So aside from the vigorous day to day lifestyle of an Erasmus law student, I have chosen to make use this year of the fact there no longer lies the English Channel between myself and mainland Europe. This will obviously be put to more use on receiving my Erasmus grant which after said expensive adventures, I eagerly await. Nevertheless, I would not dare allow such a trivial factor such as money to prevent me from sampling some of Europe’s finest cultural activities....
Oktoberfest, for example, obviously a very cultural,
educational and thought provoking experience for any youth of today. In fact,
you may be surprised to hear that despite my sarcastic tones, in reality,
Oktoberfest was all of the above, in its own very very special way. After a
week of heavy partying and studying (obvs) through the week, we set off for
Munich, Germany at around 10pm last Friday night, beers in hand and blissfully
unaware of the tumultuous bus journey that lay ahead. To say that this French
bus driver was a lunatic would be an understatement. He insisted on the heating
being on full blast, drove as if he were playing a computer game, and
absolutely loved reversing for no apparent reason. At one of the toilet stops,
I woke up from my slumber to find he had managed to drive us into what can only
be described as a building yard, enclosed with big metal gates. He then proceeded
to instruct one of our fellow passengers to open these gates while he reversed
(without reason) out of the building sight with such force that I prepared
myself for the bus to roll! To make matters worse, the Serbian girls sat in
front of us clearly did not read up on bus etiquette before boarding a bus with
Brits as it is clearly not OK to recline your seat to its full potential of
reclination, leaving the person sat behind you (me) with absolutely no room and
less than impressed.
So we eventually made it Munich at around 7am, a little bit
dazed and consumed with fatigue, confused as to what we would do with ourselves
for the next few hours. Before we set off, however, we were provided with a
complimentary Petit Déjuner, consisting of a carton of pomme juice, a piece of
baguette and literally 4 squares of chocolate! Too tired to question this
choice of breakfast, I consumed it happily!
Our confusion was soon put to rest as we realised the
Germans like to start their day early, Oktoberfest included, the party started
at 9am! And if we wished to be included in the party and as we decided to go on
the busiest day of the entire festival, we would have to queue for
approximately 2 hours! We chose to queue for the tent with the biggest queue as
we concluded that the Germans knew the best and the time passed fairly quickly as
we people-watched the crowds of Germans dressed in their fabulously traditional
gear and giggled at the security woman nearby who had taken her position of
power way too seriously! Once inside the tent (it was more like a castle!) we
were taken aback by the electric atmosphere; people running and diving to get a
table for the day, the music from the bandstand in the centre of the massive
room and the smell of pretzels and beer swarmed through the air. In Germany,
there will be no queuing at a bar to wait for your massively oversized stein
beer, a man with enormous strength will come to your table and bring you one in
exchange for a mere 9.40 Euros. Excellent!
So three steins later, a load of chanting and cheering
pretending to know the words to the traditional German songs and having made
friends with three hilarious German chaps, we were well of our way to
experiencing the delights of Oktoberfest. My delight was temporarily interrupted
when some fool from the next table was sick on my arm – possibly the grossest
thing ever. I just washed it off with lots of Oktoberfest soap and got on with
my day! Clearly no French practice occurred during our day as everyone spoke
German and obviously all Germans can speak English too – show offs! The general
atmosphere, togetherness and the traditional influence was really outstanding,
everybody was in good spirits and overjoyed to welcome foreigners to their
festival. Im not sure that a beer festival with such tradition would follow the
same format in Britain!
I for one, despite my overbearing fatigue from lack of sleep
on torture bus, was NOT ready to leave. But at 5pm, after sampling a few rides
and eating a Bratwurst something or other, we once again boarded the torture
bus to endure a further 10 hours of sleep-deprived, slightly tipsy to begin
with then hung-over travelling back to Nancy. It is now Tuesday, and I am still
recovering from the approximately 8 hours I spent in Munich but I would, without
doubt, do it all again! But for now, I am looking forward to Tom’s arrival
tomorrow and to show him with pride, my new home!
Bisous xxxx
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