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Published: October 9th 2008
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What a weekend, took a night train up to Munich with my roommate and that was an experience in itself. We arrived in Munich at 8am and we beyond excited to see a Starbucks for the first time in over a month! (these are the little things you miss from America) So of course we loaded up on lattes and cream cheese bagels. We met up with some of our friends from our language class in Florence that are in Mexico and arrived in Germany a day earlier, put our bags in a train locker, brushed our teeth in the station bathroom, freshened up and off the festival we went. It was freezing but a small walk from the train station and when we got to the opening gates our jaws dropped, I knew oktoberfest was a huge party but I didn’t expect that at 9am on a Friday morning there to be people EVERYWHERE, and one gigantic carnival in front of us. We made our way through the masses of men and women dressed in the traditional german overalls and dresses and went inside the first tent we saw- The Lowenbrau tent. and I saw what people meant by oktoberfest
being the biggest party on the planet, one huge carnival in the ‘beer gardens’ its about ½ mile long and there are 14 main beer tents and a bunch of rides and stands everywhere, so these famous beer tents are these HUGE buildings that look like a gigantic cafeteria/reception hall with about a hundred picnic tables and people EVERYWHERE-you can barely find an inch of a seat on these bench tables even at 9am, and in the center of them is a huge balcony where this huge band is playing german folk songs, American songs, swing twist and shout, everyones dancing and singing all day all night…So once we finally find the table where our friends are we squeeze in and immediately there are HUGE german women serving roast chicken wiener snitzel veall sausagese pretzels the whole 9 yards. She drops these huge litre mugs of beer on the table and my roommate and I look at each other like ‘does this woman really think we can drink this much beer right now at the crack of dawn’ but little did I know that was the point. So these waiters walk around with these HUGE litres of beer, ive seen
the tiniest ‘waitress’ german girl carrying THIRTEEN litres of beer, I mean these girls are well trained, muscular and know how to handle the crowd and chaos in these tents. So you sit at these tables all day make friends with everyone around you, drinks these litres of beer all day, and I’m not a beer drinker but this stuff was delicious its brewed there in each tent and served from huge wooden barrels, is a different brew of beer and its just pure good german beer, and unfortunately goes down the throat really easily. Sooo just to put this festival into perspective for you these tents and the outside seating are made for 100,000 people and each year the 3 week long oktoberfest brings in 6 MILLION people, so you can imagine how crazy mobbed with people this place is. The funniest part is that you have to arrive at these tents by 9 in the morning right when they open because they fill up so quickly, so you just sit there all day drinking, eating delicious food, singing and dancing on the tables. After an hour you are best friends with the people sitting the table over and
you are just singing and cheers-ing all day, I’ve never seen anything like it. I was especially surprised how many germans there were I thought it was be very touristy but it was mostly Germans, men dressed in Lederhosen and women in their Dirndls-which are like the mens overalls and womens flowery dresses with everything hanging out popping out (haha) But it was great, how everyone was just happy to be alive, yes I know the beer probably helped but ive never seen so many happy people singing and dancing for hours and hours. I met sooo many people from all over the world and even caught up with some Australian friends I met back in Florence that are traveling all through Europe for 6 months, so it was great to see them again. The last day we stopped into the famous Hofbrauhaus, the oldest beer tent in Munich, it was much calmer and controlled and the food and band were great! Don't worry we also did some sight seeing Munich is an amazing city. Basically it was a once in a lifetime experience, something you HAVE to try at least once, but let me tell you once you get
home, drained from the crazy weekend, and the hangover (sorry mom! ) It took about a week to recover, but nonetheless an absolutely amazing time, check out the pictures!
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