The famous Amusement Park of Pripriyat

Our next stop on our little tour was through the next layer of security, and the smaller, tighter exlusion zone. This is where the company town, Pripriyat was located, and people had to leave so soon, and everyone was evacuated in the space of three or so hours. We walked all around the town, to the leftover supermarket, and the meeting hall, and a couple other buildings,

but the coolest place was the amusement park. It was due to open, but they ended up opening it just one day early, after the accident at the power plant, to distract everyone. So it wasn't really used. But it is proably the most famous part of Pripriyat. I was so excited to see the dodgers! They were so evergrown and great!

In an Abandoned Nursery

We watched a great video on the way to Chernobyl, and once we entered the larger exclusion zone and got our passports checked, we were on our way. The guide had said that we weren't going to be allowed into any buildings, but apparently we were! I was so excited! Our first stop was an abandoned nursery kind of child-care thing. It was so creepy! It actually had some of the highest radiation levels we saw all day because they had washed the walls of the building and it had gotten into the soil. They let us explore all

the building, with all these creepy dolls, and old iron bed frames. There were lots of little books let, with kid's work still in it! It was so creepy, it did look a little set up for photographers, but it was still so interesting!

Entering the Exclusion Zone

It is finally half term! The first half term has just flown by, which is great, but it is also great because it means we get a little longer for a holiday! We were mainly heading to Israel, but we did a stopover in Kiev. Kiev is nothing to write home about, but we had planned to go there becuase we wanted to do a day trip to Chernobyl. We got on the bus nice and early, for the long trip to Chernobyl. The first place we stopped, we had to get our passports checked, so we snapped this cool picture!

In the Big Tent

We had read online that if you want a good seat, or a seat at all - that you had to get to the Oktoberfest tents super, super early, like 6 am - even though they don't open til about 9. But we were all pretty tired the day before, and decided to get there for 9am, and give it a shot. We had done some research on which tents were the most fun. There are I think 11 big tents, and they all have different styles, and atmospheres. We had set our sights on Hacker-Pschorr - which is called the "Heaven of Bavaria". And miraculously, we just walked right in. There were tons of tables free, right when it

opened. I had to go ask if it was alright to sit there, but we managed to get a whole, empty table to ourselves, right in the centre, with a great view of the pretty sign. We started on beer at 9 am - so, so early but worth it if you wanted to stay. It was nice that they gave Steph and I our apple juice in smaller beer glasses.

We took so, so many photos with the big beers and a giant pretzel! We had the table to ourself for a little while, before we were joined by some nice Americans visiting Munich. Eventually, we had to share our table with some Germans too - but it was still good fun! We enjoyed some great yummy food, lots of singing and Prost songs - until people started getting up on the tables to dance! It was great, great fun! We sung and drank for several hours, until about 2pm, they decided since we had stopped drinking beer, we had to leave. I was a bit miffed, but we did have such a great time looking back on it!

Sunny, sunny Oktoberfest

The weather forecast for Munich was delightfully sunny on Saturday - almost 23 degrees! It was so nice for Germany, and mid autumn! However, the weather forecast for Sunday was going to be wet, cold and rainy. We had heard a lot about the whole atmosphere at Oktoberfest, and so had to go on Saturday and check it all out. We arrived, and it was quite busy already. It was incredible to finally be there! We got Kara and Dan their first Bratwurst, and then walked all around

the venue. There were tons of big beer tents, where we wouldn't have been able to get into because of being so late. However, there were lots of different food stalls, and shops and such, as well as tons and tons of amusement park rides. We didn't go on any amusement rides - although they did look super fun. I think at night, they would be even more fun! Stepphen and Kerstin had suggested Baumkucken, this kind of rolled

cinnamon sugar roll thing - and it was great! I deinitely had to get my favourite German snack food too - the chocolate covered grapes and strawberries! It was kind of nice introducing Dan and Kara to so many good German things - it felt like the most German thing we had done in our entire time living here!

The Hacker Beer Haus!

After our nice walk around Munich, Oktobefest and such, we headed back to the hotel, so Kara could change into the new dirndl she had bought. We headed out for the Hacker Beer Haus, where Hilter became famous. It is THE beer hall in Frankurt - and basically the brick and mortar version of the one at Oktoberfest. We arrived, and there was no line, just a blob of people. It was so unGerman! I tried to get noticed, so we could get in - but all of a sudden, they opened the doors to the second floor suddenly opened

and I ran in. It was basically a free for all - you just ran and tried to find seats on these big long tables for space enough for your party. We found one right at the back, in the dark, but we did eventually move to about middle of this great big hall, on these big tables, with an Ooompa Oompa band at one end.

It was such good fun, and a good example for me of what Oktoberfest would be like the next day. The food was really nice, and there were all sorts of singing. We got really good at the Prost song, and there were lots of Italian football songs! I was so glad we had our dinrls, because we had such a great Munich experience because of it!

All around Munich

We finally did something incredibly German - after living here for almost two years, it felt good to finally make it to Bavaria and Oktoberfest! We headed down on Friday night and got to stay in a hotel for a change! Daddy had sorted it out for us, and we even got a free snack and one of those cute German gingerbread cookies for free ( but sadly they taste horrible!). In the morning, we had breakfast ( with waffles and omlettes!) at the hotel and waited for Kara and Dan to arrive for America.

It was really exciting that they were going to be in Europe finally! While we waited for them, we decided that because it was so sunny, we should really wear our dirndls. We saw so many people in Munich in Dirndls, not just at Oktoberfest, but all over the city.

So we went back and changed, and once Kara and Dan arrived, we headed into the city. Most cities in Germany look very, very similar. But still, there always is an area which is super pretty. The town hall in Munich is really exceptionally pretty! Since Kara's dirndl didn't work out, we did get her a new one, even finding a place open on a national holiday!