We took our first real leave since we arrived for a four day trip for Oktoberfest in Munich. We had a really early start on the Friday (4:30 am wake up) and flew from London into Stuttgart. There we met our Busabout group and tour leaders and jumped on a three hour bus to Munich. Once we arrived we had a walk around town before having our first stein at the famous Hofbrau beer hall. After Darin displayed his knowledge of German history and geography winning ten Euros in the process we went and visited Ellen's friend Christoph who lives in Munich. He fed us some traditional Bavarian & Austrian food for dinner along with some German beer. It was then off to the Oktoberfest grounds at night. There we walked around checking out all the lights, rides and food. We then had another early start on the Saturday as we had to start lining up at the beer hall at 7:30am so we could get in. We got in slightly after 8:30am and from 9am we were served beers. We then spent a number of hours drinking steins, eating pretzels, dancing on benches (then proceeding to fall of them), singing and making some new friends. After a number of hours drinking Darin decided to go home but managed to take a wrong turn and end up back at the grounds. The halls were pretty popular at this stage so he couldn't get back in so decided to grab some food and head back home (successfully this time) getting into bed at 6:00pm! Ellen lasted a bit longer though and made some new German friends and got to bed at 9pm. On the Sunday we went for a day trip to the Neuschwanstein castle the castle that inspired Walk Disney for Beauty & the Beast). The weather was amazing and the scenery was beautiful with green fields, lakes, mountains and of course castles. We're both really glad the tour offered this as it was really nice to do something other than drinking all day and probably an area of Germany we would never see otherwise. Then on the Sunday afternoon/night we went back to the Oktoberfest grounds where we had some food and a beer in the traditional area of the grounds which was mostly filled with locals in local dress. We then tried some rides and games before heading home. On Monday morning we took the bus back to Stuttgart and spent the afternoon there. There wasn't a huge amount to do here once we had walked through the town and gardens but still nice and some more great weather. We then flew back home and got home around 11pm after a very busy and exciting weekend. So thoroughly enjoyed it all up and made some good friends whom we'll probably catch up with again in London.