Kiss Me, I'm Irish

St. James's Gate Brewery; photo credit Alexa Berry

About a month and a half ago, some friends noticed that there were particularly cheap flights from Prague to Dublin, so we took advantage and booked our weekend there. Somehow I was lucky enough to get a window seat on the plane on both flights! We arrived Friday night, dropped our stuff off at the hostel, and then went right out to dinner. Our hostel was in a great, albeit expensive location known as Temple Bar. We went to a "traditional" Irish pub for dinner, which had a great atmosphere and had musicians playing folksy music. The Irish are incredibly friendly, which was a bit of a culture shock coming from Prague, and to be honest I did not get completely use to it during my weekend there. I also discovered that when I wear my glasses, I apparently look like Ariel Winters who plays Alex on Modern Family (I definitely don't look like  her, but apparently the Irish think I do).

Long Room at Trinity College

The next morning we went on a free walking tour of Dublin. Free walking tours have become one of my favorite things to do as soon as I get to any new city. They are a great way to learn history while making sure you get to see a lot of the major sights (and even though they're technically free, everyone tips the tour guides a few bucks). After the walking tour we backtracked to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It was very cool to see such an old manuscript, but the best part of that exhibit was the Long Hall library upstairs. Our walking tour guide had told us that George Lucas wanted to film in the library for the recent Star Wars movies, but Trinity College did not grant him permission, so he took a lot of photos and created a CGI-generated library for his Jedis. After all that walking we went back to the hostel for a rest before heading out for another traditional Irish dinner (I had fish and chips), before walking around Temple Bar and O'Connell street at night.

Gravity Bar

On Sunday we had a lot of attractions to visit. We started at the Guinness Storehouse which was very well done. One of my favorite parts of the museum was learning how the casks (barrels) that stored the beer were made; I had never realized it was such a time consuming process to make just one cask, and each cask can only hold 8.5 gallons! Another part of the tour was the "tasting room" which was an absolutely ridiculous gimmick. We walked through a loud, dark hallway, and then abruptly entered a bright and quiet room, which was designed to shock our senses. I couldn't help but laugh, it was as if we were in a Willy Wonka beer factory. The best part of the storehouse was the Gravity Bar at the top, which provided us with a 360-degree view of the city.

St. Christ's Cathedral

After the Guinness Storehouse we walked to St. Christ's Cathedral. The church had some awesome tile work, and like every other church in Europe was huge, but the cool part was the "treasury" underneath the main floor. The day before on the walking tour we had learned that at some point in time a cat and rat somehow got trapped in one of the organ pipes, and through some magic of air pressure, their remains were preserved for a hundred years. While it's kind of gross, it's also interesting to really see things we had learned about in the walking tour. I also had not realized that they used St. Christ's Cathedral to film many scenes from the show The Tudors; I thought it was funny they had used the basement catacombs of the church as the backdrop for the Tower of London in the show!

The next stop on our hectic day of sightseeing was going to archaeology branch of the National Museum of Ireland (which was free!). Saw some great exhibits on the Vikings of Ireland. It's so impressive that most of the stuff on display in the museum was over a thousand years old, especially their gold and jewelry exhibit! A lot of the jewelry looked brand new, and the glass beads were incredibly similar to the beads sold in stores today. The best part of the museum was the exhibit with the "bog men" of Ireland. These remains were found in Ireland, but instead of being simply skeletons, much of their body still remains- organs and fingernails included! Later that evening I took the DART train a half hour out of the city to walk around the coastal town of Howth. While it was dark by the time I got there, it was still relaxing to walk around and be by the sea at night.

One of the things I liked most about Dublin was that we could walk everywhere! If I ever had to describe a city as a "quaint," Dublin would be that city. We lucked out and it barely rained during our entire weekend, which is a bit unusual for Dublin. I liked all of the attractions and things we did, but felt that the city was overall a bit touristy. While I am interested in going back to Ireland someday, and doing a tour of the coastal villages, I am satisfied with my trip to Dublin and felt that I saw everything I needed to see.

Trinity College; photo credit Alexa Berry

Kraków, Poland

Cloth Hall in Krakow, Poland

Memorial for 82 Lidice Children

Since my weekend in Krakow included a trip to Auschwitz, I want to include a summary of when I took a field trip to Lidice and Terezín here within the Czech Republic. This field trip was designed to teach us about the art that people made while inside the concentration camps. The Protector Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by two Czech soldiers in 1942. After this happened, the Gestapo used Lidice to make a deterring example of the whole village. The Gestapo shot all of the men in the town, and sent all the women and children were sent to concentration camps; 82 children were gassed at Auschwitz. The only children to survive this horror were those who looked “Aryan,” and they were sent to live with German families. 

Barracks used to hold political prisoners in Terezín

After visiting Lidice we went on to Terezín. First we toured the museum that displayed artwork made by children living in the concentration camps, and then we went to the baroque-style military fortress. This fortress was originally built to hold artillery in the 18th century, but from 1941-1945 it was used as both a Jewish ghetto and  a prison for political prisoners and prisoners of war. While Terezín was not an extermination camp, many people died due to the horrible living conditions. Jews came to Terezín from all over Europe, but mostly Central Europe. Terezín quickly became a major transport center out to Auschwitz, but when people were sent out, they had no idea where they were going. I am glad that I went on this field trip so I could see how the past presence of the Nazi regime directly affected the Czech Republic, but also so that I would be able to compare the concentration camp of Terezín with the extermination camp that was Auschwitz.

"Work Makes You Free" Gate at Auschwitz 1

My weekend trip to Krakow started with an overnight bus ride from Prague that left Thursday night at midnight. I have to say, I did not sleep that much, so when we arrived in Poland I felt a bit like a zombie. After a quick breakfast at a youth center, along with the chance to brush my teeth, we headed straight over to Auschwitz to start our tour. We first toured Auschwitz 1, where many of the barracks had been turned into small museums or memorials. One of the most disgusting things I have ever seen was a room that had cases of human hair from the people who imprisoned there from 1941-1945. All of the women had their hair cut or shaved off to further dehumanize them, but the most sickening part was that the Nazis repurposed their hair as insulation in the lining of their soldiers' jackets. Another hard room to walk through was the  room that had 44,000 pairs of shoes. It was very difficult to see the mountains of shoes from people of all ages, especially when you saw that some of the women had brought or worn heels; it just really showed that nobody knew what was going on and obviously had no idea what to expect when they got to the concentration camps.

Cans that contained the gas used in gas chambers

While at Auschwitz 1 we also walked through a gas chamber and then the accompanying crematorium, which had ovens that look similar to MRI body scanners. The gas chamber we walked through could fit 700 people. All the Nazi officers had to do was drop gas in from the ceiling and all of those hundreds of people in the room would be dead within 20 minutes; the gas only needed human heat to activate and spread through the air. While this gas chamber could fit 700 people, the ovens could only burn through 350 people a day. At the neighboring concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazis solved this problem by making multiple gas chambers, all with larger furnace rooms.

Next we went over to Auschwitz-Birkenau which was a much larger camp; the ultimate cruelty is that the Nazis made prisoners at Auschwitz 1 build the barracks here. Some of Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List was filmed at this location. We walked the length of the camp, which for most people, was their last walk ever before being lead to the gas chambers, which were even larger than at Auschwitz 1. When the fresh prisoners were getting shipped in, they were automatically sorted into two lines as soon as they stepped off the train, one line for people who were fit enough to be considered "valuable" to the regime and the other line of those deemed too weak, who were immediately sent to their death. The Nazis targeted anyone wearing glasses, since that had a stereotype of intellectual people; this means that I most likely would have been automatically sent to my death as soon as I arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

After our four hour tour, we got back on the bus and headed towards Krakow, which was about an hour and a half away. Since this was an organized trip, we got to stay in a hotel. While this was just a regular, 3-star hotel, after staying in a couple of hostels, this hotel felt like The Ritz. After checking in and dropping our bags off, we walked around Krakow for awhile. The main square is large and spacious and has many restaurants. The building in the middle of the Square is the Cloth Hall, which has many little vendors inside, so we did some shopping. We ended up eating at a little pierogi place for dinner, and it was delicious.

Wawel Cathedral

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel (which had a surprisingly good continental breakfast), and then had an organized walking tour of Krakow. The leaves were just starting to change colors, so every though it was a little dreary outside, Krakow was very beautiful.We started at the Schindler's Factory Museum, walked around the Wawel Castle and Cathedral, and finished at St. Mary’s Basilica in the main square. The inside of the basilica had a massive ornamental display at the front altar; it was absolutely beautiful. After lunch, my friend Alexa and I decided to go back to the Schindler's Factory Museum. The museum was very well done and did a great job of depicting was it was like to be in Poland during World War II and the Nazi Regime.

Underground church in the salt mine

Sunday morning we got up early, ate breakfast, and got back on the bus. Our last tour before leaving was visiting and walking through the Salt Mines in Wieliczka. These salt mines were absolutely huge, and we were quite far underground during our tour. In addition, this salt mine was the first ever UNESCO World Heritage site. While I am glad that we went to the salt mines, by that point in the weekend I was a little tired of tours and ready to go back to Prague. Overall, I enjoyed my time in Krakow, and I hope I get a chance to go back to Poland at some point in the future. I am grateful that I got the chance to visit Auschwitz, and even though I was there and walked through an extermination camp where so many people unnecessarily lost their lives, it still is difficult to imagine all of those horrible things happening.

Wawel Caste; photo credit Alexa Berry

The Grand Budapest Hostel

Budapest Parliament building

Last Thursday afternoon myself and five other girls boarded a bus to Budapest! We were a little delayed by some traffic, so by the time we got in, the metro had stopped running for the night. It took us quite awhile, but we somehow managed to purchase a 72-hour public transportation pass and make it to our hostel. It was after 1:00am by the time we were all checked in, so we all just passed out.

The next morning we woke up and decided to go on a free walking tour of the city. There was a tram stop right outside the front door of our hostel, and we were able to take that to the starting point of the tour. Our tour was about two and a half hours, and very informative. We learned that there are technically two sides of the city, Buda and Pest, which are divided by the river. We started down on the Pest side, and walked over to the Matthias Church up on the Buda side. After the tour we went out to lunch at a traditional Hungarian restaurant one of the staff members from the hostel recommended. Hungarian food is delicious, partially because it is so fattening! By the time we were finished eating it was almost 4:00 in afternoon and still raining, so we decided to do the Turkish Baths that evening. 

Széchenyi Baths; photo credit Nikki Johl

We went back to the hostel to rest for a few minutes and grab our swimsuits (which I have put to good use since coming to Europe!). We had heard to check out the Széchenyi Baths, because they were the biggest. The thermal baths were amazing; they were just giant hot tubs! We stayed in the outside baths because they were larger than the indoor ones, and that way we got to be surrounded by beautiful architecture and the night sky.Later that night we decided to check out one of the famous “ruin pubs” in Budapest. We went to Szimpla Kert, which has been voted as the third best bar in the world. It was such a cool place! There were two floors, with lots of seating outside.

Hungarian paprika at Central Market Hall

The next morning we rode the tram down along the river for shopping and lunch in the Central Market Hall. The market was very similar to Cleveland’s West Side Market, with food vendors on the lower level and souvenir stands up top. We wandered around the market for a few hours, each buying small trinkets, ranging from leather goods to traditional Hungarian paprika. We ended our time at the market by once again eating traditional Hungarian food. After lunch we climbed up a hill to the Citadel Fortress to the see the Liberty Statue. We were rewarded with a wonderful panoramic view of the city. After our short hike, our group split up, agreeing to meet back at the hostel for dinner (the hostel provides its guests with free dinner 3 nights a week!). Myself and two other girls went on a long and fruitless search for strong Turkish coffee, before arriving back at Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion. I had wanted to go inside the church because we didn’t do that the previous day, but it was closed for mass, so instead we just walked around and took pictures. We then went back across the river to look at the beautiful, and huge, Parliament building. As I was talking to my friends on the tram ride back to the hostel, I mentioned Denison, and the man next standing next to me turned and asked if I went there. It just so happened that he had graduated from Denison about 20 years earlier!

That night the hostel cooked free dinner for us, some sort of pasta and cheese dish. We ended up going back to explore Szimpla some more. On Sunday morning we went out to brunch, and then wandered over to a quirky little art store. We then headed out to walk around on Margaret Island. The island was located right next to our hostel and had very nice public parks and a great water fountain. We walked back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, and then we were on our way back to Prague. Overall it was a great weekend! I found the layout of Budapest to be very similar to Prague, and everything was a comparable price, and I enjoyed everything that we did!

London Calling

This past Thursday morning, I woke up early and headed out to the airport! I was flying into London, Stansted, to visit Heather (my Kappa “big” sister) for the weekend! Heather is currently completing a year-long graduate program at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, Norfolk, England, so once I arrived at Stansted, I boarded a bus headed straight towards the UEA campus! The bus dropped me right into the middle of campus, and then I was finally reunited with Heather! I got to see her town, where she was living, and meet her housemates and her friends. I also discovered they sell Cool Ranch Doritos in England, so all in all, I was a happy camper.

Pretending to be Hermione 

On Friday morning I explored the UEA campus a bit while Heather was in class. While the campus is mostly cement, I managed to find the University of East Anglia Estates which consisted of a pretty pond and a nice walking path. Once Heather was done with class, we headed back to her house, and then went to the Norwich Train Station for our train into London. Our train arrived at the Liverpool station, but the first thing we did was transfer using the Tube and head to Kings Cross Station to visit Platform 9 ¾! They had a professional photographer there, along with the various Harry Potter house scarves you could wear for the perfect photo opportunity. After sadly realizing that we never did get officially accepted into Hogwarts, we headed over to the hostel to check in.

Dad, for your own benefit, please don't check the credit card statement

Later in the afternoon, we went shopping at Harrods! We wandered throughout the entire department store, making sure to stop at every floor. While I did purchase some stereotypical Harrods souvenirs, I also made a real "adult" purchase! I had done some research beforehand, and discovered that Lonchamp Le Pliage bags are cheaper in the UK. I had my eye on a certain bag for awhile, so going to Harrods was the perfect excuse to finally buy my new bag. After shopping at Harrods, we headed over to Covent Garden and ate outside, right next to a street performer! His name was “Dynamike” and he was juggling pirate swords while riding a unicycle. After dinner we walked around the Theatre district and ended up at Trafalgar Square, which was pretty with the fountains lit up at night. As we were walking through the square, all of a sudden I turned my head left and saw Big Ben!

The previous night we had decided on doing a 48-hour hop on/hop off tour, along with tickets for touring the Tower of London. We headed to the main office for the sightseeing tour, collected our tickets, and hopped on the bus. We rode the bus to Buckingham Palace so we could watch the changing of the guard. It is amazing how elaborate the ceremony is! My personal favorite moment of the ceremony was when the Royal band played Queen’s “We Are The Champions.” After the changing of the guard we were planning on getting back onto the bus and continuing on to Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. However, there was strike in downtown London that shut down much of the city for a good portion of the day. We waited a long time for the bus before deciding to just walk along St. James’s Park towards Parliament and Westminster Pier to take advantage of the boat cruise that was included with our bus ticket! The boat cruise up the Thames River was lovely, and dropped us off right at the Tower of London.

Field of Ceramic Poppies

The Tower of London is currently installing a art/memorial exhibit for 100 year anniversary of World War I. The art exhibit is called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, and consists of 888,246 ceramic poppies filling the moat. We did a free Yeomen Warder tour of the Tower, and learned some of its “darker” history. Then we entered the White Tower, which houses some very old and very cool armor and weaponry. We ended our time at the Tower of London by visiting the Crown Jewels. The queue line was informative, and even had a video loop that showed Queen Elizabeth II's inauguration back in 1953. The crown jewels are so extravagant, it is almost hard to believe they are real!

221B Baker Street

After dinner, we had planned to head to the top of The Shard to get a 360-degree view of the city. We got there easily enough, but the tickets were much more expensive than anticipated, so we decided to pass. We ended up walking down towards the river and finding a series of restaurants that had outside seating and an excellent view of Tower Bridge. We sat down and enjoyed dessert before walking along the river for a bit. We got a nice close view of the HMS Belfast and kept walking for a bit before heading across the London Bridge on foot (unfortunately, we did not walk across the Millennium Footbridge at any point during our stay, but we did ride under it during our boat cruise). We ended the night by making a quick pit stop to see 221B Baker Street, and no, Sherlock and Watson weren't home.

We got up early once again, packed our bags, and headed back to the hop on/hop off tour so we could ride it all the way through. We got back on at Trafalgar Square, and enjoyed a two hour tour throughout the City of Westminster and London (they are technically two different places, it's pretty cool; look it up!). We had lunch at a "traditional" English pub and I finally indulged in some classic fish & chips. We ended our afternoon by riding the Tube over to Waterloo and walking around the bank near the London Eye. After that, I went to the Victoria Station and took the Gatwick Express to the airport for my flight back to Prague.

This weekend was the first time I have ever stayed in a hostel. This one was huge and was located in an old court house. We didn't interact too much with the other guests, and didn't even get a chance to meet all our roommates, but overall it was a good first experience (thankfully, because I will be spending many more weekends in hostels). Overall, my favorites were shopping at Harrods, walking along the Thames River at night, and seeing the Crown Jewels. I also discovered that Big Ben is my favorite London landmark, because as I went through all of my pictures, I realized that approximately a fourth were of Big Ben, and yes, they were all exactly the same. We definitely made the most of our weekend in London, but I have already started a to-do list for the next time I visit!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia; photo credit Jen Park

View from apartment

This past weekend I, along with six other friends from my program, went to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We flew out of Prague Friday morning and arrived in Croatia a little after lunchtime (I was very excited that we got our passports stamped). We had a driver pick us up from the airport and take us to the apartment where we were staying for the weekend. The apartment was in a nice complex, was only a ten minute bus ride away from the city center, and was absolutely huge! We had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen/living space, and multiple balconies, one of the which faced a bay! The first thing we did was go for a swim, since we were only two minutes away from the water. The water was refreshing and we were surrounded by mountains as we swam in the small bay. The water near Dubrovnik is crystal clear- you can see all the way to the bottom! Later that night we walked around the area near our apartment which had a definite “resort” vibe. After dinner we decided that the group would split up, with a couple girls staying behind and the rest of us going to explore the Old Town at night. So we bought a bus ticket and headed into the city.

Old Town at night; photo credit Tina Cho

When we stepped off the bus, we were bombarded with kiosks and tables advertising different activities and excursions to take part in while in Dubrovnik. We ended up talking to one saleswoman, Nikoleta, about the possibility of doing a kayak tour around the bay and Lokrum Island, and decided that it was something we wanted to do the following day. After taking down all of Nikoleta’s information, we headed into the historic Old Town. The Old Town portion of Dubrovnik is the part of the city within a fort. At night, the fort walls and the streets inside are spectacularly lit up. We wandered around inside the fort for quite awhile, just exploring the winding streets, and of course, eating gelato.

The layout and feel of Old Town definitely reminded me of Venice.

Kayaking in the Adriatic Sea;
photo credit Jen Park

Saturday morning we woke up early to get ready for the day ahead of us. We packed our bags, put on our swimsuits, and headed out the door. We went back to kayak kiosk and found Nikoleta, who lead us to landing where we would start our kayak tour. We ended up having a private tour, with all seven of us and only one other person, along with our tour guide. After leaving the start point, we headed out around the city walls and towards Lokrum Island. We kayaked all around Lokrum Island, stopping every 15 minutes while our tour guide explained some history of Dubrovnik. The popular HBO show Game of Thrones typically films some scenes in Dubrovnik, and they were actually filming while we were on our kayak tour! We were told to stay out of the shot, but later as we were kayaking back to Dubrovnik, we could see where they were filming. About halfway through our kayak tour we stopped at a small beach and were able to go swimming and snorkeling for 45 minutes, before getting back in our kayaks and finishing up the tour.

Aerial view of Dubrovnik and Lokrum Island

After the tour we walked around inside the Old Town for awhile. We stopped for lunch a seafood place that had been recommended to us, and I had clams for the very first time! There were many little art and souvenir stands, so we did some shopping before heading to walk along the top of the city walls. The entire length of the walls is two kilometers, so we were walking along the top for over an hour! The views of the rooftops and the Adriatic Sea were gorgeous! The sun was starting to set towards the end of our walk, and the lighting of the Old Town was so picturesque; almost like a fairytale.

After walking the walls, we took a cablecar to the top the mountain so we could see the city from above. Again, our timing was perfect! We could see Old Town and Lokrum Island at dusk. Since this particular portion of Croatia is very narrow, we were able to see the mountain ranges of Bosnia and Herzegovina that were located on the other side of the valley from where we were located.

Looking over to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The next morning, we woke up early so we could ride the ferry over to Lokrum Island. We wanted to explore the island, since the previous day we had only kayaked around it. We made the first ferry over at 9:00am, so we were some of the only people on the island. We walked around the botanical garden, which had some ginormous plant species! Then we wandered through the old monastery (where they have filmed a few Game of Thrones scenes). We made our way over to see the Dead Sea cove, and climbed over the huge outcropping of rocks facing out to wide open sea. I could have easily spent a day on Lokrum Island, but since we had a plane to catch, we were sadly only there for an hour and a half.

Rock formations on Lokrum Island; photo credit Tina Cho

Dubrovnik is one of the prettiest places I have ever visited, and I had a fantastic time. I hope that one day I will be able to go back and have more than 48 hours to explore the city and surrounding islands. It is a weird feeling to leave a place and wonder when, if ever, you will be back. I was sad to leave, but I guess it means that I had a great time!

Walking the city walls of Dubrovnik!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighorhood

View from Petřín Observation Tower

Námestí Jirího z Podebrad

I live in the Vinohrady neighborhood of Prague. The neighborhood is home to a lot of expatriates, and is considered very trendy (almost like the Brooklyn of Prague). The square nearest to my house, Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad, has a farmer’s market every Wednesday-Saturday and a church. I have also been trying some coffee places around my neighborhood. To order something “with milk” you would say “kavu s mlekem”. In theory you would think they would add at most a few tablespoons of milk or cream to your coffee. WRONG. Every time I have ordered anything with milk, it turns out to be a cup of warm/steamed milk with a faint hint of coffee, or as I like to call it, coffee flavored milk. Clearly, I will have to start foregoing any amount of milk whenever I order coffee.

Žižkov Television Tower

The Prague landmark the Žižkov Television Tower is also relatively close to my apartment. The tower is from the communist era, and yes, those are sculptures of giant babies crawling up and down the tower. Some Czechs are fans of the tower and others think that it ruins the Prague skyline; I, personally, do not care for the TV tower and think it makes for a jarring comparison between the old and the modern. I admit that in a way, it does make you appreciate the beauty of the colorful, historical buildings of Prague when compared with the space age TV Tower.

Petrín Oberservation Tower

I see London, I see France… just kidding! This past weekend I went to visit Petřín Hill, which houses Prague’s miniature version of the Eiffel Tower. Even though the Petřín Lookout Tower is smaller than the actual Eiffel Tower, since it sits atop a hill, it technically rises taller than the Eiffel Tower! The observation deck from the top of the tower gives a fantastic, 360 degree panorama of the city of Prague. Admittedly, after making our way up the hill, we couldn't stomach the idea of climbing the stairs all the way up the tower, so we paid a little extra to ride the elevator up. I also went to an exhibit that portrayed works of Alfons Mucha and Salvador Dalí. Mucha especially is a big deal here because he was born in the Czech Republic. There are many galleries and museums in Prague that showcase more of his works, including the massive Slav Epic pieces, that I have not seen, but am saving for a rainy day.

Oktoberfest, and All That Jazz

I have made some enhancements to my blog page! The slideshow at the top of the page is an album of pictures I have taken so far. I have set the slideshow to play randomly, but if you click on the image, it will take you to the album, and you can look through all my pictures. I also added a feature that allows you to get email notifications whenever I post a new blog, all you need to do is enter your email into the bar on the righthand side of the website.

I finally have my laptop back! There are no official Apple stores in the Czech Republic, so I had to drop my computer off at a premium retailer. It was a slightly stressful experience to try and get my computer fixed in a foreign country, especially since the receptionist at the repair shop only spoke Czech, so she always put me on the phone with an English speaker. My laptop is running just like new, and I even have a new battery.

Jakub, on the right, playing the drums

This past week I attended a jazz club with my Czech buddy, Jakub. The club was called Blues Sklep, and it is an improv jazz club. The club was in an underground cave and completely filled with local Czech people. Jakub is a musician, so he and his band were on the lineup to play a few songs. We hung around for about an hour and then it was his turn to play! The place was very cool and definitely a great way to experience "traditional Czech culture."

Setting up for Oktoberfest

Friday morning we boarded a bus and left for Munich at 6:55 in the morning. The bus ride took a little over five hours, so we arrived around lunchtime. After trying for over half an hour to figure out the public transportation system, we gave up and took a taxi to the apartment where we were staying. Once we dropped everything off, we decided to go walk around and explore the city for a bit. We wandered around Munich rather aimlessly for a couple of hours. German people are very nice! They are willing to give us directions and were very helpful. We walked through the English Gardens before deciding to go check out the Oktoberfest campground. The Oktoberfest grounds are like a fair: there are amusement park rides and multiple food vendors outside in between the tents! Everyone was still setting up since Oktoberfest officially started on Saturday, so we were able to wander around and look inside some of the empty tents (these "tents" are massive, basically the size of an aircraft hanger). It was a unique experience to be able to see all the tents completely empty the day before Oktoberfest started. Afterwards, we found a shop that sold dirndls and bought “traditional” dresses for the big day.

The calm before the storm; photo credit Daniela Falvo

Saturday was the day! We got up at 6:00am, since we knew we had to be there early if we wanted to find a table for five people. Getting dressed in our costumes was quite a production since there were three pieces and lots of tying involved. But finally we were all ready and headed towards the metro stop. Admittedly, we were "riding light" and did not have tickets; we had heard they don't stop anyone to check them since the crowds are so large, the officers are more concerned about safety. To our credit, we did attempt to buy metro tickets the day before, but I’m pretty sure we only bought a one-way, one-zone ticket.

We weren't sure which was the best way to get to Oktoberfest, but our problem was solved for us; all we had to do was follow the lederhosen! The metro stop let us out directly into the Oktoberfest grounds. We practically ran to the tent we had decided to go to, the Hofbräu Festhalle, which is popular amongst Americans and Australians. We waited outside for about an hour before people were allowed to go inside. The five of us grabbed each other's hands, and thankfully we did, because I have never been in a crowd that surged forward and pushed so much. After about five minutes of suffocating, claustrophobic closeness, we were finally inside. We ran around for a few minutes until somehow we managed to find an open table, and we sat down immediately.

Little did we know, on the first day they do not tap the keg until noon, so we sat at our table for three hours playing the iPhone app “Heads Up.” At 11:30 things finally started to get interesting when the house band began to file in. Shortly after, there was a little parade, consisting bands and all the members of the brewer’s family in our tent, which in our case was the Hofbräu München brewery! There was a countdown as the first keg was tapped at noon, and the tent erupted in cheers. The atmosphere was indescribable, I don't think I have ever been in a place where so many thousands of people are instantaneously happy (our tent could seat 6,896 people inside), and I don't think I ever will be in the same situation again. Shortly after, three Australians came over to our table and hung out with us for a few hours, and I have to say, they were hilarious.

On our way out, I noticed I had lost my camera and ran back to the table to look for it, but didn't see it. Luckily, I had some pictures on my iPhone, and all my friends had many pictures on their phones. But hey, do you really experience Oktoberfest (or any trip/adventure for that matter) if you don't lose something? In actuality, one of our new Australian friends had grabbed my camera and lost us in the crowd, so my camera is currently safe, but in London. What a small world afterall. It was a long, crazy, weekend, but if I am ever presented with the opportunity to go to Oktoberfest, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat (and on the plus side, I already have the outfit)!

Photo credit Daniela Falvo