OKTOBERFEST - Munich, Germany

We returned on Sunday from a whirlwind weekend in Munich, Germany for the World-famous Oktoberfest!!  I had heard from countless people that if you are studying or traveling in Europe in the Fall, it is worth the effort to get to Munich and experience the World's largest beer fair! Needless to day, it was definitely worth it.  Despite the expense, the shoddy accommodations and mobs of drunken people, it was an unforgettable, experience of a lifetime.  I highly suggest it :)

Ross and I flew out of Madrid on Thursday night, while Dan and Lauren and other friends from SLU were not heading there until Friday.  Once we got to the airport and through security, we parked ourselves at a bar for a couple beers before the flight, just to wet our whistles for the wild weekend ahead.  After, we stopped into a McDonalds for a pre-flight snack and utilized the "express" system here in Europe.  Keep and eye out -it has to be on its way to the States.  They have these touch-screen computer kiosks, which will accept your credit card and take your order from the McDonald's menu.  Then, literally before the machine can print out a ticket, there is a woman standing behind the counter with your order.  I did it for a vanilla ice cream cone and Ross had chicken mcnuggets.  Tasted just like home :) well.. actually better!  We ended up running into a few friends from SLU Missouri at the gate, all of which we were on our same flight.  The roughly three hour flight from Madrid to Munich was uneventful.  I wrote my blog post from last weekend, listened to some good'ole Central Illinois Country music and lamented over not receiving any free drinks or snacks with my $400 plane fare.  ugh!  Once in Munich, we boarded a tran, the S-bahn, from the airport into town, then got on a small tram wich took us to the location of our tent village.  Since Oktoberfest literally fills up the city of Munich, accommodations were next to impossible to find for the event.  Many of our friends stayed in a larger tent village, where you actually sleep in tents, on the ground and freeze your ass off each night.  Luckily, Ross and I found a cheap place called, The Tent, which had large circus tents filled with bunk beds for only 23 EUR a night.  We stayed there all three nights along with Ross' roommate from home, Peter.  The first night, we were in a non-heated tent, then we moved to a "heated" tent, but honestly I could not tell the difference.  I slept in my full clothes, covered in three blankets (like the ones made of felt, which people use for horses) and my face was freezing each night.  Before going to sleep, we got back on the tram to find a burger king, which we had passes, since all the food at the village was shut down and there was nothing else nearby.  The was a fast-food filled day, but the food quickly improved!

The Tent...

On Friday morning, we had planned to make our way to the Theresienwiese park, where the Oktoberfest is held, since we had been told to get there early, in order to get into a tent and get a seat.  Each brewery represented at Oktoberfest has a distinct tent, huge tents, which hold thousands of people  and turn into huge parties.  But the difficulty is getting into the tent.  Once the place fills up (around 11 AM) they close it off and you must wait, sometimes for hours, to be let inside to take a seat.  Luckily, we got there early enough on Friday to walk right into the very famous Hofbräu tent, which is known for it's American and Australian visitors.  Not sure what to do, we took a seat at a big bench, and instinctively a woman (beer wench) with 10+ high liters of beer came over, slammed them on the table and sold them to us for 10 euros.  haha!  At the tent village, we were told that the US Embassy had asked the workers to warn US citizens of the strength of the beer, since it is stronger (~8%) and there is much more of it in a serving, one liter can equal nearly 5 normal cans of beer in the US.  Watch out!!  We began to make friends with the people around us as the tent and tables filled up.  We had a father and his two sons from Canada to the left and a couple Aussies to the right.  They made the experience more fun and exciting.  Dan and Lauren got there a little later and had to try to catch up big time on the several hour head start that we had. haha!  As the day went on, it became more and more of a party, with people singing, standing on tables and drawing attention to themselves as the stood up and chugged their entire stein.  Ugh!  We left the Hofbräu tent around 2 PM (not early enough) and stumbled to another one down the way, after getting kicked out of a couple tents for not having a reservation.  We ended up at the Paulaner Tent and found a spot outside in the biergarten between some Spaniards, a german man and another German family.  We made great conversation with them and enjoyed the rest of the night.  I had to cool down the beer consumption by switching to a radler, which is a german beer and lemonade/soda mixture.  It is a little sweeter and really, really good!  By the time the tent closed, we had surely had enough, so we all headed out of the Oktoberfest (not before picking up some authentic brats for the road) and returned to our respective tents!

The Beer Wench with the Hofbräu tent in the background

In the Hofbräu Tent

In the Paulaner Tent 

On Saturday, we followed the same routine, woke up shivering at the tent village, ate the European breakfast they offered and boarded the tram for Oktoberfest.  We arrived there around 10 AM, just like the day before, but we definitely underestimated the effect of a Saturday on the crowds.  The place was already bursting at the seams and the tents were crowded and shut down.  We stood in line at the Hofbräu tent again to try to get inside and meet up with our friends, but to no avail.  We got fed up after about an hour and moved on to a less popular tent.  Once the tents are full and closed, people wait in huge swarms at the gates for the prospect of a beer wench (waitress) coming to grab a couple lucky people to sit at openings at her table.  We got lucky at the Löwenbräu tent after waiting for only about 30 minutes a spot opened up and we were able to get the waitress' attention and she agreed to let us past the guards and into the seats.  From the the same story repeated with masses of beer and interesting conversation with our neighbors.  Dan and Lauren arrived later and were stuck at the gate too, but they found an opportunity to make a run for it past the guard and into the biergarten to meet us.  Intense!  Finally after awhile, our friends Callie and Emily were there too, stuck and the gate, and we were able to convince the gaurd to let them in by showing them the "space" at our table.  Regardless of the difficulty, we were all there together and had a blast.  We ordered some food.  Lauren and Ross these big roasted chickens and I has some weißwurst (white sausage), which was weird and not my favorite, along with a giant, salty pretzel.  More friends from SLU got in some how and joined us even later, adding to the party and excitement in the biergarten.  We had a lot of fun that night, with crazy French people, regrettable photos and horrific, bathroom issues, but we survived the fest and made it out alive.  Dan and Ross attempted to steal beer steins from the tents and actually made it back to Madrid with a couple, but not without having some shatter and others get confiscated by the police.  haha!  Upon returning to The Tent, we discovered that Peter's locker had been broken into and his things stolen, along with four other's people's belongings.  They had cut through his smaller lock, but fortunately he had his valuables with him and therefore only lost his backpack and clothes.  Regardless, it made for more work the next day.

Lauren and her hänchen 

Inside the Löwenbräu

Shannon, Kacie in their traditional faruline attire

Emily and I with the brews

On Sunday, our final day in Munich, we opted to not return to Oktoberfest, but rather to go see a bit of the city and the historical center of Munich.  First, we returned to the main train station for the police station there and Ross and I waited over an hour while Peter filled out a police report for insurance reasons.  Afterwards, we visited the Marienplatz, the town square, which is home to the new town hall. After we walked to a couple famous churches and the royal residence of Munich.  We stumbled upon an awesome farmer's market/festival with stall after stall of fresh produce, brots, jams, etc.  We ate a couple sandwiches, then had to take cover due to some torrential downpours that passed through,  Afterwards, we started heading back to the train stations and stopped for a beer in a small cafe.  The airport was packed we arrived, but after a little confusion with printing our boarding passes, we made it through security, browsed the airport stores (for which I am a sucker) and Ross and I had a final german meal of schnitzel and fries.  It was s good conclusion to the exciting weekend in Germany, besides making it back to Madrid on a Sunday night was a nice change of pace from rushing back and straight to class on a Monday morning.

Marienplatz

Now that we are here, we are planning to stay for a couple weeks in Madrid to relax and reconnect with the city in which we live, but never actually see after about a month of weekendly travel.  Whew!  I am looking forward to that!