I must apologize. I was unable to post a blog last week due to traveling, but now, I will recap all in this post. A little bit of context for this trip: I was noit supposed to go to Oktoberfest, but a wekk before this trip, one of my friends asked if I would like to go with him Austria and Munich, with the Munich trip being solely about Oktoberfest. I accepted and was able to embark on the journye of a lifetime.
Last Thursday, me and Andrew left Maastricht to go to Salzburg, Austria for the weekend. Getting to Salzburg was chaotic. First, I tried to ride my bike with my suitcase (first by dragging it with me and then with it in my basket). However, both attempts failed miserably and I ended up having to rush call an Uber to the train station. I did get to the train station on time and met Andrew there. We boarded our first train to Aachen where we were due to make a transfer that would take us to Cologne. We almost did not make that connecting train because our train to Aachen was delayed. There were a bunch of law enforcement people on our train looking for something. They asked for our passports and asked if we were carrying any drugs with us. After we said no and they searched our bags to confirm the truth, they continued searching the train. We ended up having to run to our train so we didn’t miss it (we made it thankfully). We had about 30 minutes to kill after arriving in Cologne so we went and saw the Cologne cathedral, which was right outside the station. It was one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen and I wish I could show it here. After the cathedral, we boarded the high speed train to Munich. It was an overnight train so we were expected to sleep. However, that was not the case for me. It was hard to sleep; the chairs were uncomfortable, the cabin lights were not dimmed, and it was freezing cold. Plus, my water bottle leaked in my bag and got everything soaked, including my passport. That is why I do not recommend taking an overnight train.
We arrived in Munich before 7 am and then boarded a train to Salzburg. That was where I got my only sleep of the night, which was about two hours. Once we got to Salzburg, we dropped our things off at our hostel and headed into the city to explore. We walked around for a few hours before heading off to find hiking trails. The first took us to a fortress atop the city and we got to experience amazing views of the city and the mountains. The second hike we did took us to a hotel that overlooked the mountains. We ended up sitting i. chairs at the summit and took an hour long nap in the sun. It really felt like I was in Colorado; the mountains and scenery made it feel like a piece of Colorado in Austria. The second day we took a bus to a lake about an hour outside of Salzburg. There, we hiked about 3 miles to a mountain lake, where Andrew jumped into the water (I did not partake). We the hiked back down the mountain after having lunch and ended the day walking around the lake at the bottom of the mountain. In terms of food in Austria, the primary thing I ate was German spatzle, a type of pasta that was very suitable for me considering I am a vegetarian (it is very good).
We left Salzburg in Sunday morning and made our way to Munich for Oktoberfest. I had to rent a lederhosen because the two that I attempted to order were both canceled. I ended up renting an authentic lederhosen for two days and it was quite nice. After checking into our hotel, we made our way to Oktoberfest. The venue was packed and our focus was finding a table inside of a beer tent to sit at. After trying two tents, we were unable to find a table where we could sit. But, you what they says, third times the charm. We finally found a table in beer tent number 3 of the day and settled in. Let me tell you, German beer is different. It is much more fresh than American beer and it tastes so good. The beer comes in liters and I ended up drinking about 2.5 liters of beer that day. I also ate a pretzel, vegan burger, and a heart-shaped cookie medal that was wrapped around my neck for most of the day. I’m glad I stopped at 2.5 beers because if I would have drank more, I would have ended up like Andrew. Andrew had about 4 liters of beer and he was extremely drunk. I had to aid him in walking home and me being drunk as well, there was a lot of stumbling going on. We did make it home safely, but after that, we did not drink anymore. We spend our Monday at Oktoberfest walking around and eating food before spending the rest of the day exploring downtown Munich. We took the train back Tuesday morning and got back to Maastricht Tuesday evening. After an eventful weekend, I was tired, but I had to focus on a midterm so I could not rest yet.
Overall, Salzburg and Oktoberfest were experiences of a lifetime. Experiencing something as beautiful as Salzburg and something as crazy as Oktoberfest definetly were not on my bucket list. I still have to balance school with traveling (as I said with having a midterm at the end of the previous paragraph), but I am in Euorpe and I do not know if I will have another experience like this. This is an experience of a life time and I need to take every moment of it to explore (while also focusing on academics of course).
DU Abroad 