Ich spriche keine Deutsch!
What do you get when you combine wiener schnitzel, giant pretzels, spaetzle, and huge steins of beer? (Hint: NOT Paris!)
And so went the weekend of Oktoberfest…basically a carnival for “adults”. Lots of beer, food, rides, and a ton of drunk foreigners. It was quite a change from the Paris I have come to know (um, hello, there was strip club above our hotel!) Just being in a country where I could not speak a word of the language besides “hello,” “no,” and “thank you” was a very foreign feeling (no pun intended).
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The trek to Munich was the first I have taken this semester. Being able to see the whole abroad crew from Wake Forest was so much fun, and the beer certainly improved the atmosphere. I honestly am struggling to come up with the words to describe Oktoberfest, because it was that amazing. The feeling you get when riding on a roller coaster after drinking 3 steins of beer is….well, you can imagine.
I will say though, I am pretty happy that I drank my last stein of beer for a while. One of them is equivalent to around 3 beers in the US, and let me tell ya, it does not go down easy at 9 in the morning!
The weekend after Oktoberfest, I continued my excursions in German speaking countries to Vienna. It is an amazing city, and so different than anywhere I have ever been. We were able to see several palaces, an amazing cathedral, and ate lots of apple strudel! The best part of the weekend, though, was when we took the train to Salzburg for the day to do…
Drum roll please!
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The Sound of Music tour! I could barely contain my excitement upon my arrival to the city. I saw the picturesque view of the Alps and some lines from “The Hills are Alive” naturally slipped out. We had a very friendly (and quite chirpy to listen to after a 3 hour train ride) Austrian girl that gave us all the inside scoop from the movie. Fun fact: The youngest girl, Gretel, gained 10 pounds while filming from all the chocolate cake and hot chocolate they fed her! We were able to see all the houses and the lakes that they filmed at, as well as the abbey and church where the marriage took place.
Unfortunately we were unable to make it to the meadow, and I didn’t have my singing moment, but we were able to see the famous gazebo in all its glory! Thank goodness our bus had little sing-a-longs so that I could get it all out then. Salzburg is truly an amazing city, and doing the movie tour really brought it to life.
But alas, all good things must come to end…at least I get to go back to a place as wonderful as Paris!
Au revoir, for now!