Arvi ja Leah aeg reisimiseks: Oktoberfest(onian)

Blue sky

We landed in Munich on the 3^rd of February this year in freezing conditions. Our second trip to the Bavarian capital was a lovely change to have sunny weather and see the city in a different season, nearly 7 and a half months later.

Lucky this was our second time in Munich because as you might have heard, Munich holds an annual festival called Oktoberfest. It’s pretty popular. Beer, Beer and more Beer! This magical place has rides and attractions, food stalls galore, beer gardens and several huge tents, belonging to some of the major brewers from the Bavarian region. Each tent holds about 3000 people and you have to line up to enter on the weekend. Luckily we were there during the week so we could freely move from tent to tent with enough room to at least stand.

Huge Clydesdales bringing in the wagons of beer

With Munich holding such a big event every year accommodation gets bumped up in all hostels and hotels, with the price of a bed in a 10 bed dorm going for around 90 Euro a night! ($130 AUD). That’s a lot considering we payed around 20 Euro for a 6 bed dorm earlier in the year. We opted to stay in a cute attic room with airbnb, a couple of tram stops from the Oktoberfest grounds and a few more to the city centre.

We couldn’t do Oktoberfest without looking the part so after much deliberation we caved in and bought outfits. Leah searched some second hand stores to avoid the cheap looking ones at the train station. We found some beautiful and unique outfits that didn’t break our budget. Leah found a beautiful dirndl that is actually from Austria and I picked out a traditional shirt and hat. We will definitely wear them again (Leah hates me wearing my hat already).

Leah in her dress

Beer moustache with Rein

It would be a crime to drink by ourselves at Oktoberfest so lucky we had planned to meet up with some good friends from Australia. Oktoberfest Drinking Team Assemble!

The team

It was a beautiful first day with the sun shinning and easy access into the tents. Stepping into each tent was a crazy experience. 1 litre steins of beer being cheered over conversations in all sorts of languages, The Oomp-pa-pa band playing classic songs like ‘country road’ by John Denver, along with the German favourites (we didn’t know these ones but all the Germans did). Every tent was decorated in brightly coloured fabric, flowers and huge tables, with wait staff zigzagging through with a dozen beers stacked in their arms. Every half an hour or so the band would play a German drinking song and everyone had to cheers each other and drink, although the song seems to get more and more frequent towards the end of the day! A bit of poor form on our behalf as we did not eat enough that day to accommodate our liquid intake. We were quite sick that night and next morning.

Hippodrom tent

Lowenbrau entrance

some of the tents

But not to fear we were back at it again the next day for round 2. The weather reflected our state with the blue sky being replaced with grey and bucketing rain, the worst we’ve had during our trip. We still managed to get through a few beers and try some of the delicious food in the stalls; a 30cm long sausage on a roll, pork knuckle with crackling on a bun, chicken schnitzel, massive chicken burgers and my favourite, sauerkraut and chips in a take away dish.