I really didn't know if I'd rate Oktoberfest that highly as I was expecting to see the event overrun with tourists and carnage everywhere. I've got to say that it totally exceeded my expectations and i'd be keen to head back there next year!
The trip started with a frenetic departure from work onto the terravision bus out to stansted airport- the trip took about an hour and a half - of which two thirds of the journey consisted of stop-start punishment just getting across the city (and it wasn't even peak hour). Thankfully I'd left a big enough window to still check in before the cut-off - but I started to worry when I saw the queue at Security which was massive and took half an hour to progress through. Given my previous experiences with Ryanair I knew there'd be no compassion at the boarding gate if I wasn't there in time! Thankfully I fanged around to the departure gate in time and joined the throng of punters waiting to board - the flight looked as if it'd be pretty chockers.
The flight to Salzburg was really quick (about 90 mins) which meant that we landed at around 9pm. After a relatively painless immigration process I headed out of the airport and jumped on a bus into the city. It only took about 15 minutes to get to the Ostbahnof and slowly the city began to ring a few bells with me from the last time I was here 4 years ago. I tracked my way to the hostel (same as the one we stayed in last time) where it was pretty busy. I think it's the best hostel I've stayed in actually - spotlessly clean and a good atmosphere in a really good location. After checking in to my dorm I went for a quick walk around the block to grab some food - polished off a currywurst which went down an absolute treat!!
Slept pretty well but awoke to really ordinary weather which I hoped wouldn't plague us for the entire weekend! After gannetting some breakfast I put in some solid yards around the city and around the old town area which is really good, and also walked up to the castle . My umbrella wasn't really up to the task of dealing with the weather and my feet were getting absolutely drenched. I grabbed a quality Apple Strudel at a local market and then made my way to the station to get the 1pm train up to Munich. I expected this to be packed but it wasn't the case at all. There was some great scenery on the way up there too. The journey only took 80 odd minutes before we rolled into Munich.
Thankfully the rain had just stopped in Munich so it made finding our hotel a lot less painful. It turned out that the hotel was right in the mayor's office - about two blocks from the fairground where Oktoberfest takes place. Kano came and met me and then escorted me over to Oktoberfest to where Meeks and some kiwi girls were steining it up. It was a really fun night and we met some memorable lookalikes including Agro and Danny Southern! I had a quick poke around the beer halls later in the night and they looked like a lot of fun so we were keen to make an early start the following day to get a good spot. Met up with Jazza who'd just flown in from London and heard from Lisa and co who had arrived in Salzburg after an eventful Stansted Express journey that almost made them miss their flight.
We arrived over at Oktoberfest at around 9am, which as it turned out, was about two hours late to get a table inside. There were long queues outside all the halls and it was freezing. Fortuitously the exit where we'd lined up was briefly opened and we just scraped inside (we didn't see that door open again for the rest of our stay). Unfortunately Lisa and her friends weren't able to get in despite numerous attempts (sos the table booking for Michael Nerkel!!) but it turned out they had a really enjoyable day nonetheless.
The first stein pre-10am didn't go down that easily but we were having a really good run of luck - all the tables were absolutely packed but somehow Meeks managed to grab us a table within this restaurant area which wasn't booked until 5pm which was ideal so we could kick back there and have some food to line our stomachs! The atmosphere from go to wo was great with all the local music, all the "Prosts" and the whole experience was fantastic. Hopefully the photos give a bit of an idea. We met plenty of friendly locals which was great too.
We stayed until about 9pm which was a pretty solid innings given the early start - needless to say the Sunday morning was fairly laid-back, although the breakfast went down a treat. I spent a couple of hours walking around Munich and was really impressed - the weather was awesome too which was great after a couple of very grey days. Met up with Lisa and her friends at the Railway Station and then we jumped on a train down to Salzburg which was a nice trip with plenty of stunning scenery.
Once in Salzburg we grabbed some food and then strolled around the city, relaxed beside the river in the sun (watching a cruise boat doing donuts-unbelievable!), and looked in some of the shops. Grabbed a cab out to the airport and were greeted with an unfortunate delay which resulted in us not arriving back into London until almost midnight. I arrived home at about 2am which wasn't ideal with work the next day!
