Eat. Play. Love Italy.: Oh, Oktoberfest

Exhilarating and insane. Two words that appropriately describe this weekend's Oktoberfest experience. The Bavarian beer festival is the world's largest fair, hosting more than five million attendees each year, held at the Theresienwiese campground in Munich, Germany. The massive 16 - 18 day celebration has been hosted since 1810 in honor of King Ludwig's marriage to Crown Princess Therese. I sort of expected a gigantic German frat party and was thus surprised by the whirlwind of events and consequential reflections embedded in the weekend.

First of all, it is jolting to think that the site of such a popular social event was also the site of the horrible persecution and genocide of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. I confronted this fact head-on during a three-hour bike tour of Munich. While the city's streets were sparkling clean, its slate is not. Many of its buildings were formerly locales where Hitler lectured, spewing the treacherous propaganda that would ultimately lead to the decimation of so many innocent people. While it was rewarding to make note of the White Rose memorial dedicated to a group of German philosophy students and their professor who resisted and protested the Nazi movement, the residual signs of Germany's oppressive dictator had the potential to overshadow the country's gems. Throughout the tour, it became abundantly clear that Germans are incredibly ashamed of Hitler's indelible stain on their country, but guilt and shame cannot erase the immense cruelty that was inflicted or the pain that was suffered and is still felt by the families of those persecuted. My experience touring Munich reminded me that, though my religion is not always at the forefront of my mind, I am constantly bound to my cultural heritage. I appreciated the opportunity for reflection and regret that I was not able to make it out to the Dachau concentration camp. Still, I decided to provide myself the opportunity to explore the many sweet things that Munich does have to offer.

Moving past its past, Munich in the present day is undeniably a gorgeous and thriving city. Tourists clearly come from far and wide to taste the magical brews from Hofbräuhaus, which my friends and I had the pleasure of sipping on during Wiesn (the German word for Oktoberfest) all day Saturday. The city is strewn with luscious green space and an abundance of orderly bicycle lanes. It offers intriguing architectural focal points including the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz, Munich's central square, and the 500-year-old Frauenkirche dome rumored to contain the devil's footprint in its floor. Tom, our tour guide, did not fail to amuse us, incorporating visits to Munich's nudist garden and the famed river surfers, who tackle rapid currents all day, every day to tourists' chagrin. We even made it to the world's 2nd largest beer garden for a delicious lunch of sausages, dumplings and fried potatoes, German delights I could never eat daily, but very much enjoyed for the day. So, despite its unerasable history, I decided that there is much to appreciate in Germany and I would never be one to condemn a whole country for the actions of specific individuals in its past.

Now onto the big event of the weekend: OKTOBERFEST. I shocked myself a bit by opting to spend 12 hours on a double decker bus to cram into a double at the Holiday Inn with five other girls in order to spend two days at a beer festival. I'm not normally one to get that fratty (note: if you are a member of my family and/or not a college student, enter that term in Urban Dictionary), however, this is one of those absolute must-dos on the abroad checklist according to almost every traveling aficionado. And I have to say, you can't really do this thing justice...you'll just have to head out to Germany and experience it for yourself. The golden beer is loaded into steins bearing its brewery's logo, then dished out by the dozen by beermaids in colorful cotton and taffeta dirndls, traditional Bavarian dresses sported by every authentic Wiesn-goer. I hoped to snag one on the cheap, but it is impossible to find a quality outfit for under 50 euro and, after Florence, I couldn't spare that kind of cash. Nonetheless, from prost-ing (cheers-ing) steins with tons of new friends to munching on huge cheesy pretzels, singing at the top of our lungs to riding the soaring swings at the insanely expansive outdoor carnival, the trip was unbeatable. I am glad I made it out for the insanity, despite being a little disoriented in a new city...this was one weekend I am sure I will never forget. And who knows...maybe when Mikey gets a little bit older, I will come back for round two: family style!