Oktoberfest München 2015
I left Chicago on Tuesday night, September 29, via Turkish Airlines to my layover in Istanbul, Turkey. I was pleasantly surprised by their the quality and taste of their Turkish food, as well as their other goodies (hot towels, tooth brush, slippers, socks, sleep mask, lip balm, tooth brush, etc). I treated myself to a mini bottle of red and one white wine while I watched Inside Out and Mad Max before sleeping for most of the trip.
After the flight from Istanbul to Düsseldorf, I was quickly greeted by Carolin (after a year and a half!!!) at the arrival gate. She and I grabbed an obvious “welcome to Germany” beer (and margarita) before heading on our 10.5 hour overnight bus ride to Munich.
Once we’d arrived, we waited a short while over breakfast for Tuomas to arrive from Finland via train from the airport. We then hopped on the train and proceeded to Carolin’s brother, Timo’s house. We dropped our things, got into our lederhosen and dirndel, and had a quick Bavarian style lunch (Weißwurst [white sausage] with soft pretzels and sweet mustard and a Bavarian wheat beer). Then we were off to Oktoberfest!
Seeing various places around Germany during the Oktoberfest festivities, you quickly realize that there are Oktoberfest celebrations, though much smaller, all over the place. I had expected a bunch of Germans and tourists in their Bavarian garb getting drunk off of tons and tons of beer to be the extent of Oktoberfest. Not that that was wrong, but there was so much more right from the moment we got up the subway steps onto the Oktoberfest grounds. Immediately you could smell varieties of sweets and hot food, extravagant decorations, carnival rides, souvenir stands, etc.
We started off at a biergarten (beer garden!) and bought our first beers, which were served in an enormous mug that held a liter of beer for 10,30€ each. I quickly realized the open atmosphere and unity of Oktoberfest, as it was all open seating at long tables with benches where you were to squeeze in wherever you could fit. Everyone around would immediately cheers (“Prost!”) with you and start a conversation. We hung out around there for about an hour and a half and enjoyed two mugs (or liters… 😅) and shared a bowl of Käsespätzle (similar to an eggy macaroni and cheese) before heading to what is supposed to be the most extravagant “tent” at the Oktoberfest from Haufbräu.
At Oktoberfest, you can only get a beer in an enclosed biergarten or tent. Immediately after walking into the Haufbräu tent we witnessed a huge open room, easily the size of a football field, with masses of people singing and dancing with the band that was playing. The ceilings were decorated with white and green striped tarps and chandeliers decorated in hops. We walked around on the outskirts of the sea of people for several minutes, looking for an opening at a table before a server grabbed us and asked if we needed beer. We confirmed that we did and she took us to a nearby table and told us to wait there. This is the area where we stood for the next several hours, enjoying another two or three (??? None of us are totally sure if we had four or five mugs/liters total… Each) beers. We sang a lot, danced a lot, DRANK a lot, and socialized with a group of Koreans for a good while before leaving the tent finally. After, we checked out one more, much less extravagant tent, bought Krustenbraten (some sort of sandwich with crispy meat) chocolate covered bananas, and an array of other things. I bought some souvenirs (a shirt and a Haufbräu mug) and apparently found another mug on the ground that I THOUGHT I bought, which was taken away by security on our way out. I got in an argument with them over this cause I really thought they took a mug that I bought. Once reunited with Tuomas and Carolin (who lost me in the sea of people while I argued with security) we caught the train back to Kimo’s where Tuomas and I fell asleep. We made it back to the house and slept forever.
