Stranger in a Strange Land: Oktoberfest + Munich = Good Times!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend! Brian and I had a great time in Munich!! Oktoberfest was quite an experience, to say the least! :) I can't say that I have ever experienced an event quite like that before... St. Patrick's Day in Chicago doesn't even compare to it...

We left for Munich on Friday evening and it took us about 2 and a half hours to get there. We went with Brian's coworker, Tobias, and his girlfriend, Katherine. We stayed in Munich at Tobias's brother's apartment... Let's just say it was a full house in there... There were 10 of us altogether who were staying in the two-bedroom apartment... Yikes! We were informed, upon arrival, that we were leaving quite early in the morning... They wanted to be at Oktoberfest by 6:30 a.m.!

The morning came pretty quickly and we were up by 5:00 a.m. so that we could all get ready... Still unsure as to why we had to get there so early, Brian and I decided to just go along with everyone and not ask too many questions. :) We left at 6:30 and walked to the train station, and at that point I realized why we were leaving at the crack of dawn... I was amazed at the amount of people heading to Oktoberfest at that point in time... Brian described it as looking somewhat like a "cattle call". There were people everywhere, dressed up in Bavarian costumes... It was pretty crazy!

I wasn't quite sure what to expect once I arrived at the Oktoberfest... When we got there and looked around it reminded me of a mix between Frankenmuth's Bavarian village and Cedar Point... There were carnival rides, roller coasters, souvenir stands, etc... At this point, people were walking and running to get to what they called the "beer tents". Now, when I think of beer tents, the first thing that comes to mind is your average tent like structure... No, not these tents... Their version of the "beer tent" was an actual building which had been constructed for this particular event... It took 10 weeks to build these "tents" and they were decorated pretty elaborately.... not your average beer tent, to say the least! :) We ended up practically running down the midway until we found a tent with a shorter line... We hurried up and got in line and... proceeded to wait for almost 2 hours! Isn't that exciting?! :)

As we waited for the doors to open on this "tent", the crowd began to get larger. And, like I stated before in a previous blog, the people here don't have the same ideas about personal space as we do in the U.S. We were packed in this line like sardines... which made me extremely uncomfortable! I actually had one guy who decided that he must have been tired, so he decided to lean on me for support... and the worst part was that I had nowhere to move to make him get away from me... It was a very uncomfortable position to be in... After about a half hour, and a few times where I elbowed him in the rib cage and Brian shoved him with his arm, the guy finally decided he could stand on his own two feet for the remainder of the time we stood in line... Lovely!

After standing in line for about 2 hours, the doors began to open at 9 a.m. That was where it got kind of scary. The entire crowd started pushing and shoving towards the doors. I'm still shocked that no one got trampled that day, because it was something of a mob scene! The craziest part was once they opened the doors... People would shove their way into the tent, and they began running for the nearest open table. Once they found a table, they would jump up on top of it and save it for the rest of their group... It was quite a chaotic situation. Our group ended up getting two tables, thanks to two of the members of our group, who ran in ahead of all of us and found the tables. :) We ended up finding out that if you don't have a table to sit at, you don't get served and they ask that you leave...

Once we got to the table, we were quite excited and ready to begin our Oktoberfest experience... We then found out that we had to wait some more... They wouldn't start serving food until 10, and they began serving alcohol at 12... So, we sat and waited some more... :) I have to say, that even though we waited a long time that morning, it was still pretty exciting to actually be sitting there and watching everyone... Everyone was dressed up in their Bavarian costumes, the waitresses were dressed up as well. There were people walking around selling huge baked pretzels and bread. The inside of the tent was very impressive what with all of the artwork and decor. It was quite exciting to just sit there and watch everything go on around you. :)
At 10, we ordered a traditional Bavarian breakfast, which consisted of weisswurst (white sausage) and sweet mustard... Very unusual, but it was very good. :) After our breakfast, we waited some more... At about 11:45, the band arrived and paraded around the entire tent before they arrived at the main stage located in the middle of the tent. At that point, they proceeded to sing some German songs and do alot of talking (in German, so I had no idea what they even said). They then did a count down to the first beer being served in the tent... As soon as the first beer was served, the crowd went crazy! They were singing and dancing on the tables, the band was playing... Very fun! :) After the initial frenzy of the first beer being served, we all sat down and continued to do what we had done all morning... wait! We had to wait about another 45 minutes before we were actually served our liter of beer... yes, that's right, they serve liters of beer. No other sizes are available. :)

After we got our beer, we then began all of the toasting (or as they call it "prosting"). Before you can drink anything, you have to "prost" with everyone at the table. Also, if someone finishes early and gets another drink, before he takes the first drink, he "prosts" everyone else at the table... Gets a little crazy at times with all the "prosting" (or toasting) going on! :)
The afternoon went by very quickly! The band continued to play (I seemed like every third song seemed to be the "prosting" song, where everyone had to toast each other again... there was alot of toasting going on that day! :)), people were standing on the tables dancing and singing, and everyone was having a great time! I even met some fellow Americans from Chicago, whom I instantly befriended! :)

At about 3, we decided it was time to head out of the beer tent. The problem with drinking liters of beer is that you can't always judge your alcohol intake. :) After about 1 1/4, I was feeling quite "happy", and Brian was feeling quite good after 2. So, instead of pushing our luck and drinking more, we thought it was a better idea to head out so that we could check out Munich, and actually remember doing it in the morning! :)

Once we left, we wandered through Oktoberfest and checked out some of the souvenir stands. We then headed into Munich and wandered around the city for a few hours... Again, just like all of the other cities I've been to here, it was absolutely gorgeous downtown... The old buildings, narrow streets, cobblestone roads... I loved it! :) I also managed to find a Starbucks Coffee, which I was extremely happy about! :) We took quite a few pictures of downtown and I posted them on our picture site for you to check out.

After the events of the day, we called it a day around 9... and we all headed back to the apartment. Yesterday, pretty much consisted of us getting up and heading back to Friedrichshafen. Brian and I managed to drag ourselves to the gym, which was probably a good thing after all the carbs we consumed over the weekend! :) Overall, we had a great time in Munich... and we definitely plan on taking another trip to the city. Oktoberfest ends in two weeks, so we'll see if we can make it back before then to give it another go. :) Well, I'm off to the gym... I hope you're all doing well. Miss you!