Oktoberfest 2010... Third Time's A Charm!! :)

I know I'm a little behind in posting this, but I promise that it's worth it! :) This year marked our third year of participating in the Oktoberfest celebration in Munich... And, as always, it proved to be a very fun time! :) (You can click here or here for a quick look back at our previous Oktoberfest experiences... :)).

Based on last year's early morning train excursion into Munich (which made for a VERY long day!), we opted for a different approach this time around. So, this year, we headed to Munich on Friday night, where we then woke up at the crack of dawn (i.e. 4:30 in the morning!) on Saturday to head over to the fairgrounds, so that we could get into line outside of one of the tents by 6:30 a.m.... And, as always, there was already a huge line by the time we arrived... Grr! (We actually applied to get a table this year so that we could avoid standing in line, but after applying at 4 different tents, and being denied by all of them, we had to go for the tried and true "get-up-early-and-stand-in-line" approach! :)) Oh, and this year, we were also lucky enough to stand outside and wait in the rain and very chilly weather... Good times! :) (But, I have to admit, that as cold as it was, it hardly phased me, as I was so excited to be wearing my new dirndl at Oktoberfest! :) Yes, I know... I'm a dork! :)) Needless to say, when the doors opened at 8:30, the crowd was even more eager to get inside than in previous years... So, in typical German fashion, it turned into a mob scene real quick... And, as was the case in previous years, I was shoved into the tent by a crowd of overly excited Germans (Literally, I was smashed between two very large men, and my feet were not touching the ground!)... I have to say, that as much as I love Oktoberfest, and as sad as I was that this is the last Oktoberfest we'll be able to attend while living here in Germany, I will not miss standing in line to get into the tents... The Germans are so very unpleasant to deal with in large crowds... It's almost as if they develop a mob mentality... Craziness!!

Once we got into the tent, we then had to make a mad dash to try to find a table to sit at (The basic rule at Oktoberfest is this... No table, No service! So, finding a table is of extreme importance! :))... So, while the rest of our crew ran to find a table, I waited at the entrance for Brian to arrive(considering I was one of the first to get into the tent being that I was caught up in the crowd and shoved in... the joys of being short!)... However, after a few minutes of not seeing him, I started to get a little worried... That's when I was informed that he hadn't been allowed in because he had his camera backpack with him (weird!!)... Basically, after standing outside in the rain for an hour and a half, he had been turned away at the door for having a backpack... Grrr! At which point, he had to go all the way back to the train station to put his backpack into the locker, and then come all the way back to the fairgrounds to stand in line again... And, by the amount of people still waiting to get in, the odds of him getting into the tent didn't look so promising... Yikes! Meanwhile, the rest of our group had found a table for us (yay!) and we proceeded to wait for Brian to make his entrance...

Well, after waiting for about an hour, knowing that Brian was outside in the rain and waiting (again!) to get in, I started to get quite impatient... So, I went into what I like to call "Super Wife" mode! :) I managed to find a very nice security guard, where I played the sweet, innocent tourist who can't find her husband card, batted my eyelashes a bit and gave him my biggest smile, and within minutes, Brian and I were reunited... HA! :) It was shortly after that when the Oktoberfest shenanigans officially began! :) The rest of the day was spent drinking masses of delicious German bier, eating authentic German food, singing along with the German band, dancing on the table, and having ourselves a fabulous time!! :) I can honestly say, that the third time around definitely didn't disappoint... As the saying goes, the third time's a charm! :)

So, without further ado, here's some photos of our Oktoberfest celebration! Enjoy! :)

Getting ready to head to the fairgrounds... Doesn't he look cute in his lederhosen?! :)

Heading in on the train... Don't we look all bright-eyed and bushy tailed?! :)

Everyone's ready for a day of Oktoberfest celebrations! :)

Waiting in the rain... Good times! :)

We found ourselves a table... Yay! Now we wait for Brian to show up... :)

Inside the Hacker-Pschorr tent... It's theme is "Bavarian Heaven"... :)

Brian and I reunited and sharing our first masse of the day! :)

Our whole crew...

I (heart) German bier! :)

My traditional Oktoberfest pose! :)

Brian started counting his beers... This was number 1! :)

John wanted to count his as well... #1!

Prost!! :)

Some guy stood on his table and proceeded to drink a masse of bier out of his shoes (make that his rather old and very worn shoes! :))... Eeewww!!

A Bavarian breakfast... Weisswurst and senf, bier, and brezel (not pictured as it had already been devoured be a table of very hungry people! :))

Bier #2...

(And that's pretty much where we stopped counting! :))

And don't we all look so sweet and innocent?! :)

Maciek apparently found it necessary to double fist... Even with the masses! :)

The guys looking like such Germans... :)

How Bavarian do we look?! :)

Katrina and Benjamin...

Mirna and I in our dirndls... :)

Two thumbs up for Oktoberfest! :)

They look as if they could be up to trouble! :)

Towards the end of the day... Clearly, we enjoyed ourselves! :)