Oktoberfest!

I haven't blogged in 20 days.  I'm in trouble.  I'll hopefully blog about my Dallas trip this week but I make no guarantees.

We checked off another fun bucket list item last month when we headed to Munich for the real genuine Oktoberfest!  Our friends Tom and Missy used to live in Munich and became our tour guides and advisors for the whole weekend.  It was a thoroughly exhausting weekend but it was one of the most fun trips we've been on.

We got in Thursday, made our way to our Airbnb apartment, went to a delicious din with our pals at Blue Nile, an Ethiopian restaurant where you eat with your hands, and crashed.  We did Oktoberfest in a tent all day on Friday, were in bed by 10pm, only to wake up at 5am to make it to a tent to wait in line on Saturday morning for 2.5 hours to get in and have our first beer at 9:30am.  Yikes.  Luckily the place is like Vegas, where there are no clocks and no windows, so you can't really tell what time it is.  All you know is that you've been up for 5 hours, it feels like noon, so why not have a huge liter of beer?  Alright!!

Oktoberfest was REAL fun, in that...you drink beer with a couple of friends, you sit with random strangers, you make friends with everyone near you and around you, you run into old high school friends (what!?), you sing songs, you toast/Prost each other, you have a great time.  Everyone's there to live it up and join in on the German camaraderie.  Anyways, here are some random pics that get progressively more beer-filled and blurry.

The inside of the "Bavarian Heaven" Hacker tent - we couldn't find a seat so we headed over to the....

Hoffbrau Tent!  This guy flying around is Aloisius, the angel "mascot" of the tent.  We found some seats here with some Dutch men and some college kids and we were happy campers after a beer or two.

Drew and Tom!

The amazing rotisserie chicken they have to eat in all the tents.

I was taking a pic with some friends and I saw Austin Engel from elementary/junior high/high school out of the corner of my eye!!  We knew he lived there but never dreamed of running into him!

Old pals since the CCDC days.

All my dirndl-wearing pals!

Late in the day.  You can probably tell because of my eyes.  Whoops.

Day 2!  Refreshed and ready to party.  Or something.

Tom and my new b-fri Emily!  She was with our other friends there and she was a hoot and a holler.  We #hastagged the day away.
#ohNEINyoudidnt #holdmeclosertinydancer #wefellinloveinahopelessplace

Missy and Tom!

Ricky, Chase, and Tom!

Later in the day again.  I think I had just tried "resting my eyes" and taking a cat nap at the table but the powers that be were there in 2 seconds flat, trying to kick me out of the tent because they believed I'd passed out!!  I promptly stood up and started dancing to show them I was wide ass awake and not at all too drunk.  Just too sleepy.

Ricky and Drew and some guy I don't know.

Graham, me, Missy, Tom.  Blurred lines/vision.

Drew and Emily

Ricky and Drew

Me and Miss.

The outside of our Pschorr Braurosl tent on Saturday evening.

We got up late and walked around the Oktoberfest grounds in our civilian clothes and sampled the German fare and observed the culture.

Appel cake thingies!  Yummmm.

Drew with a fried flat funnel cake tasting thing.  It was REAL good.

The inside of the Hippodrome tent that we wandered into.  It looked like a circus!  Coincidence?

They sold these German gingerbread cookies all over the festival - you'd primarily wear them around your neck and they were more for decoration than anything.  Missy told me they tasted pretty bitter so I shouldn't eat them.

This huge talking giant puppet thing outside of a big ride - fascinating.  But weird.

Every huge tent had a bunch of Clydesdale horses outside of it pulling a huge touristy cart full of beer kegs.  Pretty horses and good photo opps! 

And lastly...we wandered over to the Marienplatz to see the clock, eat some traditional German food, and enjoy the city of Munich.  

We didn't get home until 11pm that night and we were EXHAUSTED - full realizing that we weren't 21 anymore like we'd hoped in our heads.  But Oktoberfest was definitely something to check off the list and we had an amazingly fun time doing it.  

More about Dallas soon!

Amsterdam

We went to Amsterdam a few weeks ago to see our pals John and Natalie and their cutie bebe Carter!  They have a swanky place on the other side of the Museumplein on the canal and they couldn't have been better hosts and tour guides!

I'd been to Amsterdam in college with my pals, but this was Drew's first time to see this neat city.  I will say being here made me very nostalgic for college and this particular city with the girls and Kirk, cause it was such a fun time.  I found myself saying to Drew around every corner, "oh, we went here and Kirk said the FUNNIEST THING when this happened!" or "We had the best strawberry margaritas at this place right before THIS happened!" I don't think he was as amused by my trip down Memory Lane but it was fun for me.  

Bottom line: this city is cool.   Maybe one of my faves in Europe!  Here are some pics.

The "I amsterdam" sign - a pic with some fellow tourists as we were all in each other's shots.

We then went to the Van Gogh museum!  I remembered it being a lot cooler than it was this time around, though I still enjoyed it.  It could have been because I was with two guys who were bored out of their minds.

The newly renovated Rijksmuseum (Royal Museum) - basically a large museum alllll about Dutch history!  I'd already seen it and Drew was done with museums so we kept moving.

Beers on the canal with this little cutie!!

Then some apps and drinks at home before we went out on the town.  I like seeing Drew hold babies, so sue me!

A DELICIOUS rib dinner at Cafe de Klos!

Then a walk through the Red Light District to top off the evening.
Gross, weird, trashy, sad, interesting.  All of the above.

Saturday morning: we set out in the rain on John and Nat's bikes to get to the Anne Frank House early!

I was shocked that there was no line.  Know why?  Cause it was the ONE DAY in the entire year that they were closed: Yom Kippur!  We couldn't believe it.  We didn't even know it and Drew is half-Jewish, for cryin' out loud!

We consoled ourselves at The Pancake Bakery!

Yummy pancakes the size of our heads.

Poffertjes with strawberries and ice cream and whipped cream.    Happiness.

We hopped back on our bikes and attempted to outride a storm to Brouwerij'tij before it crashed on our heads.  We failed.  So we hung out in this little craft brewery our Dublin friends recommended and had some beer flights. 

Caped crusader on a bike!

We rode over to the Heineken Brewery, realized it cost way more than we wanted to spend, so we wandered around the city some more and had some beers at a cafe on the canal.  Beers beers beers.  

We got home early evening for G&Ts with John and Nat and a home made meal!

Blue skies greeted us on Sunday morning as we attempted round 2 at the Anne Frank House.  We made it!  This is the Westerkerk, overlooking the building.

The famous bookcase.

Seeing the museum again made me want to read the book again.  I remember reading it in 6th grade and not really understanding what it all meant and being relatively bored because there was no real plot to speak of.  Obviously now I feel differently and think I'd enjoy it a great deal more.

Just some pretty canal shots in the sun.

John and Nat have a boat, did I mention that?  We've been hearing about this amazing boat for over a year now and we were determined to get a canal cruise.  Drew had also been eyeing these "Skipper" and "First Mate" hats in Dublin for months in anticipation of this ride!

It didn't disappoint!  Neither did the weather.

I have 2 thick coats on and a scarf, in case you're wondering why I weigh 300 lbs in this picture.

And I had to add some food porn to the post by way of my Croque Madame at George.  Yummm.

Like I said: great city, great friends, great time.

Off to pack for Dallas in 2 days!  I can't wait.  More soon.