On Thursday night, James and I took an overnight train that arrived in Munich at 7am on Friday morning. When we arrived that morning, we took a cab to Oktoberfest to check out the scene before it started. At 7:30 in the morning there was already a huge line curving around the corner of the street to be let in the gates. From that site, I could only imagine what Oktoberfest was going to be like. After walking past the venue, we looked around the city streets to find a store that sells literhosens, which there were plenty of. I was surprised to see the amount of stores that were selling Oktoberfest clothing. It was almost as if it was a national holiday, which I soon began to realize that it kind of was. After we bought our Oktoberfest apparel we walked to Hotel Metropol, where we had our reservation. We reserved one room with two single beds and a cushioned chair for six people, which obviously didn't end up being the best idea. As we were walking to the hotel, I noticed the lack of bikers and abundance of car drivers which was different from most places we have been to so far. We then waited for Ryan, who travled by Bus, and went to Oktoberfest around 10:30am. We got directions to Oktoberfest from our hotel, but surprisingly enough, there were spraypainted arrows on the sidewalks pointing us in the direction of the main entrance to Oktoberfest. When we walked through the front entrance, I couldnt beileve what I was seeing; it looked almost like a Six Flags, but for beer and German food! I was shocked to see the size of the venue that also had carnival rides and food vendors. My mom, who went to Oktoberfest when we was abroad, advised me to go to the HofbrauHuas, so I listened and it did not disappoint. When we went into the tent, I was amazed. There was beer flying everywhere and the mass amounts of people crowded into a confined space was an incredicble site to see. Once we got situated, we found a table to sit at and ordered beers. On a side note, a couple days before we traveled to Munich, James bought a black wig in Maastricht to wear to Oktoberfest as a joke, which was one of the funniest things I've seen because people asked him if he was Rick James, the singer. The first thing I noticed once I sat down was that all of the people in the tent were mostly college kids who were studying abroad as well. It was amazing to see the the amount of Americans that were at Hofbrauhaus, which was the first time seeing that many Americans since being in the U.S. Coiencidentally, I bumped into a bunch of my old high school friends, who I have not seen in years! Seeing them made me realize how being at Oktoberfest was something I was going to remember my entire life, the experience was different from anything else and the people that were there with me made it that much more special. 
On Saturday morning, we woke up at 6:45am and walked over to the hofbrauhuas to wait in line. We waited until the doors opened at 9am and soon barged through the doors like mad men and got a table. I was shocked to see how vibrant the place was that early in the morning. People from all corners were standing up on their tables and chugging their beers while everyone in the whole hofbrauhuas was cheering them on. Meanwhile, chants were being yelled through the whole tent as everyone was in symphony, almost like being at a professional soccer or football game. The band also came out and played songs and started chants as well, which was a lot of fun. Later that night, James, Sean and I went to eat at a German restaurant close to the hotel, which had great food. The next morning at 11am, James and I took a train back to Masstricht; we hit a couple bumps on the way back as we got stuck in Colonge for a bit, but soon got back home. The scenery of mountains, castles, and canals on our train ride back through Germany was an amazing site to see.
