Continued from Munich Day 1.
Today will be fully devoted to Oktoberfest, but unfortunately we did not have a smooth start. We got a call this morning asking us to change rooms. I suspect it has to do with the fact that they gave us a 4 person room for only 2 of us.
We were trying to get to the Oktoberfest beer tents by 10 or 11(we ran into some Americans at the beer garden last night who gave us tips on what time to get there to be guaranteed a table). You can reserve tables to the beer tents months in advance. By reserving a table, you are also agreeing to a certain minimum of food and drinks. Either way, we didn’t have reservations so we had to get to the tents early because there was only very limited space for nonreserved tables. They will also only serve you beer if you have a table, so you can’t just show up really late, stand around and hope to still get served beer. By having to switch rooms, we got delayed getting out of the gate.
View from our new room. Sure enough, they moved us to a two person room.
Finally on the way to the tents. You see how everyone is walking in the same direction? Yeah, they are ALL going to Oktoberfest.
Very nice.
Ohhhh, what’s that peeking out there.
Oktoberfest fairgrounds baby! I am finally here! This has been on my bucket list forever. Check!
Rotating bar.
One of the beer tent. They are called tents, but really, they are permanent buildings.
Crap! Tons of people are here already. It’s11:30, I hope we can get some seats.
Target sighted.
The Hofbrau tent. This is the biggest tent, the biggest party spot and the biggest international scene. I believe it fits over 10,000 people when filled.
Awesome, lots of empty seats still. We made it in time to put down a stake for our table.
PROST!
Heaven!
As it turns out, we were led by the hostess to a wrong section. After sitting down and getting our beers, we noticed that we were sitting at a reserved table. The reservation was at 3pm, so it meant that if we sat here and drank, we would be kicked out of our space at 3pm. Our plan is to drink until 10pm or 11pm when they shut the tents down, so we had to quickly look for another section.
I got up from our table, grabbed the nearest waitress I could find and asked where the nonreserved tables were at. She pointed at a section right in the middle of the tent. I quickly ran over, found us a spot for our big group of 6 and waved everyone over.
The nonreserved section was already pretty filled up. We had a big group, so had we shown up 30 minutes later, we wouldn’t have all been able to sit together. We actually spread ourselves out as we were expecting several other travels who we’ve met on our trip to join us.
Guys from London. This really is the international tent as we had Swedes, Brits, Scots, Germans, Americans, Italians, Canadians and many others sitting all around us.
I debated about putting up this photo as I didn’t want to give myself a bad rep, but I also did promise to write this diary down the way I saw it and this is the way I saw it. We all look, I am just one of the few who will admit it. Plus, the Dirndl is worn with a special pushed up bra just for this purpose!
Yes, I will be consuming all of that by myself. Half chicken, sausage with sauerkraut and spare ribs. My game plan is to stuff my face with food in the attempt to force a slower pace of drinking since I am already full of food. I started cramming the food into my mouth and did manage to eat almost everything except for a couple of ribs and half of the sauerkraut. They call me Kobayashi.
Fried pork skin.
The A team! These huge Scots were in a big group of about 20 all for a bachelor party. They were awesome guys and we had TONS of fun with them.
The band gets fired up and everyone cheers and drinks. In fact, periodically they will play a song where you literally hold up your cup of beer, cheer one another and drink. Awesome.
Winning!
The Scots playing Jenga in an effort to slow down their own drinking.
Our new friends showed up. Couple on their honeymoon.
These two waitresses had our section. They were both Norwegian actually I believe. They’ve worked at Oktoberfest for years as some of the patrons here would come back to their section year after year. The one on the left was kind of mean. The one on the right was really nice though and made up for it.
They sell shots of Red Bull here.
LOL!
The Scots had a stein made with their picture.
Let’s keep them coming.
Periodically, people would stand up to the cheering of the crowd and attempt to chug down their huge beers. Finishers were greeted cheers and nonfinishers were greeted with boos.
Gordon, the rowdiest of all the Scots!
The rowdy Scots who sat next to us kept on yelling Sweden out of nowhere. Every 10 minutes of so, all of them would start chanting “Sweden, Sweden, Sweden”. Finally, we asked them why they kept on chanting that instead of Scotland. Gordon finally explained to us that there was a table of Swedes sitting a few tables away and they chanted Sweden because “their broads are hot!”
Well, here are the two broads in question. Decide for yourself.
Broad #1.
Broad #2.
The Scots and the Brits getting into their chugging moods.
Planking on a stash of steins.
Yup, that’s a chick.
Asian girl chugging. She actually did finish. Impressive. In the foreground, all those guys are the security people. They walked around the tents and whistled at anyone getting too rowdy. You can’t stand on the tables, but you can stand on the benches. Anyone caught standing on a table got a whistle and a stern warning.
Yeah, she carried all of that by herself. All the beers too.
JB from our group stood up to go to the bathroom. Gordon the Scot grabbed him, handed him a beer and told him to chug.
Well done!!!!!!
By roughly 2 or so, the entire place has filled up.
Time for a dessert. Apple strudel, yum.
The German girl next to us ordered some pork with red cabbage and a ball of potato.
Saw this on the way to the bathroom, which was surprisingly not that crowded. Rows and rows of chicken getting ready to be made into half chicken dishes.
Hops makes the decor inside.
Here’s Gordon again. Other famous quotes from Gordon.
“I’d rather fook a sheep than eat hagus.”
“I’d rather fook a sheep than a Scot.”
When asked how long he drank for the night before when they came to Oktoberfest he answered.
“Until I was foggy. But then I drove home.”
Security about to bust some ass!
Let’s keep hydrated.
Me.
More beers!! Oh yeah, I accidentally chipped the edge of my stein while cheering. Yeah, glass goes flying everywhere, bad idea. The guy sitting next to me thought that some glass went into his eye. After our resident physician’s assistant R, examined his eye, all was deemed ok. It was probably just beer that got into his eyes.
These Scots were such a hoot.
Guy in red won.
Nightmares for years…
Believe it or not, it’s just now 3ish. They’ve cleared out all the people sitting at the reserved tables. Soon, all the people with reservations will come in and take those seats.
Crazy Gordon.
Took a breather out of the Hofbrau tent to check out some of the other tents. The Hofbrau tent is most definitely the partying spot. Not only that, but the nonreserved tables, where we sat, were turned to 11 compared to the rest of the tent. Everyone who sat at the nonreserved tables were most likely foreigners so they came here to party and they usually showed up early and planned on partying until the tents closed.
This may be a bad idea after 3 liters of beer.
Ughhhhh…..why won’t it stop spinning.
Back to the Hofbrau tent. It’s just a huge party at this point. I’ve also been drinking heavy 6% beers for over 5 hours, so the photos will start getting blurry. I tend to think they add some authenticity to how the event actually took place.
The other Americans who sat a table from us.
Yes, please.
They had these people walking around with breathalyzers that you can blow into for 4 Euros to get a reading. Sure, why not. I am sure it really meant 0.135% and not 1.35%. I think it’s time for me to pick up the pace a little.
Drunk people standing on tippy benches. Yeah, they tend to fall down and beer tends to fly everywhere.
Look at two pictures up, this is the same guy….except now, he’s in a woman’s dress!
Some guy from Australia handed me this bottle of snuff. Minty.
Time for another half chicken!
It’s now getting dark out. Party on!
By this hour, almost everyone is standing on the top of their benches.
10 hours of drinking with people from all over the world. Badass!
Towards the end of the night, all the tents were packed to capacity. They’ll close the front doors to the tents to prevent people from getting in, but people go through the side entrance anyway. It was standing room only everywhere at the end of the night and it was impossible just to get to the bathroom. How the beer maids still managed to walk around delivering plates of food, I do not know.
How did I manage to take such a clear photo while being wasted?
View of the fairgrounds from the Ferris wheel.
Take me home, Mercedes taxi.
Ohhhh, saw this on the way back to hotel. One of my favorite Ferrari.
Yes, more Doner Kebabs please!
The only thing left to say about Oktoberfest is that I had over 5 liters of beer and it was a glorious time. Everyone needs to come here at least once in their lifetime.
Update: A few things I forgot to mention. They play a lot of American music at the tent. John Denver, Neil Diamond, etc. No chicken dance or yodeling though.
You can also drink Radlers which is half lemonade and half beer to slow the pace down. Radlers were barely lighter than the regular beer brew so you can get away with drinking it all night long without anyone calling you out on it.
To be continued at Munich Day 3.