State Fair on Steriods

So, I would say my first real trip this year was a "success"; aka I made it there and back in one peace, despite the fact that I was in a country where I did not speak a work of their language. Although there was a delayed return trip and long train ride from our hotel to the airport in Munich, my Oktoberfest fun was...well, quite fun.

To get to Munich, we (Rachel, Andy, Jennie and I) took easyBus to the airport and then easyJet to Munich. Although the company that runs both is not so fun or easy. The first easyBus that went by was too full to take all of us so we waited 20 minutes for the next one and luckily that one did have enough room. Fortunately, this would be the last of our travel problems, for that day anyway.

Late Friday night, after getting to the airport, flying to Munich, and checking into our glamorous Sheraton hotel (props Rachel), we had a late night snack at the hotel next door (which happened to be another Sheraton with a different name). We ate some traditional, German sausage plates and pizza, accompanied by some good ole German beer. By the time we ended up leaving the other Sheraton, we were ready to pass out since we traveled all day practically. This was a good thing though as we had to get a fresh start for the festivities the next day.

Saturday, we left the hotel by 7:25am and got to the "carnival" no later than 7:50am. Here is a picture of the crowd after we got on the escalator to go up from the U-bahn (subway):
Once we emerged on the surface, we saw an atmosphere like no other. I put carnival in quotes above as it is a carnival that is nearly impossible thing to imagine. Just try to picture a state fair on steroids, without the animals and blue ribbons for largest pumpkin, but having roller coasters and three-story haunted houses. Oh yeah, and lots of Beer. After talking to some friends the night before, we decided to go to the Hofbrau tent. Here is a picture:


When we got there, there was already a line waiting to get and they didn't open the doors for another hour. But, we waited patently and at 8:30 they opened the doors. This is when things got a little iffy. I would say at this time there were about 150 people in front of us and about 200 behind us. When the doors opened people started pushing. I never felt anything like it. They were pushing so hard and you had literally no control of where you wanted to walk. And we were so close to one another that you could lift up your feet and still be up right. To say the least you got up close and personal with the people around you.

As we got closer and closer to the main door, Andy began to become separated from us from the overwhelming current of the river of the crowd. He ended up getting in the tent, as the three of us were not as fortunate. Rachel, Jennie and I got to be about three people from the door before they stopped letting people in. After waiting about til about 10am, hoping that they would open the front door again, we gave up, however, little did we know about 100 feet away there was an outdoor table with people already drinking. The three of us got a table with a bunch of Italians and ordered a beer. And not just any beer, but an entire liter of beer (around 33 ounces or a little under 2 pints of beer from the UK) and for a bargain of 8.50 euros (around $12). It was great, especially, since you were served in a huge glass stein.

I was a little parched/hungry at this point in the day, so I downed my first one pretty quick. Here is a picture of when I ordered my second one and since I dont have a time stamp on with my camera, I "created" my own:

Yes, I know what you are thinking, it was 10:30 in the morning. Here a few other pictures from the day:

Here is a picture of the three of us (taken by an Italian at our table).

Here is a picture of Jennie posing with her big pretzel (and this is the smallest size). One of the things that they have there at all of their tents are these huge pretzels. They also serve other German foodstuffs including sausage and half chickens.

After the first group of Italians left. Along came another group of them (some of the notable ones/the ones I remember are Paulo, Massimo and Sergio). Supposedly it is customary for Italians to come during the third weekend of Oktoberfest. We learned much from them, including the phrase Pompino (ask me what it means in private).

Once we got bored of Hofbrau tent, we tried to meet one of Rachel's friends (Micheal) who was in the tent next door. After a bathroom break and a half-an-hour of trying to get in through the back and side entrances, we ended up just walking through the front door. After getting to Micheal's table, we ordered another beer, some food (a half of chicken) and took some photos:

Here are some traditionally dressed German's in their attire.

As you can see the inside of the tents are very decorative and many have a live bands. Also, about every 15 minutes people for no reason would stand on the tables and just start cheering, instigating a massive toast.

After our meal, we ended up meeting up with Andy and we all went back to the hotel to take a nap in hoping to recover so we could come back later that night.

Unfortunately/fortunately, we slept until about 8pm. After deciding that none of us wanted to drink that much beer ever again, we concluded to just go downtown and get some traditional German food at a pub. Here I got a variety sausage plate with potatoes and tried some of Micheal's weiner schnitzel (and of course we had a beer with our meal):

After eating, we decided to walk around a little and explore the city:

Supposedly this is one of the most famous churches/catherdrals in Munich.

And of course, there was a KFC down the road.

After exploring, we (excluding Michael) went back to our hotel. The next day we decided to play it easy, sleep in and just check out the state fair portion of the carnival. Here is a picture:

After doing that for an hour or so, we did what college kids do well, drink some more. We checked new tents but we just ended back at a table outside the Hofbrau tent. We had a beer each (that was all we could do after the day before) and played cards (Rummy 500). After that we ate lunch (more sausage and chicken, and a traditional German platter) and got our souvenirs (for me, a tee shirt and a few magnets).

By 2 or 3 we decided we had enough of Oktoberfest and decided to leave. We ended up going to a park near a University (we think) and played more cards. After a few hours of that, we went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and headed off the airport. We got to the airport extra earlier, unfortunately our plane didn't and we were delayed for a hour. And once we got to London we had a forty minute wait in customs then a hour long bus ride back into the city and then we had to wait for a late night bus to get us back to the West End. After all the traveling, I ended up going to bed a 3:30am Sunday night/Monday morning.

It was a long day and weekend. However, I would say it was worth it and memorable experience to say the least.