Oktoberfest 2011

Once I found out I was actually moving to Germany, I knew I HAD to go to Oktoberfest!  Yesterday was the opening day of the fest!!  So Friday night after school I went all over Amberg looking for the perfect Drindl to wear.  Every time I mentioned to someone that I was going down on Saturday, they recommended buying one to wear.  Bavaria is a region rich in tradition, and Oktobfest is no exception to that rule!

We left Saturday morning around 5:30 AM to make it down into Munich by 8.  The fest doesn't officially start until the parade ends and the King taps the first Keg at noon, but getting there early is  MUST to ensure you actually get a table to sit at.  They will only serve you beer/food etc if you're seated in one of the Beer Halls.

When we got there I was amazed at how many people were there already!  The lines to get into the beer halls were already so long!  We decided to wait in line to try to get into the Augustiner Brau.  They opened the doors around 9:00 and it became evident pretty soon that there was no way we were going to find places to sit.  So we decided to just wander around the grounds, look at all the venders, walk into the different beer halls and hang out until the parade came through at 11:30.

9:30 AM, inside the Augustiner Brau

The parade was really cool.  Each brewery had their own floats and the horses pulling them were gorgeous! After the parade we made our way to one of the Breweries that had outdoor seating.  Eventually we realized that we'd have to split up to find places to squeeze in at the end of tables.  I ended up at a table with a couple americans from California, a German who lived in Berlin but had a condo within walking distance of the fest and came down for it every year.  He had 3 friends with him, a guy from Frankfurt, one from England, and I never caught where the 3rd was from.

It was such a beautiful day and so much fun to sit outside, drink great beer, talk to new people, and enjoy the music from the Oom-pah Band!  Long, but super fun day!!!!

Hopefully a full album will be up on Facebook soon!

9/11 remembrance concert

I'm going to backtrack a little bit to get everyone caught up on last weekend and this past week before I go into what's been going on this weekend.

Last weekend ended up being much busier than I had planned.  The weather was going to be GREAT on Saturday so I talked to Paula and Wolfgang and they recommended a couple of local places that had some nice hiking trails.  It ended up being more of a nature walk than a hike, but it was still beautiful and great to be outside.  Here are a couple pics from the trail!

Beginning of the trailhead

Hiking along some cool rock formations

It's already beginning to look alot like fall

The trail ended in an open field

After hiking all day Saturday, I talked to Paula and she mentioned that there was a 9/11 remembrance concert on Ramstein Air Force Base on Sunday.  Trace Adkins was performing a free concert!  It was too good of an opportunity to pass up (Country music is one of the things I miss the most being over here, it's so hard to find any on the radio stations).

I'm so so glad I ended up going!  The atmosphere at the concert was incredible!  It was really inspiring to see so many people gathered in one place who have dedicated their lives to serving our country.  Especially on such an important day in our country's history.  It seems hard to believe that it's been 10 years since the attacks.

I was able to get a few pictures from the concert!  Enjoy!

In other exciting news, on Monday I received an e-mail saying that my car has arrived!!!  I spent literally all day Tuesday running around Graf getting everything in order!  But, by late Tuesday afternoon, I had my car, she was inspected and passed with flying colors, she was registered in Germany, and had new license plates!

She looks cute as ever!  Now it's really time to try new names on for size to see what fits!  I'm still open to any new suggestions, so please send them my way!!

A is for Autobahn, B is for BMW

I had my first experience driving on the autobahn Wednesday!  Well actually, I drove on the autobahn for 2 separate trips on Wednesday.  The first one was to go to a meeting in Ansbach for new Sped people in the district.  It was actually not as exciting as I had hoped.  It was raining and we hit a couple of Staus (or traffic jams).  So I really didn't get to experience the full effect.

In the evening after the meetings was over and we were back in Vilseck, I headed down to Schwanddorf to go to a store called Globus. It's a super Target of sorts with tons of school supplies and stuff for the apartment and right off of the autobahn!  Well, this time is was a clear evening and I was in a rental BMW.  So, needless to say I had some fun :)  I'm still getting used to the no speed limits thing.  I think I maxed my speed at 185KM per hour, which is something like 115 MPH.  Cars were still passing me, but it was exciting and scary and very German all wrapped into one.  So I was a giddy happy!

Speaking of BMWs on Sunday I went over to Paula and Wolfgangs for a family dinner with Wolfgang's dad and brother.  Wolfgang's brother Klaus bought a VERY nice BMW convertible last year and we took it out for a spin!

I think my white sunglasses go nicely with the beautiful paint job!