Oktoberfest - München

Oktoberfest is the biggest beer festival in Germany, and was definately high up on our list of things to see. It's held in Munich, and (this is from Lonely Planet now) in 1999 6.5 million visitors drank 5.8 million litres of beer! It embodies every German stereotype - beer, lederhosen, sausage, enormous pretzels and oom-pa bands. So even though it's a little touristy it's still a lot of fun! The fairgrounds are full of amusement park rides, and of course about 12 huge beer tents.

FRIDAY: We took the train down on Saturday morning, checked into the Munich YMCA, and headed to the fair grounds. Bob and another UBC Electrical Engineer (Amir? Man I'm bad with names) came all the way down from Hannover to join us. We started by doing the rollercoaster - the "Batman" ride where your legs are dangling down. Now, the Germans at work warned us that we had to get there early if we wanted a seat in one of the tents. We figured that 11:30am was early enough... turned out that was wrong. We tried a bunch of tents and stood in line for 1.5 hours before giving up. People show up early and don't leave until closing time! So for the afternoon, at least, we were stuck in an outdoor beer garden, which wasn't so bad because the weather was nice. We all had a few Mass (1 litre beers) and some enormous pretzels.

Later in the day we got seperated into 2 groups while walking around. I ended up with Colin and Bob. We got some dinner and went back to try to get into a tent. One place we found was at least letting people in, but only one at a time (when someone left). We were waiting in line, which kept getting bigger and bigger, until the people at the back decided that they had waited long enough and started pushing forwards. An entire group of maybe 30 people got pushed in (including us!) before the security guards could close the doors. We finally made it into a tent! It was pretty cool inside. There was a band playing, the tent had a huge roof, everything was decorated in a very German fashion, and just about everyone was standing up on the tables singing along to the music.

We sat down and had a few more Mass. Everyone at our table was really friendly, and Colin was able to have a few conversations with Germans entirely in German. It was kind of funny to see all the Germans dressed up in Lederhosen and traditional dresses. Me and Colin even did a good deed that night, because some drunk guy started bothering one of the girls at our table. So we just sat down between him and the girl, pushing him further down the bench and away. Eventually I think Bob sat down too and he got pushed off the end, at which point security took him away. The rest of the night was filled with more beer and singing until the tents closed at 11. We (eventually) found our way back the hostel and went off to sleep.

SUNDAY: Next day was a little more relaxed. Several of us were pretty hung over, although I was feeling alright. It was easier to get into a tent because it was the last day of Oktoberfest, so less people were out. We had one or two beers, a pretzel, and ordered a meal. None of us were really in the mood for heavy drinking so we decided to walk around and see some of the city. I've already been to Munich, but only for a few hours, so it was nice to see the Frauenkirche, Neues Rathaus, and old town. We got a few souvenirs, and spent a few hours lying in the sun (it was still really warm in Munich). After dinner and a quick last walk around the fairgrounds we hopped on the ICE back to Wuerzburg. Definitely a fun weekend!