You know what is so great about living in Italy besides the scenery, food, wine, and people? You can drive to Munich for the last weekend of Oktoberfest!! Oktoberfest is a really fun adventure and something I have always wanted to attend (hey I have to practice the German I learned in school once every ten years, right?). For everyone who knows me, you know I don't drink beer, but they have Radler which is a lemonade and beer combination and it is really good (Ok, no comments from my beer connoisseur friends! :-)) plus going to Oktoberfest is a fun adventure....you get to meet many people from around the world and you get to do some great people watching. What other time in your life are you going to see a really drunk person before noon? I saw crying, people passed out on the tables, sidewalks,....and chugging contests at 10AM on sunday (see video below, I hope the video works for you).
Just getting to Oktoberfest was an adventure! After work on Friday we headed north to Munich with traffic in Italy, major fog in Switzerland, an awful accident on the autobahn in southern Germany, then road construction south of Munich, but finally at 11PM we made it (kind of)! What we didn't know is that our Italian cell phones wouldn't work in Germany! Our Vodafone messages are only in Italian and we just couldn't understand the Italian messages to figure out how to make it work. LOL I needed my phone to work so we could get the code to the key to our hotel room (reception closed at 6pm). We very luckily ran into a guy who spoke just a little english and let us into the hotel so we could sign up for the free wifi so I could download my email and get the code. Voila!! This sounds pathetic, but we went and grabbed a drink and headed to bed (I know we were in Munich, but it was midnight and we needed to be up early for the festival that started at 9AM). So at 8AM we hit up the hotel breakfast, stretched (you have to warm up those muscles to push your way through the beer tents), then we were on our way!
 |
| Matt stretching and preparing for Oktoberfest |
We are very lucky to have some wonderful friends in Italy who also decided to share the experience with us!
 |
| Oktoberfest entrance with Matt |
 |
| Oktoberfest entrance with our friends Tyler and Elizabeth and baby Julia (her first Oktoberfest) |
Our first tent stop was to the hippodrom (it is in the background on the right side of the pic above), which is supposed to be one of the most popular tents. It is very colorful, loud, and we sat at a table of really fun and friendly German girls. We felt lucky to be sitting at our first table with such a lively group and they were dressed for the occasion! We even took some pictures with them
 |
| Can you see Matt's excitement? |
 |
| Ok, I didn't get through the whole beer myself, I had a little help.... |
 |
| Tyler and Matt |
 |
| Upclose of the beer and menu |
 |
| Matt is getting greedy with the beer..... |
 |
| We loved the outfits and almost everyone was dressed for the occasion |
 |
| A quick video of the inside of Hippodrom |
 |
| Matt became touristy and bought a festive hat. Look at him showing off! |
 |
| Matt, Tyler, Steve, and Ashley at the entrance |
 |
| It rained for a while, but we still had a great time! |
 |
| People bought large decorated cookies and wore them around their neck |
 |
| Spatenbrau Tent! |
 |
| Downtown Munich, loved the colors on the trees |
 |
| St. Paul's Cathedral |
 |
| overview of the festival grounds |
 |
| Hofbrau Tent! |
 |
| Inside the Hofbrau Tent |
 |
| Before Beer |
 |
| After Beer |
 |
| I guess Matt liked Hofbrau..... |
 |
| More inside pics of hofbrau |
 |
| what goes better with beer than pretzels?! |
 |
| What other time are you going to see a chugging contest at 10 AM on Sunday? |
One poor guy stood up on the table, chugged his beer, then almost had a "reversal of fortune" in front of hundreds of people. He halfway sat down with a very dazed look in his face as people laughed, stared, and egged him on for several minutes. Doesn't that sound like a really bad dream where hundreds of people watch you throw up? Ewww.......
Since it was the last day of Oktoberfest, they were preparing for the parade so we had a chance to see the horses and carriages that each brewery puts together...
 |
| Yum! German sausage on pretzel bread |
 |
| it was so sad leaving! |
My overall assessment was that Oktoberfest was a wonderful event and we will definitely go back next year! We had a chance to meet some really wonderful, fun people from Germany and all over the world! All of people we met are really interesting and loved to share their experiences and advice.
Auf Wiedersehen and Tschuss! I hope you enjoyed visiting Oktoberfest with us! Prost!
