Oktoberfest! I made it. The last thing on my European adventure before heading home to South Africa (and wow am I ready to go home). It was an absolutely fantastic three nights in Munich with good friends, better beer, food for days and of course lederhosen and dirndls (the dresses the girls wear).
I arrived in Munich by train from Stuttgart relatively early in the 21st (it happened to be my fathers birthday too) and met up with Paula, a girl I had met on my Spain Topdeck and was doing the Oktoberfest through Topdeck with me too. We headed into town and purchased our Oktoberfest gear: lederhosen for me (so expensive) and a dirndl dress for her. Kitted out, we headed into the Oktoberfest grounds.
So first some background (because it’s interesting) on how Oktoberfest came about. Traditionally, Oktoberfest starts on the third weekend of Sepetmber and ends on the first Sunday of October. It started in 1810 with the wedding between Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese, where a huge festival with horse races was held at the close of the event. It was so much fun that it continued (except for the horse races) and only in later years did the beer part get really big. This year was the 182nd Oktoberfest to be held (crazy) and is the largest festival in the world. Yes that big!
Oktoberfest is fantastic, there is no way around that fact. The grounds, named after the Crown Princess (now just called Wiesn, the grounds, not the princess), are huge and are covered in beer tents and all sorts of food stalls (so good) and rides. It’s like an old school fair but with loads of beer! We only got around to sampling I think three beer tents (obviously need something to come back for) but it was enough.
Our first night happened to be our hardest and best (unexpectedly seeing as we only arrived that day). We joined other Topdeck Spain people we knew in the Schottenhamel tent and got going without first steins (1l of beer) for the festival. You need to know that these beers are ridiculously expensive at about 11€ a beer. Yes it’s 1l but goodness gracious. Nevertheless, we got into things and I got through three before calling it a night (the festival closes at about 22:30, so we were actually asked to leave). By this time we had migrated to the Lowenbrau tent for a different vibe and a new beer. Three liters of beer is quite a lot, especially when the beer is above 5% alcohol. One doesn’t realize it at the time but man does it hit you later when you want to walk home. Let’s just say I had a rough night and rougher next morning.
We didn’t allow Dachau to get us too down though and before we knew it we were back in our Oktoberfest gear and drinking beer. This time our tent of choice was the Hofbrau tent. One of the better decorated tents in my opinion. Here we spent our time with the same girls as the night before and we got through a good three steins again. It turned out to be one of the best nights but unfortunately when we tried to take some of the rides, the festival was closing already (buzzkill). All in all it was a great final night and final goodbye to this monumental festival.
I haven’t mentioned much about the food yet and really does deserve a mention. Paula and I sampled a fair amount of the food around and these are my conclusions: in first place is the roast half chicken available everywhere, in second is pork knuckle and gravy, third goes to any of the available wurst and finally you can’t live without the pretzels. Beer and food all day.
I had the time of my life and I will definitely be back (I have to wear my lederhosen somewhere again right?).
Aufwiedersehen Muenchen and Oktoberfest. You will be missed.
Chasing James 