretty far north of Munich, when we wanted to be south. So we jumped off the train at the next big stop and went off in search of how to get back to Munich. It ended up being perfectly fine, we found a train to Munich, then one to Füssen, but we did end up sleeping in the train station for a few hours. It didn't really matter, it was just a little unexpected. Thankfully I had with me a few extra layers, sleeping on concrete in the outside is coooooold. There was a burger king at the station but it was closed for most of the night, and there were a whole bunch of Germany weirdos in there.

Ok, can I just stop for a moment and try to explain to you how exciting all of this was?? I was soo excited, so much excited that I still get excited when I think about it. Its like the time I went to Rome, the first time I ever went to Europe, that excited. I was so excited that I barely slept and it was all I could do to sit still, and I talked a lot. I didn't shut up until I was exausted and slept on the train because I hadn't slept all night. I think that made the boys happy.

Anyway we got to Füssen early in the morning, and got on the bus, and went to the castle. We first went to Mary's bridge to look at the castle because we had a few hours before it was time for the english tour. On the other side of the bridge there is a mountain and since we had nothing else to do we climbed up a good amount of it, and took lots of pictures. Then we walked down the little pathway and waited to go inside. I skipped the entire way there. I was also still talking a lot. Inside the castle I was pretty quiet though. The inside was nothing like I expected, and so much better. I am very impressed with the rooms. There is a ton of attention to detail in the paintings, and carvings, and furniture, and pretty much everything else. I would definitly love to go back there again. I got a sword there, but I also got one in Poland. I'm thinking I might give one to the Editor's son. The one from Poland is definitly cooler, but the one from the castle has more sentimental value. Plus I did already get him something from Notre Dame. He'll probably end up getting the sword too. He definitly lucked out this year. Its just so easy to buy things for a 6 year old. I just buy something that I would like to play with. Plus I know that he's never been to the places that I have, or seen the things I have and have already not bought something there because he didn't want it. Siblings, you are so hard to buy things for. I never know if I should get you something because I always think that maybe you already have been to that place, and didn't want the thing I would give you, or already have one. Maybe you'll all just get stationary from the Kartauseville shop, that would be so much easier.

After the castle I was still really excited because first of all I was going to Oktoberfest, and second of all I had just gone to this really cool castle. We hopped on the train back to Munich, and when we got there we had absolutly no idea where to go. So we went in the direction it seemed the most people were coming from. It was after all in the afternoon when we got there, and we knew that the beer tents would be closed, but we also knew that we didn't have to be inside a tent to get beer, so we went. When we got there PJ wanted to get up close to one of the beer tents, just to see what it looked like inside. I dunno if you've ever been to Oktoberfest, but the beer tents stop letting people in them around noon, and after that people group around the doorways either hoping to slip in, or to be able to bribe the guards into letting them in. So we got as close to the door as possible, and PJ got his look. Then while we were deciding what to do, one of those vendor guys, with the tray of something, I forget what, asked me if I wanted to go inside. So nice of him. He then offered to bring us inside for 40 euro each, which we politely declined. He then went down to 20 euro each, again we declined. Then he went down to 50 euro for the 3 of us, which was still expensive, but at this point it was getting late, and since I was pretty sure that I was never coming back, we agreed. So he led us off and told us that if anyone asked, we're his friends, and we got inside. Inside was everything I imagined, just like the pictures. There was a band playing music, and people dancing on benches, and beer everywhere. We ended up sitting some place we weren't supposed to be, but no one found us so it was ok. I met 2 guys from Holland, Neils and something else, and we talked for a long time. After a few hours we'd had enough of the tent, or at least I had, so we went outside. At this point my companions were basically drunk, so I got to lead them around the park for a while, that was interesting, fun, but also interesting. I had seen a shirt when I first came in that I wanted to get, but I couldn't find it. Thankfully I remembered seeing it on the way in, so as soon as we found the entrance I found the shirt. On the way back we met a lot of drunk people, but it was a lot of fun. I would also go back there if I had the chance. I don't think it will ever happen, but then I never know.

On the train back we met a lot of people who had been there all day long. The majority of the people that I knew all got into the Haufbrauhaus, but we definitly did not go there. I think the place we were in was called Lionbrau, or something like that, there were lions on the building. All I know was the beer wasn't any good. If you go to Oktoberfest forget the beer and go on the rides. Those looked like fun. If I ever go back I'm just going on the rides, and forgetting about the beer, just like I advised. Though dancing in the tent was a lot of fun too, it doesn't make up for the bad beer. Oh, and another bad beer is Coors light. At this point I don't know that yet because I don't have Coors until I get to Poland, but it was like drinking Soda. I like Kaiser, and Guiness. I mean, what, I don't drink beer, don't be silly.....