"It was finally Thursday, the day that I would head to Oktoberfest! I was so excited to visit Germany, the home of my ancestors. I couldn't wait to see Munich and experience the world's largest fair. Since hotels and plane tickets to Munich had been sold out for many months, I signed up to go with Bus2Alps, an organization made for students wanting to travel Europe. A 12 hour bus ride to Munich didn't sound like much fun, but I knew that it would be worth it.
The excitement was among us as we gathered with 150 other students going to Oktoberfest. Our bus left Termini Station at 8:00 pm on Thursday evening and arrived in Munich at 8:30 am. It was a very cramped ride with little leg room. We passed the time by watching movies, listening to music, and napping while we could. At last we arrived to our destination of Munchen, Germany. We knew that we had arrived to our site when we saw all the tents and people bustling around. We were all very relieved to get off the bus and stretch our legs. After picking up our bags we headed to the main tent to check in. As soon as we got in line people started offering us beers. We had been off the bus for 2 minutes and we were already drinking beer. This was a great start to an even better weekend.
The excitement was among us as we gathered with 150 other students going to Oktoberfest. Our bus left Termini Station at 8:00 pm on Thursday evening and arrived in Munich at 8:30 am. It was a very cramped ride with little leg room. We passed the time by watching movies, listening to music, and napping while we could. At last we arrived to our destination of Munchen, Germany. We knew that we had arrived to our site when we saw all the tents and people bustling around. We were all very relieved to get off the bus and stretch our legs. After picking up our bags we headed to the main tent to check in. As soon as we got in line people started offering us beers. We had been off the bus for 2 minutes and we were already drinking beer. This was a great start to an even better weekend.
The camp site was like what I expected: tents crammed together, long lines for the community bathroom, and plenty of beer. Once we checked in and got our wristbands for beer and food, we headed to see what our tents looked like. They were small two-person tents, but they would suffice for the weekend.
Our campsite was outside of Munich so we had to take a bus and then a metro into town. Our trip leaders showed us the way into town and we made sure to know the stops since we would need to find our way back later. Once we got off the metro we headed up the steps to Munich's main square, Marienplatz. Munich is so beautiful and I was blown away by all of the extraordinary buildings and architecture.
While we were in the check-in line at the campsite we were told that a bike tour of Munich was going to happen at 12:30. We decided that this would be a great way to see the city, instead of just being on the inside of beers tents all weekend. Frankie's Bike Tour was the company we went through for our tour of the city.
Below are just some of the sites we visited on our tour of Munich:
English Garden - One of the world's largest urban public parks
Chinese Tower - The second largest beer garden in the world.
Hofgarten - The city's oldest park
Maximilianeum - Home of the state parliament
We stopped at many different squares, drove by some of Munich's most important buildings, and even went inside a church. After learning about many of these sites we headed to the Chinese Tower for lunch. We were very excited to get our first taste of Bavarian food and Hofbräu beer. Both were amazing and left us wanting to come back for more.
We did more than just look at all the cool buildings in Munich as we biked by, we also got some history of the city and the festival. Our tour guide, Kevin, was very knowledgeable and had fun with us while we learned about Munich. I didn't know the origin of Oktoberfest before coming, but Kevin told us that this festival had been happening for just over 200 years. Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on October 12th, 1810. All the citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festival to celebrate the royal wedding. The next year brought about the anniversary celebration and it has continued happening ever since.
Kevin also prepared us for one of the most popular songs that was sung inside all of the beer tents. We practiced it while we were eating at the picnic tables at the Chinese Towers. The whole group looked quite foolish trying to sing the song in front of hundreds of Germans, but we didn't care because we were having so much fun. Many of them laughed at us and some even started to sing along with us. The song goes as follows:
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
der Gemütlichkeit.
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
der Gemütlichkeit.
The closest English translation to this song is "A toast, a toast to the atmosphere." With atmosphere meaning a feeling of social acceptance, belonging, being cheery and leaving your troubles at the door.
After our epic bike tour, we headed to the festival. As soon as we entered the gate we realized how this was the largest festival in the world. The streets were packed from side to side and there were tents, carnival rides, food stands and other vendors everywhere. We wandered the streets and various tents and finally settled down in the Hofbräu tent. We waited for a while before a table opened up, but as soon as it did we quickly grabbed it and sat down. Some friends showed up a little bit later and we had a full table. Waitresses kept coming back to our table seeing that we sucked down the very tasty Hofbräu brew. A group of 3 Germans sat down at the table next to us and we began to chat about where we were from and what we did. They told us that they worked at a hotel in Munich and just got off work. It was fun to talk with some of the locals and see what they thought of the festival.
Our night of drinking and talking was coming to an end so we jumped on the metro and headed back to our campsite. We decided that we shouldn't stay up too late, that way we could get in line early on Saturday to ensure ourselves a good location for the day. Our tents weren't the coziest, but a couple beers made it so we soon fell asleep.
Saturday morning was here and it was time to get going so we could get in line for a good tent. I asked many people throughout the day Friday what their favorite tent was and almost all of them replied "Augustiner". Everyone in our group agreed that we should go there and see if it was up to the hype. We arrived to the festival at 8:30 and got in line shortly after. The doors to our tent opened at 9:00 and we found a table inside. We waited a little bit for the servers to get ready and we ordered our first beers. We thoroughly enjoyed this Augustiner beer and ordered another round. Pretzel sellers were strolling around so we snagged a couple of those throughout the morning. We also order a few rounds of these white sausages that resembled brats. They were both quite tasty and it was nice to get some food in our stomach.
The whole morning consisted of drinking, chatting, singing, and laughing. It was nice to let loose and not care about anything except having a good time. By this time the tent was alive and the beer was flowing. The band up on the balcony was playing some local favorites and the tent erupted in chants. Our table even joined in on a couple that we caught onto throughout the morning. Being inside the tents next to hundreds of other people just there for a good time was an awesome feeling. The atmosphere inside the tent can't even be explained, it's just something that you have to experience for yourself.
We met a group of Spanish people in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day talking and drinking with them. They were a fun group to talk to and they even bought us a couple plates of chicken to split amongst ourselves.
Since we started drinking at 9:00 in the morning, we didn't feel too bad leaving the festival at 6:30. It was an unbelievable day and we had a blast. We headed to the metro and made our way back to the campsite to get some grub. We were delighted to find that they were serving burgers and sausages and we grabbed one of each. We spent that evening drinking beer and talking with other people staying in our campsite.
We got up Sunday morning and headed back to the festival to pick up some steins for souvenirs. We found a stand that was selling some simple ones for 10 euros, so we each bought a stein and then got some tenderloins at a food stand nearby. On our way out of the festival we saw a stand that was selling appelkuchen and it was too hard to pass up. We each bought one and felt very satisfied as we left Oktoberfest. It was the perfect way to end an unforgettable weekend." -Mark Monat. I'm still working on composing my bit. But, here are my pictures I took.
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