Fruhlings Fest 2016

Last fall, when Mike and I were in Germany, we ended our trip with two days at the opening weekend of Oktoberfest.  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  We had a blast meeting new friends and hanging out with old ones, but MANY lessons were learned about how to do Oktoberfest properly.  Things from what to wear and bring to how many liters of beer one's body can actually handle. All of these VERY valuable lessons came into play again when we decided to go to Fruhlings Fest, which is essentially a smaller version of Oktoberfest in the spring.  We quickly briefed Karen of the lessons we learned last fall and headed out on our way.  She chose to listen to most of the lessons, but not all were executed as well as she was planning.  :)

Since it was a smaller festival and it wasn't opening weekend, we decided to get a later start.  We got brunch in the morning to fill our stomachs (lesson #1) and arrived at the tent around noon. When we arrived at the tent, it was crowded, but we were able to walk right in and found a table with enough room for all four of us.

The five minutes of the entire day we spent outside of the tent....

Not our best picture, but we made it inside!

Not too long after we made it into the tent, we ordered beer and food.  If you ask Mike about Oktoberfest, one of the things he most definitely will talk about is the chicken. One of the traditional menu items is the half chicken.  Since Mike hasn't stopped talking about it since last Oktoberfest, Karen (as well as Mike and Scott) ordered it.  Don't worry, it lived up to all of the hype.

We spent the afternoon in the tent.  There was lots of singing, a little bit of dancing, and LOTS and LOTS of beer. 

Beer anyone?

So happy to be at Fruhlingsfest!

So much meat!

Not sure what this is about, but I feel like this depicts a very common picture in our relationship

double fisting

A souvenir

You can't go to Germany and not get a pretzel!

Heyyyyyyy

Mike and I left around four to nap and regroup, but Scott and Karen stayed and kept partying!

Overall, it was a fun day and I feel like Karen got a true Munich beer festival experience!

Dachau and 1000 Beers

Karen has to start work at 3:00pm, which is great because it allows us to do some short day trips in the morning and early afternoon.  Since we were in Munich, we figured Friday morning would be a great time to take her to Dachau, the concentration camp memorial outside of Munich.  Mike and I went last fall and I walked away with so many emotions and so much more knowledge that I knew we had to take her there.  If you are ever in Munich or Bavaria, you should definitely go to Dachau. You could spend a week there reading all of the information and processing everything, but we only had a few hours.  Luckily, you can still grasp the intensity and emotions within a  few minutes of stepping foot on the memorial.

We took the train back to our AirBnB so that Karen could work and Mike and I set out to experience the English Gardens.  I had never been and the weather was nice, so it was the perfect way to spent the afternoon.  Just a heads up, it's Europe, so the probability that you'll see a naked person sunbathing is VERY high.  Also, make sure to treat yourself to a beer and a large pretzel in the biergartens while you're there.  We most definitely did and felt very German!

After a few hours of hanging out in the park, we headed back home to meet Karen who was working and Mike's friend, Scott from Naples.  Scott was coming in for the weekend for Fruhlingsfest with us and we were all anxious to hit the town for Friday night.  We went to Tap House Munich which was awesome. They had a bunch of local beers and the atmosphere was great.  

Mike has an app on his phone (Untapp'd) that allows him to track all of the beer that he's tried.  He's EXTREMELY diligent about logging each and every beer he has ever tried.  There are different "badges" one earns for trying a certain number of one type of beer, or drinking a certain number of beers at a certain type of location (stadium, concert hall, etc). One of the badges is for trying 1,000 different kinds of beers. We knew Mike was getting close a few months ago, but Turkey's lack of beer variety had us wondering when he would reach it.  I'm proud (?) to say he drank his 1,000th beer in Munich.  It was a Schonramer Zwickl and Mike said it was one of the best beers he's ever had. I'm not sure if it's something to be proud of, but cheers to beer tasting and 1,000 different beers!

Munich Bound!

Before everything with the evacuation happened, the plan was for Karen, Mike and I to return to Izmir.  Then, everything got shaken up with the evacuation and we had to change things up.  Mike's flight was different from ours originally and he coincidentally had a layover in Munich. When we started researching return flights for Karen and I, we realized it would be easiest for us to fly to Munich and then take a train to Ramstein.  We also realized that it was Fruhlingsfest (the spring version of Oktoberfest) in Munich that weekend!  If you've been reading the blog since last fall, you'll remember our Oktoberfest experience.  It was truly an experience.  We were excited that Karen would have the opportunity to experience it, as well as check another international city off her list!

Because we didn't book all of our flights together, Mike had an early morning flight and Karen and I had a mid-morning flight.  Mike left the hotel around 4:00am and Karen and I continued to sleep until about 6:00.  We both woke up to a banging sound down the hall, but soon someone was banging on our door, as well.  I looked through the peephole and saw the  Italian police outside of our door!!  I opened it and they immediately asked for our passports.  When we checked in the night before, we left our passports downstairs at the front desk so they could put in the information (pretty common), so when the officer asked for our passports, I explained that they were downstairs.  He didn't speak a lot of English and I don't speak any Italian, so I don't think he quite understood.  Then, he asked where we were from and when we replied "United States," he moved along.  It pays to be from the States!  I heard a guy down the hall ask why they were doing this and the officer just moved on to the next room.  I have no idea what they were doing, but I'm guessing it has something to do with illegal immigrants.  Regardless, it was not the most fun surprise, but luckily everything was fine in the end.

Karen and I both fell back asleep for a few hours before we had to go to the airport, which was really nice. We arrived in Munich without a hitch and found our AirBnB pretty easily.   Karen had to go back to work (she took off for the days we were in Italy).  It's tough going back to work after vacation, but it's especially tough when you're in a city like Munich!  Mike and I left her alone for a few hours and went out to explore.  We both had been to Munich, but we both love it.  I hadn't seen the astronomical clock in action before and we just happened to be there around five, so it was fun to watch that (and all of the people who stand in the square staring up for ten minutes waiting for the clock).

We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out, walking around and grabbing a drink, which was so nice. I missed Mike and it was nice to have an evening of just the two of us (we love you Kare bear!) amidst all of the crazy travel.   We knew we'd be busy in the coming weekend, so it was nice to have a quiet, early night in preparation for the weekend.

Our Last Day Along the Amalfi Coast

Wednesday was our last full day in Italy and we were all extremely sad about it.  There's just something about Italy that makes everyone fall in love with it.  Our last stop along the Amalfi Coast was Positano, which apparently is a popular honeymoon spot.  We really only stopped for lunch, but the view didn't disappoint.

Road tripping!

JMU colored flowers! Go Dukes!

I had spinach ravioli and didn't regret it one bit.

Karen had regular ravioli and it was just as good

Our view for lunch

After lunch and a drive through of Positano, we headed to Pozzouli, which is outside of Naples and is where Mike's friend Scott lives.  It's such a cute beach town and if we ever ended up in Naples, that's definitely where I'd want to live.

I spy a Mike

Scott met us for a drink before he had to go, but before he left, he recommended a restaurant to us.  Since it was our last night in Italy, we wanted something good.  I mean, everything is good in Italy, but we wanted an experience.  That's exactly what we got.  The restaurant Scott recommended had a five course menu starting with appetizers and ending with fruit for dessert. It didn't disappoint. 

Shrimp in a mayonnaise sauce, lettuce and green beans, and octopus.

Eggplant, salad, peppers and cauliflower mashed potatoes.

Mussels, tomatoes, pasta

Tomatoes, pasta, seafood

Tuna

I don't have a picture of the fruit tray at the end, but it was delicious.  By the time we walked out, we were all super full and I was worried they were going to have to roll us to our car.  It was definitely a fun and delicious way to end our time in Italy!

The night ended on kind of a sour note because we had to return the car.  When we went to return it, they found a scratch completely unrelated to our fender bender that we're pretty sure wasn't our fault.  Luckily, we had insurance, but it wasn't fun.  Then, when we took a five minute cab ride to our hotel by the airport, we got charged double because of some deal the hotel had with the cab.  Again, not fun. Our thoughts of staying in a cheap hotel by the airport for our early morning flights kind of backfired on us.  I just kept thinking of our delicious dinner and telling myself how wonderful the rest of our trip had been because it truly was an incredible trip!  

We don't have any plans to return to Italy before returning back to the states, but we've had amazing trips every time we've been, I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up back there again soon!