Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Oktoberfest is the
fact that if you weren’t a drinker you could visit Oktoberfest and not even
know there were 14 gigantic beer tents full of copious amounts of alcohol just
nearby (until about 6pm when the really drunk ones start to stubble out of the
tents and into the show grounds). The fact is, Oktoberfest is much more than
just beer drinking. Think the Melbourne Show but twice as big, and then
add on the 12 Beer tents! The place is a giant carnival style amusement park;
full of roller-coasters, haunted houses, skill testing stalls and many, many
food stands. Meanwhile, just in the next street over, is what all Australians have
heard Oktoberfest to be. Twelve Beer tents, each the size of a major
supermarket, each packed full to the absolute brim with a combination of Munich
locals, German and International visitors downing beer steins the size of
pitchers in an overwhelming array of merriness and comradery.
We arrived in Munich early afternoon after a relatively
short train ride from Lucerne, Switzerland. The first thing we saw stepping off
the train onto the platform was a sea of Lederhosen (for
the guys) and Dirndls (for the girls). We both were initially quite taken back
at the sheer number of these traditionally clad people in Munich’s main train
station, and it quickly dawned on us exactly how much of a big deal this was,
not just to locals, but also to all that travelled to Munich from afar to join
the festivities. Speaking to one of the girls working in our hostel later on,
she explained to us that no more than five years ago you could quite easily
tell the locals from the tourists, as only locals wore the traditional outfits.
However, in recent years absolutely everyone has jumped on the bandwagon (which
in my books isn’t a bad thing, as everyone looked amazing!). This has also proved
quite lucrative to local shop keepers who have been making an absolute killing
selling these outfits to foreigners at around 100 Euros a pop (about $130AUD)! Needless
to say, sadly we did not join in for two reasons – cost, and the fact that we
had zero extra room in our bags for new clothes (especially ones we would not
be wearing again on our travels – OK, maybe Halloween, haha.)
After checking in, we wasted no time in getting straight
into the madness. Being a Sunday, the place was chockers! We thought for sure
we wouldn’t be getting into the beer tents seeing as it was now around 3pm and
everyone had told us that on the weekend you basically need to rock up in the
morning if you want any chance of a seat. So we decided to explore first. We
walked around the festival looking at all there was to see and do, getting our
bearings. Then by about 5pm we were feeling quite thirsty. So we gave getting a
seat a crack. It turned out to be quite easy in the end. Each of the beer tents
generally had an outdoor section of seating as well as indoor which tended to
not be quite as busy. So we sat down, and after a brief wait for the waitress
to come over and take our order, she shortly returned with our very first two
mountain-like one litre steins of German beer. My god was the wait worth it.
We started chatting to few German guys who had travelled in from out of town
for the day. They were extremely friendly to say the least – especially once we
explained that these were our first ever beers of our first ever day of our
first ever visit to Oktoberfest! They gave us a bit of a low-down on what you
need to know about the Fest; which tents were good, which foods we needed to
try, even which beers to be careful with. Because, as they explained, most of
the beer at Oktoberfest has been especially brewed for the event, and are generally
higher in alcoholic content than regular beers. In fact, that particular beer
we were drinking at the time was particularly strong, and we were in for one
hell of a night!
Later that afternoon, we visited a couple of other tents
before finding a seat inside of one. The tents were incredible! Thousands of
people strewn across countless benches and tables all with smiles on their
faces and steins in their hands. In the centre of the tents there was a stage
which housed a German style Big-band playing all types of tunes (depending on
the tent) but generally traditional German folk songs. More and more people
would jump up on top of their benches link arms and belt out their best
renditions. Especially a particular song that we grew to know quite well, as it
was played practically every 30mins. We remember it only as ‘the Cheersing
song’; a German song that sings about ‘cheersing’ for this and ‘Cheersing’ for
that and at the end we all drink with each other (an instant winner in my book
haha).
It didn’t take too long before the two of us were pretty
much plastered and making new ‘best friends’ with whoever we happened to be
chatting to. Things started to go a bit hazy and we both knew that was enough
for one day. After a fun and drunken stagger back to the hostel we hit the hay
and practically went into comas.
Day 2 was slightly less intense for us as we were recovering
big time from the previous day’s festivities. We took the opportunity to try
out some rides and rode one of the most awesome indoor rollercoasters ever! It
was pitch black inside except for a laser show and a few strobe lights –
fricken wicked! However, later on we still managed to find ourselves in a beer
tent or two making more friends and getting merry.
Our third and final day at Oktoberfest was definitely our
most fun. After a sneaky stein each with some afternoon tea in one of the beer
gardens, listening to some drunken cowboy belting out the chorus of Highway to
Hell over and over and over (hilarious to say the least), we found ourselves in
arguably the most beautiful of beer tents – Hackerbrau. The place was amazing.
The ceiling had been painted like a light blue sky full of stars giving the
whole place a bit of a ‘heavenly’ feel to it (considering the amount of beer in
the place I’m sure it was a lot of peoples idea of heaven). We managed to find
a couple of seats on a table with three girls that, besides their authentic
outfits, kind of looked a bit out of place. One girl was from Hong Kong,
another from Canada but of Asian descent and the last from Sudan, but all
classmates from Uni in London. As it turned out, these girls were by far (and generally
against their will) the most popular girls in the tent. Being two Asian girls
and one black girl, all stunningly gorgeous, and clad in Dirndls, definitely
made its impression on the male population of the tent. While it was at times
quite annoying for the girls, constantly being photographed and kissed on the
head (mainly by the Italian boys), it also gave both them and us the
opportunity to meet and chat to heaps of people from all over the place. A few
more steins later and things once again started to get a bit blurry. I can’t
quite remember the finer details of the rest of our night, but from what I do
remember we all found ourselves on more carnival rides, eating sausages and
eventually parting ways. I’m pretty sure the three girls actually had a flight
back to London that night! They definitely would have needed some luck being
let on that plane!
All in all, Oktoberfest was phenomenally fun, and we would
go back in a heart-beat! However next time it would be really cool to have a
big group of friends together (any takers?).
Last point: For anyone wishing to go to Oktoberfest, I would
definitely recommend getting a private room in a hostel. While the first night for
us was fine, the following nights we were stuck in an eight bed dorm with 5
middle-aged Scottish dudes, who had no clue when it came to dorm etiquette.
This was the only low point in an otherwise extremely awesome 4 day experience.
