Stanford Stories XI - Alpine Oktoberfest

It is almost the end of Oktober. And while leaves are turning golden and red everywhere, the German student association at Stanford organized the “Stanford Oktoberfest”. Since I have never been to the real Oktoberfest in Munich (which actually takes place at the end of September), I thought it would be fun to see the Stanford version. On top of that there was plenty of free beer and bratwurst - a perfect plan for a sunny Saturday afternoon in Oktober. The event took place in the garden of the Bechtel international center at the Stanford campus and I was not at all disappointed. I saw many Germans (and also non-Germans) showing up in Lederhosen or Dirndls, had two nice Oktoberfest beers and met a couple of interesting people. The only slight downside was that we had to listen to a lot of Oktoberfest music a.k.a. horrible German Schlager. Not sure why people like to listen to that, but I guess it is probably considered German cultural heritage by now ;)

Instead of going on a hike this weekend, I decided to go on a longer bike ride. Together with a friend, we decided to do two of most famous and beautiful climbs of this region - Old La Honda and Alpine road. So far I wasn’t sure if I could handle to longer climbs in one ride, but my legs felt really good and in the end, riding 66 km with 1350m of elevation was fun. This means that I am probably ready to go for an even longer ride to the pacific ocean next weekend.