Oktoberfest Munich

Arriving in Munich at nine in the morning, none of us had slept in at least 24 hours. Somehow though, we weren’t very tired. A.J. and I changed into our traditional German clothing – much to the amusement of our American, Turkish and Croatian travel buddies – and we jumped into the flow of people heading toward Oktoberfest.

Prost!

 The grounds were eerily empty – we planned to arrive so early because we heard it would be packed. It didn’t take long to figure out that there were already tens of thousands of people there – they were just sitting down in tents. By tent, I don’t mean the large canvas-covered structure that immediately comes to mind. These tents are permanent structures that can hold up to 10,000 people. They are beautifully decorated and, surprising clean. The tents are sponsored by local breweries that have brewing facilities within the city of Munich. Sometimes the breweries will sponsor more than one tent. We began in one of Paulaner’s tents – my favorite beer.

You sit down, and it goes without saying that you will order a liter. There is a band playing German music and drinking songs and when a song is played that the crowd likes, then everyone stands up on the table, then you lift your beer and sing. The energy in the room helped me to stay awake J I didn’t feel out of place wearing my dirndl at all – I would say over half of the people in the tents were dressed in traditional German clothing. We stopped by two other tents, then spent some time walking around outside. The area outside of the tents is very much like a church festival on steroids. There are countless places to buy food and drinks. There is a section devoted to rides with roller coasters – I think this area is bigger than Coney Island. By the time we got outside, it was much more crowded, but it was still fun to walk around and buy a few souvenirs.

We left early – around four in the afternoon – so who knows what Oktoberfest is like after dark. But contrary to popular opinion, I had a fantastic time at Oktoberfest and would love to go back sometime.