In the morning I got a ride from Karin, Katja’s mother, and one of my hosts in Fellbach to the local train station. I took a train across town to meet up with my mitfahr, and Megan agreed to come with so that I could coordinate with my driver should I need to call him (since I was passing my phone off to her when I would be leaving). We hung out for a bit by the train station, and some guy at an internet shop was a total asshole and charged Megan and I a whole half hour for going 30 seconds over our time limit because Megan didn’t know the word for “log off” in German and I was in the other room. After a couple morning minutes at the train station I was on my way with a new Mitfahr, and Megan was alone for the first time in her travels thus far, but at least I could send her off with my phone (which would be useless to me in 3 days time anyways).
My mitfahr was with four dudes headed to Oktoberfest also. Two were from Austria, and one had even lived in California for awhile. Once again the mitfahr saved me a bunch of cash over taking the train (20 euro). They even dropped me off just a few train stops from the festival. After arriving I made my way straight to the festival where I was repeatedly searched by ‘the popo’ because I was carrying my backpack.
After roaming around for a bit, I asked a few strangers if I could use their phones and eventually someone agreed to help the foreigner. I called up my friend Heather who I had met in Prague, and her two friends from Slovakia. We all spoke German as a second language, but Heather and I, the Americans, didn’t hold it down very well with the Slovakian girls who had been in Germany for a couple years already! We checked out the must-see Hofbrau tent, checked out a number of rides at the festival, but I had to make my departure fairly early and head out toward Chiemsee to meet up with my friend Ronja (who I had met in Cologne) and her family.
Ronja’s family was super friendly, especially considering I was little more than some guy their daughter met at a hostel across the country! They picked me up from the train station and had me at their dinner table. I definitely felt at home. The next day was one of the most interesting of my whole trip, and involved shadowing Ronja during her day at school. This was even more interesting considering the fact that her school was built inside of an old castle at the base of a huge mountain. It was epic to say the least. I also got to sit it on her art and English classes, contributing something to the class in both cases. I spent most of the day touring the little town that lies at the bottom of a beautiful valley, and has a river running through it. It was beautiful and very serene. I relaxed and got to hone my stone skipping before heading back in town with Ronja to experience a second day at the Oktoberfest. (Not your typical after school activity, now is it?)
We got a couple of beers at the Loewenbrau tent which had some cool outdoor seating, where we managed to make friends with some Americans that were sitting at the table next to us. A few were from Cali, and several of them were living in Germany. The most memorable of the crew was Mary, the peacecorps-bound girl from Colorado who was touring Europe before heading to Africa for two years. She was definitely at the beginning of a big adventure, while I was nearing the end of my own. Ronja and I ended up running to catch our train back to her hometown as the time had gotten away from us (no surprise). On the train-ride back we chatted it up with german lawyer who had lived in texas for awhile. We just couldn’t escape English that day!
Early in the morning I got a ride from Ronja’s dad to the train station which had an express train to the airport. I was a bit underslept and a tad hungover, which definitely didn’t help when I discovered that I was 24 hours late for my flight, which had left on the 29th, not the 30th. DISASTER!!! After very nearly losing my cool, which would have probably ended up with me in a German prison cell, I sucked it up and bought a ticket on the spot. The same ticket I already bought for the same flight but a day earlier. Only this time it cost me 500 euros, in addition to what I had already paid on the first ticket. Fun, Fun! I managed to let it go after about an hour of being grumpy, and enjoyed my flight to NYC.