The Real Oktoberfest, Munich Germany

It’s that season again! With fall approaching fast, even quicker was the upcoming trip to Munich, and what’s in Munich? A widespread phenomena with celebrations spread across the seas to America, one of the best things about fall, Oktoberfest.

Last year the cards aligned and a couple of tickets popped up for me to attend Volksfest, the second largest Oktoberfest held in Stuttgart Germany. Afterwards everyone kept telling me, you have no idea how much better Munich is you have to go there. In my opinion, they’re wrong. The only difference between these two festivals is the company you keep, the seating arrangements, and tourists vs. locals.

At Volksfest you must have pre bought tickets to get into a tent otherwise you are not allowed admittance, at Oktoberfest there are pre bought tickets but the whole main floor of the tent, which is quite a large area, is first come first serve. So if you just decide to show up on a weekend and weasel your way into a tent and a table then you are good to go. It’s keeping the table that’s the problem 🙂

Oktoberfest has made a big name for itself spreading across the world over the past few years and feeding to the masses, which means it gets a majority of tourists visiting from America, New Zealand, Australia, and other parts of the world, whereas because of the prepaid ticket requirement at Volksfest, it targets more of the local population and isn’t so full of all the tourists wannabe’s. Don’t worry I’m a tourist wannabe, but I can blend in with a last name like Hauser. 😉 In the end, I truly believe its the group of people you hang with during the day, that will make the trip the experience you want it to be.

DAY 1

After flying in on a late flight from Naples Italy Friday night, one of the guys in the group suffered through a horrible bout of food poisoning and in the morning after a quick cafe and a search for comfort foods, ginger ale, power aid, crackers, we knew he would need to stay at the airbnb for a couple of hours to ride it out. It is seriously THE WORST to be sick while on travel. Truthfully. More about that coming from the deserts of Morocco.

Heading to our first Tent, M and I went back and forth a bit but by the time we got to the main area the lines were out the door in most places so we headed over to Lowenbrau where they were still letting people inside. If you are interested in getting tickets during the 16 days that Oktoberfest runs through, then you’ll have to plan in advance. Tickets go on sale around December the year before.

Drinking opening day doesn’t start until noon, after the ceremony is conducted and the kegs are tapped in each tent, the festivities begin and the beer is served!

As M and I walked around to scope the place out, we found the area to stand it while they tapped the keg!

Once the drinking began and everyone settled down it was time to take a look at the crowd.

We made friends from California! Giselle (Front Left) had come to Oktoberfest and had come at 0800 for a table with her friend. We started talking to them and decided to hang out if possible. They were at a table with some German guys and a few Swiss boys. At first it was a bit akaward because there weren’t enough seats but after a couple of beers nobody gave 2 shits (except maybe the waitresses that couldn’t get up and down the aisles)

I have a funny feeling my new Oktoberfest friend Giselle and I might meet again in the future, that’s the beauty of making new friends everywhere you go.

Checking out the scene indie the tent. With yellow as the roof it gives off the perfect lighting for a few camera shots.

Chicken got your tongue? One thing I may never be able to figure out is how the food at the Fests is just so good. I know that there is much drinking done in one day but seriously the food is always SO GOOD. Even if you are just arriving and want a quick lunch as you order your first beer.

Pork, seriously SO Delicious!

The lovely lady of the day, serving us our beers as we were constantly in need of refills. A good tip goes a long way when liters of beer start flying at Oktoberfest.

A lovely day to meet new friends!

She wanted to see if she was waitress worthy, but just the empty glasses are a hard thing to handle. Props to all the waitresses that carried the almost 7 million liters of beer that were served this past year at Oktoberfest.

Hey T, how are you feeling?

After quite a few hours of drinking we decided to head outside and the possibility to meet up with other friends. That’s the cool thing, even if you didn’t find yourself a seat in one of the tents you always have the outdoor beer gardens that aren’t too hard to get into, the bars that are scattered throughout the festival grounds, and also the theme park rides that are pretty cool.

At the end of the night M and I ended up on our own drinking very expensive champagne from a winner’s trophy with a group of very drunk dudes that didn’t seem to realize we had no idea what they were celebrating. Although, we did see a guy fall from 2 stories up over a railing onto the floor. He was definitely winded and hurt but the ambulance was there within 2 minutes to shuttle him away. Just as the festival was closing down for the evening we decided to head back to our airbnb and run down the street for some pho to end the day. yummmm.

Day 2

Since the entire weekend was dedicated to the festivities it was to bed with us and up again the next morning, off to another tent. We would be flying back to Naples that evening and didn’t have a moment to spare.

Turns out some friends were already posted at the Augustiner Festhall so we headed over to join them. Pretty soon people I didn’t even realize were there for the weekend started showing up and the party got started.

More and more people starting to show up.

Got their attention for a quick pic.
Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, Der Gemütlichkeit . Cheers Scott!

Didn’t realize the camera was pointed at us.
All the ladies in our get up.

Oktoberfest!

Mountaineer at Oktoberfest. What do you think is in that back pack?

Look at this lovely couple! Awwww.

This is what happens when M storms the parade. haha.

Love that hat!! Love it.

Group photo!

FESTIVITIES

Look at him, Just look at him won’t you!

Truthfully, some of us were still struggling from the night before, (hmm, T) and didn’t want to drink too much the next day so it was easy to convince him to head to my favorite ride of all time, THE SWINGS. As I said in my Leed’s Festival post, the Swings in Europe are the best ever and I never miss an opportunity to ride them, when presented.