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Published: October 5th 2008
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Oktoberfest
The festival grounds at Oktoberfest! Guten Tag (hello!)
So some adults may be a little disappointed in my weekend adventure to Germany, but I can't lie, it was one of the best times I've ever had! My friends and I flew to Munich, Germany over the weekend to celebrate the last weekend of Oktoberfest where I met people from practically all over the world! I could not have picked a better place to learn about culture while drinking liters of great beer! Oktoberfest is the world's largest fair and was celebrating its 175th anniversary. Basically, it's one huge fair with at least a hundred carnival rides and huge "tents" where you sit at a table all day and drink as much as you can. There are 6 main tents or breweries, Spaten, Löwenbräu, Augustiner, Hofbräu, Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr. To Germans, our beer tastes like water and we can't drink... but I tried and probably failed to hold my own.
It's extremely hard to get into the tents unless you stand outside and wait for the tents to open, which I did on Saturday morning. My friends and I got to the Hofbräu tent at 8 am along with probably 500 other people. Once the
My First Mas
Here is my first Mas, or liter of Beer, thank you Spaten! doors opened, it was a complete stampede! Total chaos! I almost got crushed but managed to weasel my way in and find my friends. We sat down at a table and took in the entertaining site! People standing on tables, cheering, chanting, while others took their seats, crossed their arms and put their heads down to rest up for the long day! The "beer wenches" began bringing out the beer, holding 8 to 10 steins at a time, it was incredible, a little before 9 am and once that happened everybody cheered again! There were several "anthems" for Oktoberfest including, Heey, heey baby, uh oh, I wanna knowwww if you'd be my girl; It was now party time! We sat next to men from Switzerland and Italy for most of the morning. I must say tons of people know English throughout Europe which is an INCREDIBLE life saver! We talked about the festival, what we were doing in Europe, about our cultures, learned new words and toasts and of course about politics. Boy do Europeans love to ask us about that silly election we have coming up. Mostly we sang and drank and toasted! Every 10 minutes, I along with
the end of my first mas
Though it took me awhile, I actually did finish the mas, that's probably about 3 beers or so I think... everyone else got up on our tables and yelled, "Prost" or cheers in German. I could have people watched for hours and hours! Everyone was so joyful and in such great spirits that you couldn't be in a bad mood. I couldn't stay the whole day in the tent, I just didn't have it in me, so after about 5 hours in the tent, it was nap time (the walk back was a bit tedious but we made it back to the hotel safely, the buddy or "body" system, thank you Lars and Heavyweights, works wonders!)
Though Saturday was an amazing experience, I must say that my room mate Beth and I had just a great of a day on Friday. We didn't make it to the grounds until about 1 pm. The possibility of making it into a tent looked a bit grim so we embraced the cold and rain and sat outside the Spaten tent, which I have decided was my favorite beer. There were 5 of us and this is where we experienced our first "mas" or liter of beer in the incredible beer steins (which I stole 2 as my souveneirs!) I shatted one as
Hofbrau
Here's an outside view of Hofbrau it slipped from its hiding spot under my jacket so that was a bit embarrassing, but either way hilarious! We talked with a German couple who were incredibly nice and welcoming! We then managed to find our friends who had our hotel keycards and made our way to Hotel Tryp. After dropping off our backpacks, we managed to keep them with us all afternoon, it was time to find dinner.
Beth and I wandered the streets looking for a nice Restaurant or Pub and found it in Centrale, a corner restaurant. We sat down with a couple, the man was from Sicily, Italy and his girlfriend, from Poland. (Don't worry Sosinskis, I definitely name-dropped!) I ordered what the my new friend had ordered, a half chicken and french fries, deliciousness. Beth and I were trying to take a break from beer, but our neighbors to the right wouldn't have it. We met three guys from Denmark, Jesper, Rasmus and Martin, and Rasmas's father, Leif. They were here for Oktoberfest too; it was Leif's 12th Oktoberfest! They forced us into ordering a mas, and that's when the party really started. After the couple moved to another table, we were greeted
The Hofbrau Tent
Here is the Hofbrau tent, at 8 45 am! by a French couple, in the 60s who were there to party. Music and beer at Centrale put everyone there in a great mood. Clapping, singing and soon enough dancing broke out. The French woman ended up dancing on the chair, conga lines formed, and debauchery was in full swing.
Beth and I planned to only stay for dinner, but we ended up staying at Centrale for about 5 hours more or less. The French couple was a riot, did I mention they spoke no English but we still had the best time with them and the Danish lads were great to talk to. We met guys from Ireland and Germany too. It was quite the experience and I don't think I would change any part of it. We ended up talking about anything and everything as adrenaline and pure bliss take over. Meeting new people is the greatest part about studying in Europe because you can find people from 4 different countries sitting at surrounding tables or asking for directions. It's something that we'll never have in the US and something I know I will miss.
I took it easy Saturday night. Beth and I walked the
First beers of the Morning
The 'Beer Wenches' mean business and have a lot of guts to put up with drunks who can't speak German all day. streets a bit more and met up with friends. We met several guys from the US who now work in Germany, Switzerland and London. It was interesting to get a new perspective from them since they now call these countries home. Sunday morning, we were up bright and early to catch our 11:15 flight back to Barcelona. I was sad to leave such a great place, but ready to slow myself down and give my liver a rest. For a girl who can't drink that much as it is, Oktoberfest was definitely a test for me. But, it really was much more than just a party. I loved every part of it and would go back in a heartbeat.
If any of you ever have a chance, go to Oktoberfest! You won't regret it!
Auf Wiedersehen
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Abby Road
Abigail Sosinski
Name Dropping
Thanks for throwing the Sosinski name out there. I hope we are a predominant family in the homeland!