Dear Germany, 

I never knew that just one weekend would give me enough time to fall in love with a city. Now I do.

When I told my friends and family that I was going to be studying abroad in Europe, they all told me that I needed to take a trip to Germany. Not that I wasn’t already planning on visiting Munich for Oktoberfest. I was worried that one weekend would be a waste of time, that it would not be worth it. Yes, it was a short trip, but that just forced me to make the most of my time there, which proved to me that perfect weekends do exist and that perfect places do too. 

Because we were going there for Oktoberfest, the first thing we did was shop for Dirndls and Lederhosen, which was a fun first thing to do in Germany because it gave us insight into your culture and the people. After changing into our traditional German outfits, we took the metro downtown to the Oktoberfest fairground, Theresienwiese, which was nothing like I had expected. It was full of beer tents, amusement rides, food tents, and games. We spent most of our time in beer tents, where we met locals who taught us the true way to cheers “Prost” and that if you do not touch your stein to the table after Prost and before drinking, your kids will be ugly. Waking up at 6 am to wait in line in the rain on Saturday morning was so worth it because we got into the Hofbräu tent, the sister of the Hofbräuhaus in downtown Munich. We ate our fair share of pretzels and drank our fair share of Oktoberfest Beer. 

I was smart enough to book my flight out of Munich for Sunday night so that I had an entire extra day to explore your city and culture outside of Oktoberfest. I explored Marienplatz and took the lift to the top of the tower where I got the best view of Munich and its beautiful landscapes. We went to the original Hofbräuhaus for lunch where we got pretzels and grilled chicken. There was an outdoor food festival in a park where we tried cheeses, honey, beers, and were able to support the local companies and their specialties. 

Germany, I appreciated visiting you, even if it was only for 3 days. You were amazing enough in those short days that it was as if I had been there for a week. Thank you for your amazing city, food, beer, and culture. 

Prost and dankeschön.