Oktoberfest. Where do I even begin? It was an experience of a lifetime. The festival was full of large crowds, copious amounts of beer and people from all over the world. We saw people willingly pour beer on themselves, sing songs and even watched a man chug beer out of his shoe...You read that right. It was a sight to be seen. Let's begin...
(THIS POST WILL BE LONG! AND PHOTOS WERE TAKEN WITH MY IPHONE. I DIDN'T WANT TO RISK BRINGING MY "FANCY" CAMERA)
The day started off early. I woke up around 4:15AM, put my dirndl on and fixed my hair and makeup. (I tried to do a braid but my hair just didn't want to cooperate that day, so I ended up with a messy/weird braid that kept falling out of place. Oh well!) We decided to take the first train out of town at 5:30AM. This was the first time taking the train in Europe for both Nick and I, so I was a little nervous. As soon as we showed up to the train station, there were people dressed in dirndl's and lederhosen so we knew to follow them because they were obviously going to the same place as us. We had to switch trains about an hour into our trip and as soon as we got on the second train we saw that the seats were full of people in traditional clothes heading to Oktoberfest. In fact, a majority of the people were already chugging beers...at 6:30AM! Unfortunately, there was no room for us to sit down so we stood the majority of the time on that train.
We finally arrived in Munich around 8:15AM and we rushed to the Oktoberfest fair grounds. Beer tents open up at 9:00AM and we really wanted to find a non-reserved seat in a tent. My best friend Stephanie is studying abroad in Italy and was at Oktoberfest the same day so we decided to meet up at the famous Hofbräu-Festzelt tent.
We were greeted with a large crowd when we showed up at the Hofbräu tent. The doors hadn't opened yet but you could tell these people had been there for a while. When the doors finally opened up, it was like a rat race trying to find a seat. People were running all over the place, searching for seats. By the time we got in, the majority of seats had been taken already and I was too shy to ask to sit with someone, even if I could find an empty seat. Thankfully, my friend Stephanie had a table upstairs in the balcony so after some negotiating with the security guard, we were able to go upstairs and sit with her.
Stephanie was sitting with some friend of hers from her study abroad program and also a few other strangers who had asked to sit down with them, who quickly became new friends. After shaking hands and introducing ourselves (oh, and having a liter of beer spilled on my dirndl...no biggie), we decided to order some beers and watch as people below jumped on tables and chugged liters of beer. Apparently thats the thing to do inside beer tents. The crowd cheers you on as you quickly down a liter of beer. It's almost like a right of passage. And if you fail? Well be prepared to be booed and have pretzels thrown at you. That definitely happened a few times during our time inside the tent. It was quite entertaining. You won't find me participating in that act though. I can barely drink a liter of beer, let alone guzzle it down in 10 seconds or less.
Around 10:45AM or so, we were suddenly alerted by security blowing whistles to leave the balcony area. WHAT?! I didn't want to leave. We had just started enjoying our beers and the band hadn't even begun to play music yet. I sat there as long as I could, watching people leave the balcony, hoping we wouldn't have to leave but alas, we were told to leave. Apparently the balcony is normally reserved in the afternoon so we had no choice but to leave. We were ushered out a door that led to stairs...OUTSIDE! We were essentially being kicked out of the tent. By now, the lines had gotten longer to enter the tent and I was not looking forward to having to stand in line again. We found the back of the line and stood in it for a little bit but some of the other people we were with decided they wanted to sit in the beer garden outside the tent instead. So that is what we did!
While sitting in the beer garden, we ordered more beer and even some snacks. I shared a pretzel with Nick and even ate some type of pretzel cheese sandwich. Our waitress seemed a bit stressed but who wouldn't be while serving so many people. By the way, those waitresses can hold a massive amount of beer steins! I saw one waitress who was probably holding 10 beer steins full of beer. Impressive, to say the least.
One of the fun elements of Oktoberfest was meeting and socializing with people from all over the world. The people sitting behind us in the beer garden were from Poland and Argentina. We also met more Americans as well. And while going to the bathroom, I met some girls from England and Australia. We quickly became "friends" since we all spoke English. I loved being able to interact with people from such diverse backgrounds. And almost everyone you met was friendly. The camaraderie and ambiance put a smile on my face. It was such a different experience and I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with everyone. Although, there were a few drunk German men who got a little too close for comfort, especially towards Stephanie. One man got excited when we told him we were from California and drunkenly started to sing California Girls by The Beach Boys. Oh man, he was very entertaining.
As the day went on, Nick decided he wanted to get away from the beer and see more of the festival so we said goodbye to Stephanie and our new friends and ventured off to see more of the fairgrounds. Oktoberfest has this GIANT ferris wheel and I decided that if I was going to go one one "ride" at Oktoberfest, I was going to go on the famous ferris wheel. And that's exactly what we did.
Oktoberfest was fun to say the least. I didn't come to Oktoberfest to get insanely drunk (and I didn't), although many people do. Inside the tents and beer gardens, people are rowdy and inebriated. It's to be expected. I mean, it is a huge beer fest. But besides the massive amounts of beer consumed and the rambunctious crowds, there is a sense of community and friendship that you come away with when you leave. The fest is full of spirit and cheer. And I absolutely loved that. If you can tolerate the silly people, I suggest going if you have the opportunity. We are lucky enough to be living in Europe and I don't know if I would have been able to attend Oktoberfest if it weren't for us being stationed in Germany. We hope to come back again next year and we want to make reservations for a table in a tent too (fingers crossed!). Once again, if you ever have the chance to go to Oktoberfest in Munich, GO! Also, if you made it to the end of this post, pat yourself on the back and I'm sending you a virtual high five! You are awesome. Thanks for reading!
Have you ever been to Oktoberfest? What was your experience like? Leave a comment and let me know!
