SPRINGFEST.

I have sat here for an inappropriate amount of time trying to think of a title for this post that would be clever yet sum up my weekend.....and so on that note, "spring fest" it is because I got nothing. If we tried to think of another way to leave abroad with a bang, I don't think any other trip could have topped Munich, Germany...by far one of the best weekends.

We embarked on yet another 7 hour bus ride to get to Munich on Thursday....why not, right? We got dropped off around 2:30 am and the pressure was on to find our destination for the weekend; because in true fashion, we decided to CAMP for the weekend instead of staying at the hostel with the rest of the group. Not knowing one lick of the elegant German language, 6 of us scrambled for cabs and gave the most vague directions possible to this poor cab driver. He responded with "hmm I've never heard of these campgrounds." So needless to say, I was feeling more secure than ever....Eventually, we solidified our destination and arrived to the Stoke Travel camp site. I don't think I could give the moment we walked up to the site justice but lets just say we were greeted by the Pearl River crew still drinking from the day and an Australian throwing beers in our face before we even could put our bag down. We quickly came to the realization of what we were in for.

The next morning we wasted no time and decided to tackle Munich at 8:30 am (after we had our kegs and eggs of course). We headed into the city and went right to the festival to see these infamous tents. It was basically set up like a huge carnival; there was rides and food and then the big beer halls. We all ordered our first steins (the huge beer cups that hold about 3 beers and cost 9 euro) and some pretzels. The atmosphere was really cool and we luckily went at a down time so we got to sit at the tables and actually get served. After spending the day, we headed back to our lovely camp site for some more beer...

The Saturday morning wake up call was pleasant as I came to the conclusion I had no choice to do the bike tour around Munich with the rest of the crew. I was more than concerned that I did not know how to ride a bike and was about to be mortified in this huge city on a tour with a million other people. After about an hour of whining, I sucked it up and did surprisingly well at managing my bike. Although I didn't want to admit it (especially to Danny) it was probably the best way to see Munich. We had a guide to fill us in on what we were riding past and we stopped about every 10 minutes at different beer gardens, monuments, etc. At the end of the tour, we decided to head to another huge beer hall. But me and Tori took a slight detour as we proceeded to loose our entire group. Thank god she had a picture of the beer hall we were trying to get to on her camera...this resulted in us asked multiple Germans for directions....how we found our friends? I don't know, but we did it!  On the bright side, we got to explore a little bit more of the city? Which is absolutely beautiful by the way. Our Saturday night once again consisted of some more partying at the campsite...This blog post is really doing no justice to the camp staff, camp site or camp activities, but I just don't think I know how to appropriately word where we were staying this weekend.

Sunday was one of the most eye opening days of my entire abroad trip. We headed to Dachau concentration camp. We had these controllers that told us about each part of the campsite. Walking around was absolutely unreal; to think that we were standing on the grounds where something so tragic and historic took place was mind blowing. It really hit me when we watched the videos at some of the stations. They would show piles of dead bodies in the middle of the camp, torture methods and the amount of people that were crowded onto these grounds. We saw the ovens and the gas chambers right in front of us. It was amazing to see a place that each of us had learned so much about in school. Not everyone gets the opportunity to visit somewhere like this so I was grateful to be able to see such a crucial part of history.

I think it is unfair to say that this was my favorite trip, and I know my family makes fun of me because I come back from every place and say "it was the most amazing weekend." But I've concluded its impossible to choose so I just wont. I will say that I don't think we could have ended abroad in a better way, and it made it that much harder for me to come to terms with the fact that this is over. I will be back home in THREE days. I feel like I just left yesterday, yet feel like I haven't seen my family in years. So, keep an eye out for my last blog post and maybe I can show everyone a fraction of how I am feeling (highly doubtful)!


xo Bria