I’m starting to think that if I ever move to Europe for work that Germany is one of the countries that would appear top of the list. Every visit I’ve had to Germany I’ve enjoyed immensely – the German people (extremely friendly and not too bad on the eyes), the German food (ahh … meat!) and the German efficiency (what’s not to love!) – all fab. Munich is
Germany’s third biggest city by population and every September for two weeks this population of more than 1.3 million swells by another nearly 6 million as visitors pour in for the annual Oktoberfest – an over a fortnight of celebration which constitutes the worlds largest fair.

There was a good-sized group of us who came to Munich with Pauline, James, Sarah, Erin (though we didn’t really see her all weekend) and I sharing a room. We also met up with Caroline who, crazyily, braved a 24 hour bus from London with a bunch of aussie yobos to get to Munich and then camped it the whole weekend. Brave girl.

Photos here.

When?	Mid Sept 2008 (not October as one would imagine …)
Why Go?	Munich is a beautiful city. Going there at the same time as Oktoberfest? Great atmosphere!
Weather	A touch on the cold side. In 2007 same time this year it was 28 degrees! So who know!
Hint	– If going during Oktoberfest book accommodation as early as you can and wait until you get to Munich to buy great outfits for the festival. Being in the right dress will let you fit in get in the right mood. Also considering pre-booking a table in the popular beer tents for the afternoon if possible. On opening weekend Oktoberfest gets very busy and sometimes beer halls stay shut once full.
	– Visit with up to five of you – public transport have partner tickets good for covering up to five of you
Regrets	Not getting dressed up in a genuine Bavarian wench outfit – the Dirndl 🙂

We deliberately flew in on Thursday night to give us a couple of days sight-seeing in Munich. We spent Friday and Monday sight-seeing but the weather was so rubbish on Monday that we just didn’t have the heart. I hadn’t really had much time to think about what I wanted to see but I knew Dachau was on top of the list. Dachau was the first concentration camp opened in Germany which served as a model for all other concentration camps following it. It was also the only one to last through the whole war. Many atrocities were committed there but you wouldn’t know it today. When Sarah and I visited it was amazing weather with beautiful blue skies and the surrounds of Dachau itself was quite pretty with many grown trees and beautifully maintained landscape. This made my kind of uncomfortable as Dachau felt so clean and sanitised and so it made me feel almost guilty for visiting on such a day. There is a lot of information in Dachau and though most of it has been destroyed they have a museum which takes you through its history in-depth. A lot of heavy reading and definitely worth a visit. The greatest turn-off was the great groups of pushy tourists who were jostling each other to get a look into the re-built rooms. Its not like it was extremely busy so that they were pushing me and each other around was a puzzle to me.

Sight-seeing wise that was about it for our trip to Munich. The rest of the time we walked around just taking snaps of notable areas such as the City Centre including Marienplatz square (which admittedly is where most tourists hang out) and its Glockenspiel and the English Gardens, and sitting in beer halls!

We spent Friday afternoon into early evening at the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. Hugely popular we were lucky to get a table for lunch. The beer hall is probably the most famous in Munich and hence attracts its fair share of tourists. Its got a great food menu at reasonable prices (I took the opportunity to get my pork knuckle) and I had my first pint since New York courtesy of a married guy who wanted to … shall we say … be more than friends! Ha ha. Just a lot of harmless flirting really. The beer wasn’t actually too bad tasting though I did have my usual allergic reaction to it.

The atmosphere in the Hofbräuhaus is great with bavarian music being blasted by the band every now and then. Apparently there are a number of tables which are “subscribed” to by local germans who in return for paying a hefty price for the table for the year get the privilege of the use of the table whenever they want, a special stein glass to drink it from (these steins are kept locked up in cute little lockers when not in use) and free beer. One of these guys were sitting next to us and he apparently was the Hofbräuhaus’ longest running subscriber.

Saturday was opening day at the Oktoberfest. We got there for just after 9am but by then the queues to get into the beer halls were already massive. Its clearly one of the most popular days with many people keen to get into the beer halls for the opening tap at noon. Erin met up with her friends at 8am to get into the Hofbräuhaus tent. This tent last year had the worst reputation for general drunken We went into several tents looking for a table including Ochsenbraterei tent (room for 5,900), Augustiner-Festhalle (6,000), and Löwenbräu-Festhalle (5,700) – not one table free at 9.30am! Everyone was in great spirits considering no alcohol was going to be flowing for another few hours. We ended up sitting in the Löwenbräu beer garden next to Caroline’s lot. It was a great atmosphere but the aussies were in a crazy mood. By the time noon rolled around they were more than ready for their steins. Unfortunately our table seemed to have the slowest waitress and by the time we got our first steins other tables were on to their second! We did get to see one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen in my life – the guy selling us snacks was gorgeous!

The waitresses are amazing – each stein is 1-litre and the glass themselves must weigh at least that much and these ladies can carry 12 steins at once – without any apparent effort and with greater dexterity moving through the crowds than I could managed. Apparently these positions are very hard to come by and are often passed down in the family. The people working at Oktoberfest (admittedly 12 hours a day for 16 days straight) can make more than three month’s wages in just two weeks so they are very coveted positions and are worth the sacrifice of two week’s holiday. If you go to Oktoberfest and are in any vicinity of an Australian or Kiwi be prepared to wear a lot of beer. They are quite “energetic” in their cheering and once they get up on the seats and tables there is no turning back. Thankfully the beer seems to dry quite quickly!

For those who aren’t the biggest fan of beer you also have the shandy option – though its handy to know the German word for it as not all waitresses speak English. Its Radler for those who are interested and this word became my number one favourite German word all weekend.

I don’t know if it’s the drink or just general party atmosphere at Oktoberfest but anyone will talk to you anywhere. I was waiting in line for the ladies and this Danish girl just turned around and started speaking to me and telling me her life story. It was great and sure passed the time whilst in line.

In addition to drinking at Oktoberfest there are some great food options at the fair including the roasting half chickens, the half meter long bratwurst, currywurst, etc. all of which fell victim to my appetite. I only managed to down one stein all day but I was quite proud of finishing off even that litre. When things got a bit messy in the Löwenbräu beer garden, and the weather a little bit colder, we thought it was time to leave and try and get into a beer tent somewhere. No luck! All were either shut or still too full.

So James and I decided to partake in some carnie activities including shooting a rifle and cross-bow and riding the Olympic Ring roller-coaster (this was almost a fatal error as we rode the ride just after I’d downed the stein – lucky for James I managed to hold on to my beer but it was a very close thing!)

Day 2 at Oktoberfest dawned a little more civilised. There were noticeably less people at the fair in the morning when we arrived at the Hippodrome. Erin had arranged us tickets inside the beer hall for the morning which turned out quite well. I don’t know if it happens at all beer tents but when we arrived there were these giant platters of food on the table – comprised mainly of radish, plus bread (including a delicious though heart-stopping lard and fried onion topped bread) and cold meat. We thought it was complimentary only to find out it was a stunning Euro 11 each for the platter! And we barely at any of it! Never mind.

The morning in the beer hall was fairly civilised to be honest. I guess its family time – we even saw a table of kids with their small beers – not sure if they were alcoholic but it was funny to see them indulge in the practice anyway.

Erin and her lot wore some dirndl outfits that they bought in the UK. As they were more costume then genuine outfits they were a little, shall we say, short and showy. It definitely caught the eye of everyone who saw them. Erin definitely got her fair share of stares and hushed whispers and snickers. I felt for her but I’m sure she didn’t regret wearing her outfit.

We were all looking forward to our half chickens for lunch. We almost couldn’t wait as we saw half chicken after half chicken parading before us and being delivered to all the other tables. It was delicious. The stein I had over lunch seemed to go down much quicker than yesterday’s!

After lunch we were kicked off our table so had to go search for accommodation in another beer tent. It was mad crazy when we got out. Once again all the beer tents were quite full and many had their doors shut to us. We tried the Schottenham tent (6,000) which actually seemed like a happening place with great music and good-natured partying on the tables, and we tried the Löwenbräu tent again because Sarah had some friends on the inside. Unfortunately this place was only letting people in a trickle at a time and though Sarah, James and I managed to push our way in Pauline got pushed out and never made it in. It was probably good we didn’t stay there anyway as it seemed that the fanatics had taken over the tent – all around the band was a sea of their tell-tale yellow-shirts. It was messy. It was so bard that steins were actually being smashed against each other and breaking – not an easy feat!

We lost Sarah inside the Löwenbräu and Pauline outside somewhere so James and I went over to the Schützen-Festhalle beer garden where some of his friends were. We’d actually met these guys on our first day in Munich but I didn’t really speak to them. Here I made the mistake of having and quickly downing my second stein. This was to prove a fatal error in my getting sick later!

Finally we decided to try and get into a beer tent again and somehow made it into the Hofbräu-Festzelt. Do not go near the pig pen in this tent or you will accidentally find yourself without underwear! We ended up near a bunch of Kiwis and although it was all fairly good-natured there were some very drunk people around us.

One guy was lying in his sick, a few people around us got escorted outside they were so drunk, many people up on the tables kept falling off the tables and taking people down with them. It was very messy. I even saw some blood on the tables. And finally all sorts of people were getting it on. The Germans have a specific word for those over drunk people: Bierleichen – Beer Corpses. 🙂

Good atmosphere though and the band were rocking. We also met up with Caroline in the tent and somehow she kept scoring free steins! It was really funny. Here I had my walk of shame – throwing up! Thankfully I made it to the toilets though Caroline was doing her best to get me to do it into a stein or under our table – ha ha!

The evening and my Oktoberfest experience ended with Caroline and I riding three of the bigger rides at Oktoberfest. I guess that’s the great thing about the fair – its not just about the beer, its also about the great entertainment and food.

We rode three rides Cyber Space (this ride which twirls all over the place, tips you upside down and drops you to the ground), the Star Flyer (a basic swing ride about 50 metres up in the air – this started me on the path to nausea) and finally the Hollenblitz (a crazy Space-Mountain like roller coaster) which had me running urgently to the toilet. The fact that there was a hat on the ground at its exit full of sick shows just how nauseating this ride was! Great end to the evening.

But the funniest end to the evening – getting to the hotel room and finding everyone in there watching German porn (ha ha – not really but Sarah was getting full teasing for accidentally switching it on) and a random German guy accidentally trying to get into our room. He was pretty cute – I wouldn’t have said no if he’d insisted 😉