Prost-ing The Night Away

Since I've last written a few grand things have occurred. For starters- I turned a whole year older and am officially out of my teens (#20), and secondly we made our first trip outside of ~Italia~ and ventured into Germany for OKTOBERFEST!!

For starters- my birthday was spent on a lovely Monday when I had 3 classes, but one of them was my very first cooking lab!! We made spaghetti pomodora con pancetta. 'Twas truly delicious and I am confident I will NOT be able to make it as extraordinary as the chef. *Sidenote: when I'm in this cooking lab I think it's important to note that I look very official with an apron and hat, but not the big chef hats, it kinda looks like a cross of an old school maid hat crossed with a Good Burger employee hat. Then, after all classes were said and done we ventured to a (surprise) American Burger themed restaurant because I was really craving some burger/ fries. This place was so good though! I was very impressed and got to enjoy some free house-made limoncello for FREE! Afterwards we went to a bar across the street where we became friends with Dario the bartender and the bar- that mainly spoke every language except English- sang Happy Birthday to me (shoutout Maddy for making this happen). But, in all honestly, I felt truly blessed on this day to be turning 20 and living one of my dreams of not only visiting Italy but living here for 3 months, with my incredible travel partner (@maddydean)!

The rest of the week played out per usual with classes and us trying to save our money #ballingonabudget you know. Then, we got ready for the insane trip called Oktoberfest. We ventured out with a travel agency called Stoke Travel, that planned our trip out for us. We took a bus from Milan throughout the middle of the night to be in Germany early Friday morning- where we arrived at our campsite. Yes, campsite. We camped out with approximately 200 other people about 20 minutes from Munich, where the main Oktoberfest is held. This campsite was a party though, the people that worked there were so full of life- I don't know how they were always so excited to be up and serving us food (and drinks), playing music, dancing, it was baffling to think they did this for weeks as I could only handle it for 3 days before I looked and felt like a zombie.

The trip into actual Oktoberfest was a train and a metro, but we managed to make it into the festival very easily with the help of our friends that we met up with at the event. Oktoberfest was something I always knew I wanted to go to- but I never really knew what to expect. Basically it was like a huge fair where there were rides but also a LOT of food and beer. The main place to go is the beer halls, where there are a bunch of different themes and you stand on tables and chug an entire stein (if you are able because if not you will get food thrown at you). On the first day we just walked around, the second day we were able to sit in the halls and order a few steins, which were not easy to drink, (this picture is proof that I did indeed finish) and just took it all in.

The trip home, on the other hand, was not nearly as exciting. After 4 nights and 3 days of minimal sleep in tents and no showers. It was definitely time to go home and sleep in a bed- oh and go back to school.. All in all, this weekend was definitely one for the books- I only wish I had more pictures to commemorate!

~Until Next Time, Prost!~

#Milan #study #StudyAbroad #oktoberfest #Italy #Germany #Student #Blog