Blood, Trailers & Beer

I’m writing this post from Munich! I have to adjust to a new keyboard and the German one is a little different than the ones in Spain and Italy. For example, the z and y switched places and I have letters like ü ö ä ß § spread everywhere. So it is currently 9:30 am and surprisingly I’m awake (and the only one so..this has never happened before. Must record the event). My 2 roommates, their 2 friends, and I drove up to Munich in Simone’s camper (aka mini-trailer) Thursday morning and we’re staying at Alessandro’s house here. I’ve never seen a house in Europe before (only flats) and this one is incredibly charming (think: the English cottage in “The Holiday” but 5 times bigger) and I think I’m a little in love with Ale’s mom. One night she was telling us embarrassing stories of Ale…some of which included him stealing bikes and pillow cushions from various nightclubs, him getting arrested at the age of 13 from being too intoxicated at Oktoberfest, and various other tales about her 3 sons stealing random stuff from around the city (like a life-size ash tray that is “perfect for parties”). Not to mention she made us a huge “German breakfast” every morning so we could handle all the liters of beer Oktoberfest entailed. Yep, in love.

Oktoberfest was madness. Pure madness. Friday we spent 4 hours in a tent there and then moved to a beirgarten until midnight. Somehow we ended up spending 14 hours at another tent on Saturday, danced on top of tables to German folk music (as well as your occasional “Hey Jude”, “Sweet Home Alabama” and “I Love Rock N’ Roll”), met a handful of random people from Hamburg and various parts of Germany, Afghanistan, and Turkey) lost a few people (and cameras, phones…). Speaking of which, Alessandro’s mom was telling us that the police find the oddest things the morning following Oktoberfest. No, not your odd misplaced shoe or a guy’s boxers but more like dentures, a wooden leg, plastic eyeball…

My legs look like World War III attacked it. Coming back from Ofest one night, Simone and I thought it would fun to race up the escalator. I wiped out big time and now have a 4 inch gash running down my right leg. In what was probably the most embarrassing moment of my life (definitely not posting that on here) I fell from a bike knees first and now I’m sporting a lovely scab that burns like hell on my left leg. Combine that with me peeling a huge chunk of my skin from scratching at mosquito bites and a bruise from hitting the sink in Simone’s trailer as we swerved to avoid a 18 wheeler and my legs are the 2nd most attractive thing next to Flava Flav.

Châteaux hopping in southern France next weekend. Should probably get some homework/reading squeezed in since I’ve now missed a week of classes. On the way back from Munich (10 hours with the 7 stops we made because the camper was breaking down on us) I was jamming to some Juanes (stop judging) so I’ll leave you with one of my favorites by him. The original is better than the European version but I’m unable to post it on here (you can see the other version by clicking “ver la version orginal” when it starts playing). If you get a chance to look up the lyrics, they’re beautiful.