Germany Part 1 - Oktoberfest

We arrived in Munich around 5pm on Monday evening... just in time to get caught in traffic of people trying to go home from work or meander over to the festival for a liter of beer after a day at the office. Took us quite some time to get to the hotel but the room was spacious, for European standards so we quickly showered off the airplane smell and decided to roam over to check out the happenings.

Monday night's intention was just to get an idea of what this whole thing is about. I knew from photographs that there was a ferris wheel and maybe some other rides but I wasn't expecting the grounds to be as big as they were. They were easily twice the size of what I imagined. We were warned by friends who have attended in years past that it's almost impossible to get into a tent if you weren't there first thing in the morning.

Given that advice, we found a small beer stand off to the side and grabbed a beer and kind of surveyed the land. There are a ton of carnival rides and games that are all over the grounds, mixed in with these absolutely massive beer halls. Each big tent is sponsored by a different German brewery and most of them serve one particular brew in their tent, which is their brewery's Oktoberfest offering and you cannot get it anywhere else. After our beer, we went roaming around to find an ATM. Every one we found was out of cash but we were walking past one of the big tents and Dan noticed there was one inside. Expecting to have to haggle with the bouncer to get in the door, I offered to wait outside as "collateral". Dan walked right by and the guy didn't even look at him, so I did the same and Voila! we were in a tent.

This particular tent was really busy, so we decided to check out a few others before choosing a place to settle down for some dinner. We went to the next tent and asked one of the servers for a table for two, so she took us upstairs. We were looking at the menu when we realized... we had stumbled into the one wine tent that Oktoberfest offers. Dan found this particularly amusing as we then noticed all the  decor was grapes. We sat down, had a bottle of chilled German Reisling and some dinner... roasted chicken, with potato salad and a massive pretzel.

Our dinner and a quick picture from the second floor of the Weinzelt tent

Post-dinner beer

After dinner and wine, we figured we should find some beer so went over to Festzelt and posted up at a table with some nice Canadian guys. We chatted for awhile and then parted ways around 10pm as we were exhausted from our travel. We didn't sleep well at all and were awake at all sorts of crazy hours so our alarm at 9am was not particularly enjoyable. We had breakfast, threw on lederhosen and a beer maiden dress and walked back to the festival.

There was one particular tent that was on my "must-see" list. I've seen so many photos of it and I just needed to see it in person, so we went there first. We got another delicious "base pretzel" to line the bellies before the beer and got the day started. By maybe 11am, people were standing on tables chugging liters of beer while the rest of the tent cheered them on... these people don't mess around. We shared a table with two German girls and two guys from Texas. The table behind us was a whole group of young people from Switzerland so we were having a good time. So good, in fact, that we totally lost track of time and laughed that Oktoberfest is like Vegas where you have not the slightest clue what hour it is. Around 1pm, we decided to go next door to Hofbrauhaus's Tent.

Our tablemates here weren't nearly as much fun but the atmosphere was still worth experiencing. It's funny how much the decor inside each tent changes it's entire ambiance even though they are the same size. We finished our beers and decided to head back to the hotel for some naps.

 My fave tent - Hacker Festzelt/Tired Dan and the "base pretzel"

Silly pictures/Silly hat/Hofbrauhaus Tent 

 After our naps, we noticed it was raining (good thing we came home when we did), so we borrowed an umbrella from the front desk and set out in search of a dinner spot. We found a German restaurant/bar that was showing soccer and had dinner there. I had weinerschnitzel, and Dan had veal medallions with a sausage/sauerkraut starter... very German of us. After dinner, we walked back through the rain to the hotel and tried to get some rest before our early train to Frankfurt the next morning.

All in all, Oktoberfest was a blast. I'm not sure you need more than maybe 2 full days there... nor do I think that would be the best decision for one's liver. That said, I'm so glad we went and it was definitely a worthwhile experience that we would recommend.