Oktoberfest!

We've been busy and didn't have time to post yesterday so we will recap both days today!

On Sunday morning we woke up bright and early, and by that I mean 5 AM. Our plan was to go really early to get in line at Oktoberfest. From previous research we had read that you had to be in line by 5 or 6 AM to get a spot in the tent without a weekend reservation. We got all dressed up in our lederhosen and dirndl and headed downstairs shortly after 6. The hotel breakfast started at 6:30 so we made the smart choice to wait around and have a solid meal. Breakfast consisted of an endless array of meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, freshly baked bread, countless jams, and some hot proteins. There was also actual honeycomb that we could spread onto our bread, delicious!

Afterwards we headed out towards the festival grounds and it was just getting light out. When we got to the edge of the grounds it started to look like our research was incorrect. All we could see was the clean up crew from the night before. We decided to continue walking and seeing if we could find anyone else waiting. After a short walk we did find a small-ish group (~50 ppl) waiting outside the entrance, this was probably shortly after 7 AM. It was pretty chilly out, but not quite as cold as Signal Hill in St. John's (since I was in lederhosen again). We didn't know what time they would start letting people in, our guess was that they would open the grounds at 8 and then people would queue up at the tents until 9. We were incorrect again.....we ended up waiting close to 2 hours outside in the brisk morning air. I was starting to get quite cold (still not as bad as Signal Hill) and Brooke seemed ok because she has brought her shawl. By the end of it there were probably 300 - 500 people waiting in line (not sure quite how many, we couldn't see the back of the line).

Finally 9:00 rolled around and as soon as they started to let people in it became a massive dash of Germans running towards the beer tents. We took off as well and eventually found the tent we wanted to go to first, Hacker Festzelt. This tent was beautifully decorated with pretty murals of Munich and Oktoberfest. Overall there was plenty of room to sit wherever we wanted to, especially for the first couple of hours. As a couple, we could have easily shown up at 10:00 AM and still found a seat. We agreed that if you were a group of 4 people of more, it would be much more challenging and that is where it is preferred to get there early.

We enjoyed our first Oktoberfest beer (only sold by 1L steins) with a fresh baked pretzel (brezn). Throughout the morning it definitely got busier and more of a party atmosphere. The live music kicked off and we quickly caught on to the traditional drinking song "Ein Prosit"! This literally plays every 15 minutes or less and everyone joins in, lifts their mugs, and toasts each other.

There was one guy at the table across from us who decided early on to stand up and get everyone to cheer for him as he chugged his whole litre of beer. As he proceeded to do this the whole tent erupted in applause and then security was on him like a hawk! After a short interchange he was allowed to stay, but we couldn't really understand which part got him in trouble. Throughout the rest of the day, this man continued to stand up and chug litre after litre, but he actually didn't drink that much of it since he would spill nearly half of it onto his shirt and pants! Literally he was soaked through in the middle of his chest all the way to the crotch of his leather pants.

In the afternoon we enjoyed talking with a very friendly girl from Frankfurt, shared a standard half roast chicken, and sang and danced with everyone around us. After leaving the tent, we headed out towards old Munich and the Hofbrauhaus for dinner. Along the way we stopped to enjoy Marienplatz. Our dinner at Hofbrauhaus was a delicious couple of bratwurst, red cabbage, and spaetzle. At one point one tourist couple stopped and asked if they could take our picture, maybe we look a little local?

The next day (Monday) we decided to start the morning with a more leisurely breakfast at the hotel. From there we decided to go back to Angermaier and do a bit more shopping. I had seen some of the locals the day before wearing fancy vests with their lederhosen and wanted to try some on. I ended up being successful and purchased a sharp, sleek looking vest to go with my lederhosen! We then looked through the dresses again with Brooke and she found a more country/village looking dirndl.

Back at the hotel we got suited up in our new outfits and headed out to the Oktoberfest grounds. We had lunch at the Ochsenbraterei tent and enjoyed the Spaten beer with their speciality ox meal with potatoes. They had an amazing brass band in the center of the tent with a beautiful trumpeter. We then walked over to the Braurosl tent. There was still plenty of space available so we found a table to sit down at by ourselves. After a short while, another group showed up, sat down nearby and invited us to join them. There were people from Germany, New York and LA. We also started chatting with a couple of funny guys from Ireland who again mistook us for locals I think, since we knew more about the Ein Prosit song.

In the evening we spent a lot of time walking the grounds, watching the rides, taking in the lights, and sampling the wonderful midway snacks (bratwurst, chocolate covered strawberries, and warm candied almonds). We tried to get into one tent, Hofbräu Festzelt, but it was way too busy and we couldn't find anywhere to sit down. We chose to go over to the Augustiner tent and were able to squeeze into one table to enjoy the late night atmosphere. We shared an obatzda, which is a typical German cheese dish with bread.

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