Nurnberg, Oktoberfest and more!

Oh man where to start! I'm sorry for not writing a blog last week, but nothing really exciting happened so I didn't feel the need to write one. This past week/weekend on the other hand is a different story!

So like I said nothing exciting happened 2 weeks ago, I went to all my classes went out a couple times on the weekend nothing really to report. One thing is that I know I said I wouldn't get homesick but I did! Can you believe it?

Okay so skipping to Tuesday September 25, mine and Allie's roommates invited us to a party that they were throwing on our balcony! This was our first balcony party and I will go into detail in a little bit. So I already blogged before about how in Prague we met some New Zealand friends that we had so much fun with during the pub crawl. We figured out we were all going to Oktoberfest the same weekend. Me and Allie mentioned we knew a place where you could get cheap Dirndls and Liederhosen's (the stereotypical German outfit) in Regensburg. The New Zealanders decided to come to Regensburg and stay a couple nights before they headed to Munich which brings us to Tuesday night.  The boys were supposed to Facebook us when they got in so we could meet up and hang out. They contacted us around 9 that night to let us know their hostel was closed for the night, and they were just going to find some grass to sleep on for the night. Well that wasn't going to fly with me when I had a perfectly good hard floor for them to sleep on.  Next thing you know we had our friends from New Zealand show up and come to our balcony party! I loved the balcony parties a lot more than going out to the clubs. It's a lot cheaper first of all, and much more fun! Since we had class in the morning we decided to go to sleep. One slept in my room on a blow up mattress, two in allies room on some blankets (her room is bigger than mine so she hogged all the guys haha), one in the car, and one is our friend Mary's room. We stayed up talking for over an hour and a half and I am so glad we met them. They are so cool and so much fun to be around! The next day after classes the boys picked up me and Allie in their mini van they are traveling Europe in, and we went to find some cheap outfits! They had a little luck but not much. Afterwards we had a brewery tour and Stammtisch at an extremely German restaurant. All in all a great 24 hours!

Thursday was also an exciting day because we got to row on the Danube!! The woman who gave us the city tour was a member at one of the Rowing clubs in Regensburg. She picked us up from our dorm and we arrived to their boathouse. I could go on and on about details of rowing for hours, but I'll spare you. I will say they row A LOT differently than we do. One difference is that they skull in all boats which is when you have 2 oars instead of one. Another difference was that their boats were humongous and they had the smallest blades on their oars (sorry only rowers will understand this). It was really weird and different but also so cool because the technique and everything else was the same. I think it is so cool to know that what I do in Murray Kentucky is (pretty much) the same thing someone does in Regensburg Germany. SO COOL.

That's us rowing with a beautiful rainbow in the background!

Friday we took a group trip to Nurnberg, Germany. It takes about a hour by train to get there from Regensburg. First we went to a documentation center from the holocaust. Nurnberg is mostly known for where they held the trials for the people involved in the holocaust (obviously something my dad, Neilsky would love) It was really interesting!

The whole gang

Afterwards we were free to walk around grab something to eat and meet at the original house of Albrecht Durer which was an artist in 1400-1500s. We talked around an ate at some food stands in the square then headed over. We had a tour of this artists house, but this was not like any other tour. They had an actress as the tour guide acting like the artists wife. I'll just say it was a strange way to do a tour but to each his own. The lady was really convincing and it was kind of awkward at some points not knowing whether to feel bad for her because she was sad about not having kids or not. It was just odd, but interesting. Heres a small clip that I recorded and as you can tell everyone is VERY interested haha

Also here are some pictures from Nurnberg...enjoy

Okay so now the moment all of you have been waiting for... OKTOBERFEST
I went with a group of seven girls including myself. We got up early in the morn to catch the first bus to Munich. We were told that since we were going on a weekend that we need to be there early in order to consider getting a seat in one of the Bier Gartens. Apparently, everyone else had that idea too and the train was packed! We were so lucky to get a seat on the train. This is no understatement when I tell you everything we did that day, there were thousands of other people around. It was one of the craziest things I've ever experienced with all the people, and drunk people at that! Once we got there we finally made our way to Oktoberfest. We followed some guys in Liederhosens (I'm not sure if I'm spelling that correct) and made it the Oktoberfest. Once we got there, we had no idea what to do except find somewhere to order a Liter of beer! We asked around to see which bier garten to go in and finally made a decision. Every single thing we did, we have to wait in line or in a packed crowd. We had to get up close to the tape that was blocking the entrance, along with 3 guards. We made it in two by two and finally we were all in. We found some guys that helped up order a liter of beer.

After we got our liter we decided to walk around and try to find somewhere to sit. This was an impossible task let me tell you. We finally found some Italian guys who let me and my friend kristen sit at the end of their table. And soon after, the rest our our group got the table right behind us.

This was probably my favorite part of the day, sitting around talking with people we didn't know and enjoying a liter of beer at Oktoberfest. By the end of the drink I was feeling pretty good! We had planned to meet up with our New Zealand friends so we left that tent and made our way to another one. This next tent we got into was by far the hardest to get into. Those guards had no mercy for us and were pushing the crowds away and were not being very nice. I have no idea how we did it, but we got in. A big thanks to Allie for staying strong up in the front! It took us so long to get in to the tent that our friends had already left. We stayed in there for a while but decided to leave and meet up with them. There was a huge communication issue and we never got to see our New Zealand friends. Our group got split up and this was a big mistake. After about an hour and half of searching for each other we finally found a meeting point and we were starving. It was also starting to rain so we decided to stick with our plan and go to Hard Rock Cafe. And boy was that the best decision we have ever made. We got there around 4 and it was (can you guess?) PACKED. We got a table after about a 30 minute wait which was great and it was one of the most delicious meals I have had since I've been here. We got free refills and tons of ice in our drink. I got a burger with guacamole on it and boy was it scrumptious. After leaving hard rock it was raining even more and we decided it was about time for us to go. We walked back to the train station and on the way stopped to buy some souvenirs. All in all it was a great day with great people! I had the time of my life!

I think that's all I've got. I keep apologizing for making these so long but I just can't help it!