Octoberfest in Munich

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Octoberfest was the perfect end to our four month travel break! Octoberfest is an event we have always wanted to attend but we didn’t expect that we would be able to fit it in this time; however the dates actually fitted perfectly. Our German road trip came to an end when we dropped our hire vehicle off at the main train station, loaded our extra luggage into one of the many lockers and made our way to the campsite.

Having decided to attend Octoberfest at the last minute the only option available was camping, which ended up being a lot cheaper and actually wasn’t too bad. We were part of the Fanatics group again, who had their camping area set up very well and also offered free transport back to the camping ground each night. We didn’t make it to the opening weekend however after we saw how busy the first week was we were glad we didn’t. In contrast to the opening weekend where the beer halls are packed with tourists, during the week the festival is attended by locals who take the train and attend for one day or come after work for a night out.

After throwing our stuff in our tent we got changed and made our way into the city, people dressed in traditional German attire, women, men and children filled the streets all walking towards to park where Octoberfest is held. The venue was set up like a show ground, with lots of stalls; rides and amazing food and of course a number of huge beer halls as well as some smaller ones. We spent most of the day going on the rides, eating pork knuckle and wondering around the stalls. Around two o’clock we made our way into one of the massive beer halls and found a table of Australians where we enjoyed drinking litre jugs of beer at a time, standing on our chairs and singing along with the oomph bands. We were having a blast for quite a few hours until we were told that the table was reserved from 5:30pm onwards and that we needed to move. Well we spent the rest of the night looking for a spot on a table which after three hours we realised was impossible. Each year tables are pre booked, passed down from within the family and or businesses which make securing a table in the evening very difficult. We decided to give up and spent the rest of the night on the bumper cars and eating more food. That night as we made our way back to the campsite it began to rain which made camping quite chilly.

The following day we vowed to secure a table early and check to make sure that it was not reserved for the evening. It was a freezing cold morning, still raining but we got up from our soggy tent and had secured a table by 11am. The challenge was keeping the table which meant toilet breaks had to be taken in turns and food was to be ordered to the table which was a tad expensive but well worth it! We ate some delicious duck as well as number of massive pretzels. Our table ended up filling with locals and a few other Australians; we drank and danced into the night. The atmosphere in the beer hall was amazing with the Oomph bands playing all night and everyone standing on their chairs dancing along. Once we could drink or dance no more we made our way to the train and back to the campsite! We were awoken by our alarms extremely early to catch the 5am bus back to the train station to get our bags and then onto the airport where we flew to Barcelona, Istanbul and finally Georgia.

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