Gruß von Oktoberfest!!

Wow! What a weekend! 
Beer, lederhosen, pretzels, roller coasters, traditional German songs, countless new friends all made for one of the best weekends of my life! I have never seen more happy people in one spot before!!
The Oktoberfest celebration or the 'Wiesn', as most in Bavaria call it, gathers up a line up of beer from major Munich breweries and serves up over 5 million liters of 4.6 % German beer.  I'm not usually a huge fan of beer, but the cheery atmosphere made it much easier to get into the Oktoberfest mood!
Here is a recap of my first Oktoberfest experience:

It all began in the early hours of Friday morning...Me and 4 girls left Maastricht at 6am in order to catch our trains.  Our connections went very smoothly and we had a little downtime during our layover in Köln, so we peeked outside the train station and BAM! There appears the huge, beautiful Kölner Dom, or Cologne Cathedral!  Construction of the Roman Catholic masterpiece began in 1248 and is the largest church in Western Europe as well as one of the world's largest churches.  We didn't get a chance to go inside, but I definitely want to go back to Köln and spend some time in the cathedral.  

Early morning at the Koln Cathedral en route to Oktoberfest!

 The German ICE High Speed trains look so high-tech and beautiful in a way they are constructed.  After traveling around Europe so far, I have found that the German trains are the cleanest, the fastest, and the most comfortable.  German quality I suppose :)  We all have the Benelux & Germany Eurail Passes, so all we had to do was book a seat reservation for our trip.  We booked the reservation sort of last minute, but as it turns out, we had the best seats on the entire train!  We sat right behind where the conductor controls the train, and we even had a little foot rest...not bad for a last minute 2nd class reservation!  We were clearly very happy about our seats, which made for a quick 4 1/2 hour trip to Munchen Germany!  

Gettin' Comfortable.

 At about 2pm, we arrived in Müchen, Germany.  The central 'Hauptbanhof' was packed with people in lederhosen and drindls with beers and bratwursts in their hands.  From that moment, I could tell it was going to be an adventure of a weekend!  We found the Müchen metro and made our way to our hostel.  The hostel we stayed at is part of a company called 'Hostival' - a mobile hostel that travels to all different parts of the world for big festivals and celebrations and rents out affordable beds.  Appropriately named, we stayed at the Hangover Hospital.  The hostel complex is made up of big canvas wall tents with 10 bunk beds in each one.  We were lucky to get a room together and we shared it with two others from Argentina.  Since we slept in canvas tents, it did get very cold at night and in the morning, but the hostel provided some blankets (ewe) that I gladly took, no matter how grossed out I was to be using the hostel blankets.  No bed bugs so far!!  It was actually a very humorous experience and we made the best of it, as did everyone else staying there.  All we could do is laugh when we would walk into our weekend home.

Livin' Large in the Hangover Hospital.

 

...welcome home!

 On to the celebration!  
It was our plan for the first night just to explore the Oktoberfest grounds and scope out the scene for the morning.  Within 15 minutes of being there, we were offered 6 tickets to join 4 others at a reserved table in the Winzerer tent.  We thought, "WHY NOT?!"  It's not everyday that you get lucky enough to get into a reserved beer tent so late in the day!  We were escorted to our reserved table and apparently along with the reservation, came free beers and a free chicken dinner.  I don't think any of us have ever been so amused - it felt like a fairytale.  Traditional German songs as well as some American classics blasted throughout the tent while steins clanked and beer flowed.  We stayed at the table with our new friends for most of the night until we all decided to explore the carnival.  We went on three roller coasters and decided to call it a night since we were waking up at daybreak the next morning.  

The metro.  EVERYONE is going to Oktoberfest!

The Winzerer Tent serving up Pschorr Braurosl beer.

Kind of a bad picture, but you get the idea!

First Oktoberfest Beer!  Prost!

 

 

Celebrating :)

OKTOBERFEST DAY II
Up and at 'em at 7am once again!  We had heard that in order to get a spot at a table in a beer tent, you have to be up and in line early in the morning, so we followed that advice and were standing in line by 8:30.  The last night, we were told to check out the Schottenhamel Spatenbrau tent because it is where all the local kids go.  After standing in line and pushing through crowds of rowdy Bavarians, we got in!  Beer definitely took the place of coffee this morning...it was 10:37am when the beer maiden brought us our first round.  It was early, but we were just happy to be there!  

Guten Morgen!!

Day II

We got to know the German songs pretty well.

  After about 2 hours, we decided to get some lunch and check out another tent.  We enjoyed a tasty bratwurst and 'pomme frities' and headed over to the infamous Hofbrau Tent.  We had heard from friends that went previous weeks that this was the best tent so we were very excited to get in!  After some pushing and sneaking, we finally made our way in!  We also managed to get our hands stamped so we could get back in if we left the tent.  The Hofbrau house was so big and full of energetic people from around the world as well as tons of locals.  We hung out in the HB tent and explored the outside Beirgarten for most of the day.  There was also a hill outside the back of the HB tent that looked like a battlefield because there were so many people taking naps in the sun.  I couldn't help but laugh at the sight!  We sat down on the hill, but it was so steep I could barely stay upright - I don't know how people were sleeping on such a slope!  Of course, after sitting for a little we all got tired and some of us made the decision to go back to the hostel for an hour and nap.  Best Decision Ever!

Inside the Hofbrau Tent.

We met up with some DU girls at the Biergarten.

Enjoying my cold beer inside Hofbrau

 Gingerbread necklaces.  Too pretty to eat!!

By 7pm, we were back at the Oktoberfest feeling rested and ready for another fun night!  Back in Hofbrau to sing some more songs and enjoy the atmosphere and meet some more new friends.  We met some kids from Munich, and we enjoyed asking them all about German lifestyles.  After a while, our new friends took us on some carnival rides and then we made our way to a fun, local Munich bar.  Everyone in the bar was dressed in the lederhosen and drindls, so we felt a little out of place, but everyone was very welcoming.  Suddenly, a traditional German band appeared...trumpets and tubas included!  It was certainly a sight to see!  Later on, we called it a night, but had a fun time with our new friends from Munich.  It's fun to have international connections!


On our last day in Munich we decided we wanted to see the city instead of going back to the Oktoberfest again.  We checked out of our homely hostel and locked up our luggage at the train station so we wouldn't have to carry it all day.  We wandered to the Marienplatz, Munich's main city square.  I was in Munich for one day a few years ago, and I didn't get to see any of the city, so I was very excited to explore!!  As the clock struck noon, we watched the fun display high in the clock tower.  Then we made our way to Hofbrauhaus, one of Munich's oldest breweries.  It was fun being at the Hofbrau tent at Oktoberfest, and then at the actual brewery the next day.  We enjoyed an interesting Beer & Lemonade as well as delicious German spaetzle.  Once we were re-hydrated, we walked into the English Gardens and rested our tired feet in the sun.  It was a bit of a surprise for us American girls to see people in the nude doing yoga and sunbathing, but it just shows how much more tolerant they are in Europe and it shows that they have more important things to worry about.  
At 4pm we caught our train and headed back up to Maastricht.  

Marienplatz Clock Tower

The English Gardens

We were so fortunate with the weather this weekend.  High 70s invited us to Munich and now we have Germany fever.  We can't wait to go back!!  I couldn't have asked for a better first Oktoberfest.  Hopefully it won't be my last!
Prost!!