Germany Day 1: Munich and OKTOBERFEST!

Friday, September 24th

Although this weekend was completely draining, it was also A LOT of fun! I had no idea that Oktoberfest was an actual festival and is actually quite a big family affair. There was so much fun, food, and color involved in this event which was not what I was expecting at all! Everyone from Germany wears traditional German clothing. The men wore "Lederhosen" and the women wore "Dirndls". The kids also wore miniature versions of the clothing. They were ADORABLE!

An adorable Dirndl I saw at the
 train station.I had to get a picture
of it, even if it is a bit less
traditional than most. 

The cutest little boy I have seen so far dressed
in a traditional outfit. He was so chic in his little
hat and jacket! 

We went to the train station at 11:00pm for our bus trip to Oktoberfest in Munich! We got on the bus, stopped at around 4:00am in Austria, then stopped again at 9:00am about 45 minutes outside of Munich. I slept for some of the trip but it wasw pretty uncomfortable. Our bus was having problems so we had to wait at the rest stop for almost 3 hours for our new bus to arrive. While we waited, one of our group leaders bought a mini-keg and we all had our first taste of Oktoberfest together curbside at a rest stop. Very funny! Once our new bus arrived, we headed into Munich for the festival. We walked on to the grounds and I instantly felt like a kid again. There were rides, food stands (literally every 10 feet), souvenier stands, and huge beer "tents".

Me and my friend Alyssa inside the Hofbrauhaus

A quick history on Oktoberfest. As late as last century there were as many as 24 breweries in Munich but now only 6 remain. These 6 are the only breweries permitted to sell at Oktoberfest and each make their own special brew for Oktoberfest. There was something called a "Bavarian Purity Law" passed in 1516 which states that all beer must be produced using barley or barley malt, hops and pure water. This law is followed by the breweries to the present day. (Basically, it was VERY VERY GOOD!) The six breweries still existing in Munich today are: Lowenbrau, Hofbrauhaus (where we spent the majority of our time when at the festival), Augustinerbrua, Paulaner (the largest brewery in Bavaria), Hacker-Pschorr, and Spaten Franziskaner (the largest tent holding over 10,000 seats... What?!).

The "Hofbrau Haus" beer tent! 

The festival is shaped sort of like a jelly bean with entrances on either side and two fairways down the middle which are lined with the six beer tents and food stands. The carnival rides are scattered everywhere too which was fun to watch. The food was also amazing! The most popular items were huge pretzels, whole rotisserie chickens, and "wieners"(hotdogs) that were over a foot long! Very funny to watch all the different techniques of eating these massive wieners!

So anyway, back to our day. We went into the hofbrauhaus and were immediately shocked by the madness that was happening behind the doors. The "tent" or "haus" was HUGE! Lined with rows upon rows upon rows of long tables and benches. There were people everywhere, standing on the tables and singing along to the live band that was on stage. They were waving their huge mugs in the air and laughing and dancing and singing, (even if they didn't completely know the words). Every table we passed wanted us to sit by them, but at this point we didn't know the rules about how to get served so we just wandered around the tables with our mouths hanging wide open at this great "cultural experience". Fairly soon after we got in the tent, a big group of our friends arrived and we happened to find a big table to stand at and order some beer. Then we were able to join in on all the fun. They played all american songs like "Hey Baby" and "Sweet Caroline" and also some polka music! What a great time! After staying here for a bit, we decided to head to a second tent and repeated the process like this for awhile.

Inside the beer tent. It is so hard to show how big it actually is! 

 At 4:00, every tent serves a 5-7 course meal in which you need to have reserved seating for. This is mostly just big German families because you need to reserve these tables over a year in advance. At this point, the randoms (me) get kicked out on the street. It just so happens that it started down pouring the minute we left the tent. With no umbrellas or rain boots, we were pretty sunk and basically walked around in the storm for about 5 hours until it was time to catch our shuttle bus back. This is where one of my quotes of the weekend came out. "I am literally going to need about 25 years of very intense psycho therapy after this night!" Although it was awful at the time, it is pretty funny to look back on now. Very miserable experience but it could always be worse right?


We took the shuttle back to our hostel which was about an hour outside of Munich. It was my first hostel experience so I wasn't quite sure what to expect but it was great! I shared a room with my friends I was traveling with and we were right next to the bathroom with really great showers. Hostels are perfect for travelers my age because we don't need all the extra amenities, just a place to sleep, shower and maybe brush our teeth. So when all was said and done, we decided it was a very good day!