Munich or München, in German, is where all the Oktoberfest action takes place! This might be the most anticipated post so far, as it was the most anticipated part of the trip for us. Of course many places across the globe imitate this beer drinking festival, but this is where it all started. Established in 1810, it is the world's largest fair and lasts 16 days, starting in September and wrapping up the first weekend of October. I read that the construction of the tents (and these aren't just 'fair tents' by the way) begin 2 months in advance! It should go without saying that this is a highly impressive event that drinkers and non-drinkers alike would appreciate. I hope the pictures convey just how awesome it was(is)!
Before going further (I know, you just want to see the tents and beer and pretzels, but wait, they're coming!)... I forgot to mention that
before leaving the States, my friend and I made awesome purchases for our trip
from Ebay – Dirndls. These are the traditional German dresses you see the ‘beer
maidens’ wearing. We searched endlessly for equal deals for the guys’
lederhosen (German for ‘leather pants’) which is the traditional German garb
for men. Well, we weren’t
successful—they’re certainly not cheap! We have proof that we tried, in some last ditch efforts at a couple of costume stores in
Cologne… the pictures say it all, my friend and I were even tempted to buy a
‘day two’ outfit for ourselves! The cost inhibited the purchase for all though,
but at least we have these pictures to remember what we could have looked like
at a beer tent in Munich.
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This was a pretty awesome costume store by the way,
I believe we'll be re-visiting for Carnival season!
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| Who knew there were ladies' lederhosen-shorts!? |
Back to the our trip… we took the train from Füssen to Munich, which included
picturesque views along the mountains we wound through. In planning our trip, the days that we traveled were all planned exclusively around Oktoberfest. Specifically, there were only 3 days in which we could use hotel points to make the stay affordable. Those hotel points allowed us to book a hotel in the city center on short notice for the most popular festival in the world. So I would say we were pretty fortunate to have them. The hotel had a great location with convenient access to the metro and easily within walking distance of mostly everything.
After we
checked into the hotel, we left to head towards the city center. While in the area, we wanted to make sure we experienced the Hofbrauhaus together, so we headed straight there. Justin and I had visited before but during mid December 2010, far from
the usual high season Germany sees for the annual beerfest season. Since this was Oktoberfest, we knew it would be dicey getting in. Before, we were able to walk right in and find an empty table. However, this time, there was a huge crowd outside waiting to get in. We knew we would have to fight for our spots to sit down. If the case of the Hofbrauhaus, you never know who you will be sitting next to, but that's part of the fun. The line moved quickly and we were let in along with
other hungry and thirsty fans of the infamous brewery. Fortunately my friend is more of an
extrovert than I am and with her lead, we scored a table just inside the door,
with some older gentlemen who couldn’t have looked more like the stereotypical
Bavarian Mountain Men… they.were.awesome. They donned their lederhosen, jackets
and even the hat that completes the whole ensemble! Although we didn’t eat, we snacked
on some pretzels and of course, had some Hofbrau bier!
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Traditional "Germans" -- but really from The Netherlands (not far
from Cologne actually) they had pins on their hats from
the years they'd been coming to Oktoberfest together. |
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| Bier und brezels am Haufbrauhaus! |
The next stop was to head
over to the actual fair which is outside of city center to orient ourselves
with the grounds and scout the tents we wanted to visit the next few days. The fairgrounds are called Theresienwiese, or Wiesn for short, by the locals. They don't refer to the fair as Oktoberfest, simply Wiesn (vee-sehn). Here we go…
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| Can you hear the trumpets playing?! :D |
It was late in the day, on a Saturday at that, and everything we had read advised to get to the grounds early in the day to score a table in the tents, so we opted to explore other options this first evening. We landed in a "Biergarten" which is usually attached to one of the tents, just outdoors. Fortunately, again, thanks to our awesome friend and travel mate, we scored a spot for the 4 of us at a table, up against the building, which was actually covered by an awning, of sorts. This was a huge score as we could sit and order beer AND we were sheltered from a short shower that came later that night. The crowd around us was fairly young (after all, 16 is the legal drinking age for beer & wine in Germany, 18 for spirits) but we met some similar aged folks and chatted it up for the evening. One group of girls actually lived in Cologne and took the "party train" down at 6AM that morning! They were surprisingly sober too. They explained that the train was full of people toting their pre-drinks and that dancing and singing were not uncommon in some train cars. They were set to take the train back at midnight. Did I forget to mention that this was a 6 HOUR train ride! Phew! They're hard-core. We met another Polish couple too who now live in Munich and spoke decent English, but drawings and hand motions and describing things were in order when they didn't have the words in conversation.
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The camera must have had too many at this point. :)
This was at the Hacker-Pschorr Bier Garten and first
liter we had at 'Wiesen'. It was recommended to me
before leaving the States and it was quite tasty! |
Day 2: Oktoberfest -- the day we get to wear our Dirndls!
First, for a little wrap up according to the official Oktoberfest site which summarized the 2013 fete as a "very relaxed Oktoberfest". (Ahem, I'd hate to see a rowdy one.). Most impressively though, is how much is consumed at this annual fair:
Of course, the 6.4 million visitors also brought a lot of hunger and thirst with them: 114 oxen, 58 calves and 6.7 million liters of beer were consumed. The guests spent about 400 million Euros on this year's Wiesn. - Oktoberfest.de linked above
I'd say that's a pretty decent revenue stream-- but who knows how much is spent to put it on! Back to the food though-- our group of 4 alone took down an unknown count of liters of beer, and at least 2 but maybe even 3 'half-chickens' from the menu each! And they were so good! Also, I normally never eat any other potato salad except my Mom's but this one was pretty good. (Sorry Mom.) It must be that unique German Mustard they use. Another good reference from ABC News Blog with a little video summary of the stats with quiet audio (but is preceded by a louder ad-- so be forewarned if you're reading this at work) cites that over 500,000 of those roasted chickens were served! Wowza. You'll see a pic of them being roasted in masses below. And remember our group ate 6 of them! :D
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| This guy was already having a good time! Nice 'stach. |
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Inside the Paulaner Tent. We had to do a lap first to find
a table. This was in the back corner.
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Some well-dressed men braving it standing on the benches.
Well, I'll be honest, most everyone was standing
on the benches, with an occasional victim... |
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| ...Exhibit A |
Finally, we got a table with some fun Italian men! They almost hit on the guys more than us girls! :) Ignore the chipped glass on our first round, we sent it back. Trust me, we didn't want to set ourselves up for any preventable injuries. (By the way, did you read the stats that over 7,500 incidents were tended to by the RedCross?! A big portion were for ... wait for it... cuts from broken glass.)
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Our first round INSIDE and actual tent-- Paulaner.
Yay, we're heeeeer! |
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| PROST!!! |
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This is how those liters are delivered to the tables... 10 at a time!
Ok, so the one on top was a soft drink of some sort,
but still, @ 5 lbs each Stein-- these girls were tough! |
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| There were even pickle vendors. |
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| And radishes... (???) |
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Mmm, Check out that potato salad in the middle
of all our half-chickens. Mmmm!
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| Dirndl & Plaid |
Onto the second tent of the day... and our growing appetites:
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Second half-chicken for the day at a different tent. Apparently
I felt the need to take a picture of the napkin to remember
where we were at that point! Hey Jack: I'm a genius sometimes,
because it worked. ;)
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The 2nd tent of the day (I think... at least that's what I'm
going with per the napkin above, in my picture taking chronology)
Hacker-Festzett. The table we mustered was under a second
level -- I told you, these aren't just your ordinary fair tents!
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I even thought to take a picture of the outside of the tent as we left,
to chronicle the night. (You can see people on the 2nd level). Man, I'm good!
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The third day some of us walked around, once we finally emerged from our hotel room...
The fair itself (apart from the beer tents) was pretty decent. Good rides, a ferris wheel that we took at the end of the evening for some good aerial shots.
I tried to take shots of some of the unique things we saw like the apparent tradition of Steckerlfische (fish on a stick, basically). The interesting part is that they were just stuck in the sand angled over hot coals roasting. I can't say that I was intrigued enough to try them. While I normally like seafood, I just couldn't overcome the smell here.
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Leaving the tent, there were of course souvenirs you could buy
including these giant braided pretzels. |
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I'm not sure what the point of this fair exhibit was
but I found it odd enough to document. I believe the deer
would dance and sing, and the lights of the motorcycle lit up. (?) |
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This rather small lady dressed in a horrible tablecloth dress,
if you will, and would dance and sing, and if you got up on
stage to dance with her, you had to pay. I think. Again-- very strange. |
Last, we went into a fun tent that had a spinning wheel that people would try to stay on. The announcer would call out a certain group of the crowd (i.e. 18-25, only Austrians, etc.) and the participants would rush out to the apex of the spinning circular floor. The music would start once everyone was (mostly) set and the floor would start spinning. Think of it as a mass-participant mechanical bull style ride. The goal was to be the last one on, as the floor sped up, and avoid the obstacles the ride controllers threw at you. The obstacles at the end were tough, as in a large 'wrecking' ball which was padded, but would still knock you sideways and 'lassos' more like cruise-ship mooring rope to pull you off. Some of the 'last one's standing' would crawl around (still sitting though) and avoid it, but they all eventually fell to their demise. Although a little expensive, this was quite entertaining. The music they played and the crowd singing along (in German) and all the men looking up the girls' skirts was pretty funny.
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This event was intriguing enough to lure us in
with the crowd's singing, cheering and overall excitement. |
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I guess this was a roasted corn stand? Regardless,
we need more food vendor stands like this one in the US! |
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| About to embark the ferris wheel. |
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The view from the top at night. It was so quiet and
peaceful, a great ending to a wild few days. |
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| So long Oktoberfest '13... we'll be back someday! |
