On Tuesday, I visited Oktoberfest without any rain. Supposedly it was not very busy, but honestly it felt like Times Square level claustrophobia. After trying to get into both the Hofbräu & the Hippodrom Tents, we settled for a beer garden alongside a tent. Despite the crazy prices and crowds, it really is fun to squish into a table of Germans and have a beer.

The Guglhupf cafe, which constantly spins

Surprisingly, these lovely officers allowed us take a picture with them?

Oktoberfest is already here! On Saturday, the tents kicked off to a day of horrible rain - I got dressed up and tried to go anyway, but after about five minutes called it quits (it will be happening for the next two weeks, so no worries). Today, a few of us got up early and headed down to Odeonsplatz to watch the parade. Of course, my conscience kept me from neglecting my insane pile of homework today, but I plan on returning to Wiesn on Tuesday.

Some sort of celebration of agriculture

A Wiesn BMW!

A Wiesn Mercedes!

The Münchner Kindl - who is apparently a lady-monk?

The gang - Ilana who took this

   

Happy old men with weapons

Hunting club weirdness

The hunting dogs were the best though! 

The "Big 6" Breweries of München: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner & Spaten.

  

-Ivy

I should start by warning that this post is super image-heavy. On Wednesday our program took a field trip into the Bavarian Alps to visit a bunch of castles and churches. Unfortunately, it rained all day (it was the only terrible weather we've had in the last three weeks.) Nonetheless, the adventure was amazing! 

The Wieskirche

Crazy "Barock" murals and intricate molding

A sun dial. Notice how all of the molding is an illusion!

Neuschwanstein with a raindrop..

Neuschwanstein with scaffolding!

The bridge

from which this photo was taken!

der Schwan of Neuschwanstein

Linderhof (another of Ludwig's castles)

My camera died just as we got into the Venus Grotto, so I can't really claim to have done it any justice. It is much more ridiculous than these pictures indicate. It's the largest man-made grotto in all of Europe, inspired by Wagner's "Tannhäuser."