Oktoberfest not Octoberfest

Overview
After a 24 hour round trip bus ride..yes 12 hr each way... I am finally home from Oktoberfest. The bus ride wasn't actually that bad because I was able to sleep on the way there, not the story coming home. So for those of you that do not know what Oktoberfest is: It is a two week long beer festival in Munich Germany. It celebrates the different Breweries in the Munich area and is set up like a huge camp ground with "tents" (aka buildings but their called tents) and each being completely different inside. Some are more geared toward German families while others, like the one we went to, are more geared toward students and are a lot louder and more active inside. Oktoberfest doesn't serve beer in a normal way..they only serve beer by the Liter aka Stein. A stein is a one liter size glass mug that costs 10 EUR and waitresses carry around up to 10 at a time serving drunk patrons (I have no idea how they carry so many...everyone congratulates them the first time they see it.) The other part that makes Oktoberfest Oktoberfest is the food. The food ranges from tent to tent but over the course of two days I had about four pretzels (the size of your torso), a half a rotisserie chicken, a weinersnitzel and a two foot long hot dog.

View from top of swing ride...tents along right

In addition to the beer and food tents there are also plenty of rides as seen in the picture to the right. For reasons unknown to me every ride involves spinning or flipping and how people aren't constantly getting sick on them amazes me considering everyone has to be at least 3 steins in to pay 5 EUR to go on the swings for 2 minutes but I digress. I went on the swings and it was awesome. I took this amazing picture just for this blog (your welcome) and had a blast walking around the camp grounds. Luckily I only lived 5 minutes off the grounds walking distance.

My daily activities
So personally my friends and I spent both days in the Hofbrau tent. But Corey what about the other tents? Good question, essentially once it passes around 9:30am its really hard, say impossible, it get into a tent. So once we got a table we stayed as long as possible (4:30pm). On Friday we arrived at 8am after our long bus ride and went immediately to the camp grounds. Friday was actually pretty easy to get in. We got in line around 9:15, got in at 9:45 and the tent was full by 11. We got a table in the standing room area in the center because the tables get reserved at certain times and they kick you out at those times (reservations are made about 10 months in advance and usually only to Germans). The band was playing random German songs, and people were standing on tables chugging their beer to the applause of the crowd (or failing and getting booed); it was awesome.

Hafbrau "tent", Band in center and tables all around the sides

My favorite part of the tents was the music. In the tent we were in they even played Sweet Caroline in English to everyones applause.

On Saturday we did pretty much the same thing. We got in line at 7:30am though which was completely necessary because we weren't really even close to the front but luckily we got in and got a table next to these three Italian guys who looked American but only spoke italian; I broke out my Italian 100 level sayings and asked them their name and how are you, after that I got nothing besides numbers, pizza and panino. We didn't leave the tent until around 5pm and after that we went to sleep around 8, there is a reason the tents close at 9-10, no one is up past then.

Overall this trip was amazing, I highly recommend it so here are my Oktoberfest tips:

1. On saturday get there early, like 7-7:30 and once your in stay in
2. Keep an eye out for reserved tables, they'll kick you out if your in one at the reserved time
3. Stay close to the camp grounds, you don't want to deal with the mobs in the subway after 4 steins
4. Even though they moved Oktoberfest to September to make it a little warmer (yup its true) its still really cold 
5. If your not going to buy the traditional Leiderhuson or a Dirndl for girls wear flannel button down shirts, you'll fit in as a foreigner 
6. Don't go in with too much of a budget, drinks are 10EUR, food is about 10EUR and snacks are about 5EUR; you're only there once in a lifetime; just eat it. 

My next trip is Barcelona with a Barca FC (soccer) game Saturday night then an off week and FALL BREAK!

Haufbrau tent on Saturday

CIAO!

Ibiza, Ibitha, Irvisa

Recap
No matter how you pronounce it Ibiza is the summer party capitol of the world. Every big DJ and producer in the industry plays on this small tourist trap of an island off the coast of Spain. Every restaurant we went to had menus in at least 4 different languages. It is not a place to go to experience Spain; its a place to go to experience the constant repeating rhythms of House music.

Now I know my friends out there who are all into the EDC and Ultra and Dayglow (Freshman) and techno and blahblahblah are going to argue with me...but Im not one who cares about the differences between house and techno and producing and DJ and etc. I really do like the music, honestly its catchy and its the anthem of college these days, but I can't really stand the people who say that certain DJs aren't "real" or that certain music is "true" house music. I just like to sit back (jump around) and enjoy whatever repeating rhythm with pointless lyrics is playing and bask in the moment..which is what I did for 3 days in Ibiza.

Details
For the rest of this blog post im going to just post videos/pictures because honestly its the only way to explain where I was...and I didn't bring my phone around so I have very little or no pictures...enjoy.

Friday night: couldn't find a video I was comfortable posting with who's reading this blog.

ES Paradis pool party

Saturday night: (jump to 50 second mark)

Sunday day party: Ocean beach club..again couldn't find a video I was comfortable posting with who's reading this blog.

Sunday night airport for 6am Monday morning flight home.

This weekend Rome...Next Week OKTOBERFEST

CIAO

Amalfi Coast

Trip overview
This weekend I took a trip with a student tour company called Bus2Alps to Amalfi Caost in Italy. It was the most beautiful place I have ever been. I strongly suggest you cancel whatever trip you have planned next and fly to Naples then drive to Sorrento in the Amalfi coast.

Capri from the top

We took the 3 hour bus ride down to Sorrento Thursday night. We woke up really early, worth it in the end, to ferry of to the island of Capri. This Island  (in the picture to the right) is beyond beautiful. I don't think any picture I post will do it justice but I will try because I know how much everyone wants to see them. We spent all day walking around (climbing around because the whole island is one giant hill) and just stoping every 2 seconds to take in the view. 

I truly enjoyed everything about Capri, the best part was the private boat tour that we took when we first arrived that took us to the blue grotto. The Blue Grotto is one of Europes natural wonders. It is a cave that has amazing flourescent blue water from the reflection of the sun in the cave.

Blue grotto

It was the coolest thing because in order to enter you have to go in a really small 4 person boat and lay flat becasue the opening is so small (honestly I don't know who discovered it but he's one brave person). My favorite part of the boat ride was the fact that my group of about 15 friends, that are also my closest group in Rome including Maryland people, got our own private smaller boat. The entire trip had about 200 people on it but as we were the last off the ferry we were the last to get on a boat. We missed #1, #2 then with only our group left we got a small private one, so much cooler. 

Day 2 we spent in Positano. Positano is also amazingly georgous. We spent the day on the beach and walked around town (walked again equals climbed because the entire area is one big mountain.) We went cliff diving and cave swimming. I'm not good with heights but I had to do the cliff and honestly it wasn't too high but it was really fun. We ended our trip at Pompeii on Sunday and honestly it was too hot and was alright at best, not too much to say.

Inside the caves

Overall it was an amazing trip. I was able to spend time with some new friends and stayed with our Maryland group as well. I would highly suggest traveling there. We saw celebrity houses, mountains, caves and amazingly blue water. Im happy I was able to go.

Overall Rome update

One of the weirdest things about studying abroad and traveling is that coming "home" is coming to Rome. Im so used to coming back from a long weekend and relaxing in air conditioning and having home comforts. This time im back to Rome and still trying to figure out the best way to do things. Laundry with no dryers, cooking my own food and using buses for school are some of the things im learning about. I can't wait to continue this journey. For those worried (mom and dad), my classes are going well.

This weekend off to the party and club capitol Ibiza, Spain. 

Private boat in Capri

First thoughts of Rome

Hello Everybody

So on wednesday I Arrived in Rome after 8 hours of occasional 20 minute naps which in total may have added up to one hour or probably less. Luckily the plane had working TVs and individualized control over which shows to watch (How I met your mother men v suits episode a few times).
After arriving in Rome I was greeted by the schools employees and I was shuttled to my building. I live with 5 other people including one of my friends from Maryland and the other kids are also from the tri state area. Its hard to tell at this point how things will continue to go but I am excited for this semester and it seems like I have a great apartment. We also went to the beach 30minutes from Rome today (pictures to follow on the twitter feed).

Here are some things I have learned about Rome so far:
-Red lights are optional on mopeds
-driving rules don't exist at all
-Public transportation is "free" (nobody including locals pay b/c tickets are rarely checked)
-buses run on a schedule ranging from every 15 minutes to back-to-back
-everything is closed from 2-4 (14:00-16:00 every day) and on sundays
-pizza is ordered by weight
-its very easy to get lost when the streets don't run straight
-Street vendors think that Americans only buy shiny light up toys and flowers
-traveling with a large group of american students to the beach is harder than it seems on public transportation.
-Camp could only prepared me for no AC so well and
- its not easy to find non-pasta/pizza food in Italy

Future:
Amalfi Coast this weekend
Ibiza
Oktoberfest

Ciao for now