frankfurt 101: how to make the most of your day

woke up at 7am, but didn't get up, just laid there with my eyes closed until i fell back asleep. at 11am i got up for real, had a shower and ate some brekkie with ronald. man, this guy is a star, he's so much fun and it is so great to see him again! steffie came home fro work at 12:30 and we were off.

happy one month anniversary to my cousin lynsay and her new hubby alistair!!

today's topic: oktoberfest, and the need to arrive early.

we were supposed to meet at 10:30 at the hauptbanhof so there would be no problems. but since they didn't arrive until noon, of course there were. the subway was packed with festival go-ers and i could barely breathe...i was excited but having seen the crowd, my heart sank b/c i knew that there was no way i was going to get into a tent. sure enough we arrived and were swept along through the sea of people to the proposed beer tent and the doors were locked. all of the doors were locked...every single place was full. that means that over 65,000 people go into the tents before me, dashing my oktoberfest dreams. but my day was not completely ruined b/c there were rollercoasters at the wies'n grounds...really good ones! the only thing was that they weren't long enough, only about 3 minutes. we wandered around, had some schnapps and attempted to get into the outside areas of the fest so we could at least get tome beer and food. höfbräu-strike one, löwenbräu-strike two...augustener-success! we managed to squeeze our butts onto a bench at a table of italians. they were hilarious! i drank over 4 litres of beer in under 5 hours, but somehow i didn't end up drunk...perhaps it's because the waitresses make you eat pretzels (as big as life preservers) and half chickens incessantly! these ladies were absolute no non-sense, let me tell you they kept everyone in line! i think a lot of guys were actually scared of them. i got home at a reasonable hour (the sun had since gone down), had a shower, drank 2 litres of water and went to bed.

i woke up this morning at 9am and wanted to go back to sleep right away b/c i was so tired. plus, my arms were hurting from lifting the huge beer klugs and slamming them into other peoples with wishes of good health. i had a traditional german sunday breakfast with annette, who graciously let me stay at her place for the weekend, chit chatted and then got ready to go out. the trip to the monastery went out the window once annette and her boyfriend, christoph, filled me in on what it was actually like. instead, i opted for another castle, schloss nymphenburg. this place was pretty huge, but it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. it was beautiful though.

tonight i head to frankfurt to see ronald and steffi, then kat's parents in wiesbaden on monday.

i'll write again when i get the chance...but it might not be for awhile~~~