2015 Oktoberfest: Americans in Munich, Germany

Oktoberfest 2015 has officially arrived and we were there for the opening ceremonies on day one, September 19th. 

This American chick {me} couldn't have been more excited to attend the event! 

Munich's Oktoberfest is long heard of, often talked of, imitated, BUT never duplicated: 

This is THEE Oktoberfest of Oktoberfests. 

The one and only original!

*I finished writing this faster than I thought possible. I omitted many small details of our day for the sake of shortening this post.

To make our Oktoberfest day a bit less chaotic, we booked tickets for a charter bus ride to get to and from Oktoberfest in Munich. Less worry about parking and drinking. 

We were also with friends of ours (the same friends mentioned in my 'Dirndl Shopping' post, back in August). They are not Oktoberfest first timers, so it was nice to have some insight of what to expect before throwing ourselves into it. 

The call time for the bus was 6:30am and getting dressed in our Bavarian Tracht super early was not much fun! I had plans to braid mine and my daughters' hair, but yeah...nope. 

We arrived at the Oktoberfest grounds in Munich around 10am. First, we found a tent (the Heinz wurst-und hühnerbraterei tent) to eat lunch in. Our wurst and kraut lunch was EXPENSIVE as shit, but when at a festival, money is expected to fly out of the wallet. We assumed this much! Beer is not served until the keg is tapped by the mayor at noon on opening day, so we enjoyed soda and apfelschorle with lunch instead. It was funny to see the kids with giant Paulaner mugs full of sparkling apple juice, in hand.

After lunch, we made our way to the Landlord and Brewery parade. I wanted to catch the parade, but wasn't sure where we'd be at this point in our day. Very glad I had the chance to see it!

Lady Bavaria statue at Theresienwiese. I didn't know until after the fact that you can actually tour the inside of her. Stairs lead all the way up to her crown, and it's said she has pretty sweet views! The cost to go up is €3.50, kids are free

Don't know the dude on the far right, but I guess he thought he'd pose for the photo, too.

Can you tell I was excited?

After the parade we wandered. 
Eventually we tried getting into a tent for a beer after the first keg was tapped at noon, but once we were inside a tent, seating was scarce. We found beer at an outdoor biergarten instead, which proved to be satisfying enough, and then we wandered some more. 

To be honest, we didn't plan on drinking ourselves silly. A half liter glass at an outdoor biergarten was a-ok with me, although a picture with a liter mug (or Maß; in English it's spelled 'mass', pronounced like the word moss) would've been nice. No biggie!

Beer antics: Two dudes face off in a chugging contest while we waited in line to get inside.

Inside of the Lowenbrau tent.

What's Oktoberfest in Munich like?

It reminds me of a HUGE State Fair found back at home in the US. 

The similarities can be seen in the pictures; an abundance of rides, carnival games galore, crowds, beer, live music. The biggest difference is that there wasn't an agriculture aspect. No chickens, no grand prize pigs, or super-sized vegetables. 

Oh, and here at Oktoberfest in Munich, seeing people dressed in tracht is the norm (if you haven't read my Dirndl / Lederhosen shopping post, maybe you should).

Beer is on a whole different level here in Munich, too. 

The 14 large beer tents (more like buildings) are massive, and can seat anywhere from 3,000-8,500 people (per tent) inside at a time, not including the indoor standing room or outdoor bench seats for each particular tent. 

The 18 small beer tents seat 70ish-500 people (per tent) inside at one time.

And then there are the biergartens outside as well. 

Oh, and the beer carousel is absolutely fascinating.

And I should mention, unlike Oktoberfests in the United States, ONLY German beer is served at the Munich Oktoberfest. To be more precise, only six Bavarian breweries located in Munich are allowed to sell beer. 

The beer carousel! You stand on it, order your beer, and drink while going round and round.

Sooo...

I have actually attended an Oktoberfest in my hometown of Tempe, AZ which hosts about 200,000 people per year at their three day event, and now I can say that Oktoberfest in Munich {the first and original} cannot be matched! 

I will never look at an American version of Munich's Oktoberfest the same again. 

I am forever changed.

P.S. My hometown of Tempe is a sister city with Regensburg, Germany here in Bavaria! Regensburg isn't too far from where I live here, and isn't far from Munich. A happy, strange, coincidence. 

Everything I do in Europe MUST hold some significant historical value in order for me to even care about it. Oktoberfest is a LONG standing tradition here in Bavaria, Germany, but many people don't know why: It all started with a wedding...

Once upon a time, back in October of 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig I (later crowned King Ludwig I) married Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. All people of Munich at the time were invited to partake in the after-wedding festivities; from the date of the wedding, October 12th until the 17th. It was a long, successful after-party which sparked the events and festivities to reoccur the following year in 1811, and so forth! 

Essentially, celebrating Oktoberfest is like going to a massive anniversary party, the only problem being that the married couple is now dead. Hmmm...

Anyway, I decided to pay a visit to the royal couple on my Oktoberfest day, without whom there would be no such Oktoberfest. 

In Munich's Saint Boniface's Abbey (a twenty minute walk from Oktoberfest grounds), the royal couple are found alone and resting: King Ludwig in a ginormous sarcophagus, and his wife in a marble box on the wall behind him. A candle is lit, but no one is to be found inside the church, except for myself and my friends. 
In a strange way, I kind of felt bad for the king and his wifey. All of the laughter, rides, beer, games, etc, commencing in their honor are 3 kilometers down the road, but they are here, without many visitors. 

Sad. I know!

Pretty fence along our walk to St. Boniface's Abbey

Exterior of St. Boniface's

King Ludwig I rests in this giant sarcophagus.

Building at Karlsplatz in Munich

Neptunbrunnen Fountain on Sophienstrasse-perfect for a quick photo op!

My friends are cuter than your friends!

After giving the king and queen my respect, we headed back to the fest. By now, our feet were tired and the crowds were relentless. It is true what they say; come late afternoon and stand shoulder to shoulder while trying to walk. We let the kids rides some rides, hit up another biergarten, and then found a quick dinner. 

We ate our knödel dinner, which hit the spot, we made our way around to the only section of the fest we had yet to see. By this time the sun was setting, people were getting a bit more crazy, and "drunk hill" was littered with...drunks.  It was time to call it a day and around 6:30ish pm, so we made our way back to our bus. 

St Paul's Cathedral seen from the fest.

Knödel. A potato dumpling with amazing thick, broth gravy. Mmmm.

Special thanks to my beautiful friend for helping us translate throughout the day and for being my female sidekick! 

Drunk hill

My boys sitting on drunk hill. Not drunk, but waiting for our daughters to exit the WCs.

"If it's called Oktoberfest, why were you there in September?"

In the 19th century, after the royal marriage took place, the annual celebrations still lingered. In 1819, the Fathers of Munich declared Oktoberfest to be an official, annual event. From then on, Oktoberfest began on the the first Saturday of October. Over time, the fest dates moved to accommodate weather. Now running 16 days in length, the fest ends on the first Sunday of October. 

Interesting. 

Obviously, it kept it's name as Oktoberfest throughout the years. 

And yes, it's spelled with a K. Why? Because October is spelled with a K in German. 

Our family had a great time, definitely not a bad day out. We do plan to return in the future, but I'm glad we now know what to expect from now on! 

We had fun at our first Oktoberfest in Munich, and it's certainly not our last!

A few randoms we witnessed that are worth a mention:

*Chugging competitions

*Man trapped inside of a port-o-potty

*Man and woman dry-humping on drunk hill.

*Girl walking with her skirt caught in her crossbody purse. Her cheeks were just about visible.

*Lots of sideline drunks that are seen sitting, hunched over along buildings; always with a good friend patting their backs.

*Large drunk man helping tiny drunk friend walk, yet neither could really walk.

*Old drunk man that didn't want to get on his bus.

*Crying ladies.

*Sauerkraut up-chuck

*Bearded men dressed in dirndln.

*Beer waitress carrying total of 16 mugs full of beer.

*Japanese tourists in Kimonos chugging liters of beer.

My advice to other first-timers:

*Wear comfortable shoes. Wearing your casual (not athletic) sneakers with tracht is totally acceptable.

*Lady bloggers tell other ladies not to bring a purse to Oktoberfest. Ladies, it's okay. Bring your purse. But like always, keep an eye on it at all times. The smaller the purse, the better. Crossbody is the best.

*Bring a buttload of Euro. It cost my family about €78 for our lunch alone! That's $88.21 US dollars. Granted we had lunch in a tent, which is generally more expensive. 

Beer is not so cheap, either. A mass (liter) of beer in a tent starts around €11 per, and a half liter at an outdoor biergarten was about €9 (but you get €2-3 back if you return the glass in the biergartens). 

Rides and games average between €2-8 per game/ride per person. Vendor food is not too pricey as far as festivals go. €3-10 were the prices I noted for pretzels, crepes, knodeln, etc,. We spent €180 ($204 USD) at the festival, but could have spent a lot more had we drank more beer or bought more snacks and souvenirs. 

*Don't get stupid drunk. You look like an ass AND strangers (and tourists) will take embarrassing videos and pictures of you.

*Don't wear trashy costume tracht (lederhose or dirndl). They are tacky and not delightfully so. You will feel stupid. 

If you don't want to spend loads of Euro on tracht, regular clothes will do, but you will look like an outsider. There are ways to jazz up everyday wear, though: Buy a checkered tracht shirt and wear it with jeans (men and women). It's a cheap alternative that's somewhat festive.

*Speaking of what to wear, skip the heels.

*As soon as you get the urge to tinkle, find the WC. The queues are not gracious at times.

*If you want to avoid drunkenness and lewd folks, plan to be at the fest early, and plan your departure before or around 5pm.

*Need food and drink on the cheap? Wander away from the fest. Bottled water is way cheaper if you leave the grounds. And it won't take long to find it.

*If you don't know how to braid your hair, no worries. Not everyone wears braids in their hair.

*A nickname for the fest grounds is "Wiesn" and is derived from it's full name; Theresienwiese (named after King Ludwig's wife, Therese). If you hear people refer to Oktoberfest grounds as 'The Wiesn', they are not wrong.

*I was warned not to bring my big girl DLSR camera. I brought it. People say it's easy to lose track of cameras and other valuable items, but my camera is seriously my best friend, and I simply do not misplace my best friend. BUT I did bring my shitty lens, just in case it did get dropped in midst of the madness. I didn't want to lug my heavy telephoto, either. The lighter the gear, the better.

*Need an Oktoberfest break? Go visit St. Paul's Cathedral, situated right outside of the grounds. You can also climb the church tower and get a few nice aerial shots of the fest with your camera. The Deutsches Museum is also right around the corner, too. 

If you have pep in your step and extra time, hit up Marienplatz, about a 25 minute walk. Or hell, go visit King Ludwig I, like we did!

*Getting into the Oktoberfest is FREE. It's what you do, eat, and drink that is not.

* When drinking in the tent, DO NOT attempt to take a stein out as a souvenir. You can be punished by law, and Polizei are scary. There are also door guards that can and will check bags, if they feel it's necessary.

*Don't buy a gingerbread cookie (the kind people wear around their necks) for yourself. They are meant to be given as a representation of your feelings towards another person. Also, make sure you translate them appropriately. Some aren't very nice sayings...and I'm pretty sure you don't want to buy one that says "Sexy lady" for your child. 

*If you plan to stay the night in Munich during Oktoberfest, book it at least six months in advanced. Earlier, if possible. Four months out, I tried, and nothing was available unless I wanted to pay €800+ euro per night. No thanks. I'm already looking into next year now. Booking beer tent reservations for the following year begins after each Oktoberfest ends, and reservations go fast.

*Want to catch a parade while visiting? Each year, if you visit on opening day, you can see the Landlord and Brewery parade around 10am-ish. The second day of the fest is when the massive Traditional costume and Rifleman parade takes place around 10am. Get a good spot early, and don't attempt to cross the parade route with Polizei in sight.

*It is easy to get separated. Luckily our children didn't get lost, but it happens (our group got separated at one point, but there was an adult with a phone in each group, thankfully). If you are extra cautious, write your name and phone number on a sticky note and shove it into your child's pocket, or pin it on them somewhere inconspicuous (this helps if they are old enough to speak). That way they have something to go off in the event they get lost. Also make sure they know how to identify polizei, just in case. There is a child 'lost and found' at Oktoberfest! Note it's whereabouts to be on the safer side.

*You don't necessarily need a game plan at Oktoberfest, but if you plan to drink in a tent, you'd best be in line early. The later it gets, the harder it is to find seating inside. 
Also, if you have small children, note their ages. The official website does say kids older than 6 years of age are allowed in tents after 8pm, but we've heard otherwise. 
Our friends with children attended the same day we did,and reported to us that even during earlier afternoon hours, they were kicked out of tents because they had a toddler in tow. The website says one thing, but what happens is another. 

*Need first aid? Look up in the sky and find the red cross balloons. Follow them.

*Need to sober up before jumping on your train or bus? GOOD LUCK!


Until next year, friends! 
Oktoberfest 2016 is just around the corner and I am more than ready to rock a dirndl again!