Another Oktoberfest?!?! And MORE Castles!

On my way to Stuttgart to stay with my friend (Kathrin, whom I actually hadn't met before), I took a train down to Fussen, Germany to explore the most famous of castles in Germany. Apparently it influenced how the disneyland castle turned out (whooooo...... haha) Anyway, to give you a brief summary on that, the castle was indeed very pretty (on the outside) and is definitely something to marvel. There are lakes on either side of the castle, the alps were RIGHT THERE, and were even covered with a dusting of snow, and its really just a massive castle which is impressive. However, the King was killed before it was completed so it really wasn't that cool on the inside. Heart castle has it beat 100x over in this respect. Either way it was a cool little tour.

What made the trip AWESOME tho was the middle aged couple I met on the walk up to the castle. They were from Germany and were SUPER nice and we had a really fun time walking up the castle together. At the top we took some pictures for each other, then the lady offered to by me a coffee if I wanted one. I happily said yes, and she later returned with 3 coffees, and handed me the one that was in a souvenir mug! The couple was so nice, and I was stoked to have one of my first real souvenirs, tho I'm sure I'll break it at some point on my trip. We hung out before and after the tour, making my trip to the castle by myself a fun and memorable one.

Stuttgart was a blast and I had a really great time staying with Kathrin and her family. Tho it was kind of strange initially as I hadn't actually met her yet (she sent me a request on couchsurfing.org this summer but I was in Washington). Either way, after she and her brother tracked down a wandering Kyle at the train station, we immediately got along and she showed me a great time in a city I knew absolutely nothing about.

To my great surprise, Stuttgart was having its own Oktoberfest that weekend, and its actually the second largest Oktoberfest in Germany! BAM! These Germans love their beer. They actually have another Oktoberfest like event in Spring as I found out, probably because they can't wait a full year to drink and party on such a massive scale. haha Either way, the first night I was in Stuttgart we just hung out with her friends at a house party, which is always fun. I met her boyfriend Christoff and his good friend Chris, and the 4 of us plus one other girl all played Kings Cup (California Rules) which was a lot of fun.

The next day Kathrin and I toured the Ritter Sport Chocolate factory! I learned a ton about chocolate and how its made which was cooler than it sounds, then we made our way downstairs to the supermarket sized giftshop of all chocolate for sale. haha Kathrin definitely likes her chocolate by the way, and walked out with her arms full of chocolates. I got a few as well. haha

We later met up with her some new friends (Alex and Peter) and made our way to the Stuttgart Oktoberfest called the Volksfest I believe. By the time we got to the festival we were all pretty buzzed (drinking on the streets and on the trains allows for this; plus its too dang expensive to buy more than two steins in the tents), and began meeting up with other friends to rally into a beer tent. The festival was pretty much the exact same as the Oktoberfest in Munich, but with slightly less people and rides, and WAAAAAYYY more german people. In fact, pretty much everyone was German, and more people were decked out in their Leiderhosen. After waiting 25 minutes or so we finally all got in, but once again because we got their late it was practically impossible to find a table and we were left drinking in the walkways. Anyway, we still had an awesome time in the tent. Highlights include: the live band was sweet and had everyone singing/dancing all day/night, singing German AND American songs with EVERYONE (Stand by me was pretty funny), I almost got in a fight with a drunk dude (I never get into fights, but this guy was anti american and drunk, and I wasn't down for him to be creeping on the girls in our group. He wanted to take our "discussion" outside, but my friends stepped in and calmed down the situation. Weird. But not the only almost fight i'd get into that night), finally getting a table!!!!, the second beer stein was so hard to drink (I had to get some help haha), more singing, making new friends at our table, and more that I probably can't remember. The entire event was a ton of fun, and I found the atmosphere to be better than in Munich. I highly recommend that people go to the Volksfest in Stuttgart rather then the Weizn (Oktoberfest) in Munich.

Anyway, the end of the night had a couple mini adventures as I almost got in a fight with Kevin Bacon on the train ride back, and I may have broken my toe. Ok, it wasn't really Kevin Bacon, but it looked like a 22 year old german version of him for sure, wearing a leather jacket. Not sure what his deal was either, but he was being creepy too, didn't like Americans, or me for that matter, and was quite drunk as well. I definitely wasn't.... But anyway, his friend who wasn't that drunk kept apologizing for his drunk friend, and it never really escalated which was good. After getting off the train, I saw what appeared to be a 1.5 liter plastic water bottle standing on the ground, and for whatever reason or another, I felt the need to kick the bottle as hard as I could like it was a soccer ball or something. Well, it wasn't plastic as I quickly found out, as the glass bottle flew across the walkway outside and smashed into a million pieces, leaving me in a pain that only 7 hours of drinking could make feel better.... Check! The next morning it took about an hour or so to remember why my big toe hurt so bad. Man, what a night.