Oktoberfest!!!

After a great week and a half of traveling with Marla and Elisa they left (all good things must come to an end), and I went to Lindau Germany, a small town in Germany which is right next to a lake (in fact, about half of it is on an island). It was the perfect place to rest and relax for a few days, which is exactly what I needed, since the next stop on my list was Oktoberfest!!

After 3 days in Lindau, I took the train into Munich on Friday (Oct 1). There I met up with Philipp, a friend I met on my New Zealand trip who lives in Munich. Since I wanted to take this night easy (and we didn't think we'd have any chance of getting into the beer tents), we went down just to wander around and give me a first glimpse at what to expect the next day. I was amazed by what I saw - Oktoberfest is more than just beer tents, it's basically a giant fair. It has tons of rides, carnival games, and course lots and lots of food. After wandering around a bit and taking the requisite night pictures of Oktoberfest, we headed back.

The next morning I was up nice and early to meet Justin, a friend from college and former roommate in DC who flew in that morning. We met up with his school friend Annette (who spoke German, a very nice bonus) and headed off to Oktoberfest. By now it was 11am on the last Saturday of Oktoberfest, which meant that all the beer tents were already full. After waiting in line for 3 hours (!!!!) we were still a long way from getting in. Luckily, another of Justin's friend had a reserved table and was able to sneak us in using some wristband skulldudgery. We were then joined shortly thereafter by Mark (another friend from school whose flight got in a bit later). We spent the day in the tent eating, drinking, and enjoying the Oktoberfest atmosphere. We ended the night with dinner and a run through a fountain (seemed like a good day at the time).

For our second day we were determined to avoid being stuck in line, so we got to the tent nice and early. This time we got in without incident, before the lines had formed. And what a great day it was. Highlights included:

• cheering on all the crazy people in the first tent who would get up and chug a whole 1-liter beer. One guy chugged 2 liters in a row. That was NOT a pretty sight 30 seconds after he finished (don't try this at home!!)
  
• chowing down on giant pretzels, sausage, gingerbread, and more
  
• a mid-day break to ride the rides, including the requisite trip to the Ferris Wheel to get a bird's eye view of the festivities
  
• singing "Sweet Caroline" along with 2,000 of our new best friends at the top of our lungs
  
• me getting bumped off of the bench I was standing on and nearly face-planting onto the table before catching myself with one arm in a wild display of acrobatics

Suffice to say, we had a great weekend. And since we ended it with the same number of people we started it with, I'd consider it a rousing success!!

But, don't just take my word for it - check out the pics:

welcome to Oktoberfest!!!

enjoying a mini-college reunion in Munich

Giant beer? Check. Giant pretzel? Check. Cross that off the Oktoberfest must-do list!

for some reason Justin doesn't seem to appreciate the "pretty princess" gingerbread heart we bought him. What an ingrate!

the aforementioned gingerbread heart meets an untimely demise

Oktoberfest birds-eye (well, ferris-wheel-eye) view. As you can see, a couple other people got the memo about attending Oktoberfest. . .

Mark, Justin, and I compete in the who-can-hold-a-full-stein-at-arm's-length-longest game

inside one of the beer tents

one of the great things about Oktoberfest is celebrating with the new people around you. Here I am having a blast with my new best-friend-for-two-hours.

Oktoberfest by night