Oktoberfest

Haven't been able to post because I haven't had a steady internet connection for more than 15 minutes at a time. Now, however, I'll try to catch up on many of the places I've been.

About three weeks ago I went up to Munich, Germany, for Oktoberfest. The week before we were supposed to leave I debated dropping out because I was so tired from our trip to Sorrento and Capri, and I thought another weekend traveling would wipe me out. Instead, I decided to tough it out and take the trip, and I'm glad I did! It was great experience travelling into another country. We took an 8-hour train that left at midnight, so we crossed into Germany around 6 a.m. the next day. It was difficult to sleep in a 6-passenger car with 5 people, but I managed to get comfortable for about 30 minutes at a time. I knew we were crossing borders because my Italian cellphone sent me about 10 text messages saying "You are now in Germany" and policemen woke us up to check our passports. It was all very unofficial; all we had to do was flash our passport at them, they didn't even look inside.

In Germany we stayed with a family my friend Anjali knew of through her cousin because he stayed there last year. They were beyond wonderful. There were four of us travelling together, we each had a bed, we got free breakfast and dinner and they had a yellow lab. The man of the house, Roman, was actually born in New York but moved to Germany when he was 13, so he was fluent in both languages. His wife and son gave us advice on taking the subway and where to go around town. We then headed out to the subway to go straight to the main event. Coming out of the subway tunnel, we were bombarded by flashing lights and mobs of people, Oktoberfest was right there waiting for us.

We made our way into one of the tents and wandered around helplessly looking for a table until we found a group of what I assumed were Americans and asked them how they got a table. They let us scoot in next to them and there we stayed for three hours. There were a few men from Ireland and a few from other parts of Germany, and we all chatted and drank and ate. Drinking from those 1-liter beer steins is definitely an experience worth having.

For the rest of the stay, Anjali and I wandered around downtown Munich, taking photos of the beautiful buildings and appreciating a different culture. We also stopped in an art museum where we saw lots of Raphael, Rubens and even the first-known Da Vinci painting. We were scheduled to head back to Florence Saturday at midnight. But that happened to be the night that the Italian trains went on strike, so Anjali and I headed to the train station with Roman to negotiate our tickets for the next night, and then got to enjoy one more night at Oktoberfest. I had the world's best bratwurst the size of my torso.

I think the best part of going to Munich was coming back to Florence. Even hearing people speaking Italian was a relief. This place is finally starting to feel like home.