♦Guest post by Adam Ledford♦
Alysia, Jimmy, my wife Julie, and I had talked about going to Oktoberfest for at least a decade before we finally made it happen. Julie and Alysia finishing grad school pushed it off. The “dream trip” got pushed off again by the collective expenses, training time and travel Alysia and I encountered as we each separately trained (and completed!) an Ironman triathlon. We had a baby. They were moving to DC area, then they were moving to Boston. Talking about going to Germany seemed to be turning into just that: talk. When Jimmy called me to tell me that they pulled the trigger on NextGen Nomads, I was thrilled for them.
The phone transcript of our conversation looks like this:
Jimmy: “It would be awesome if you two could come visit us while we’re abroad. We are thinking about Munich in Septe….”
Me: “WE’RE IN!!! BOOK IT!”
We were finally going. Really, actually, really (really) going to Oktoberfest!!
Let’s skip on a bit to the good part.
When we arrived in Munich, exhausted and sore from the trans-Atlantic flight, it was apparent that we were there for one reason. People we asked for directions would tell us where to go, then inevitable would follow up with, “Have a nice time at Oktoberfest!” We hopped on our train, made the connecting tram, and we grew more and more excited to see two of our very best friends again. Jimmy and Alysia had walked over to the tram stop from their AirB&B, and we started waving to them as we approached the stop. The doors open, and there is an old man who STRAIGHT UP WILL NOT GET OUT OF THE WAY. We desperately squeeze around him, as the doors close, the next stop is announced, and the tram starts rolling down the line, with us standing inside, looking exactly like we felt. We could see Alysia and Jimmy outside the window, their incredulity giving way to uproarious laughter as we watched them grow smaller and smaller in the distance. Fortunately, the next stop wasn’t too far away. Sigh. (Doesn’t it seem like everyone who visits them has a hard time getting to their place???)
After that small misstep, our vacation truly began!
We spent the day wandering, first around the English Garden for a nice beer and some lunch. Then it was time to shop for the traditional dirndls (patterned dress/apron) and lederhosen (leather shorts and suspenders)! Jimmy and Julie were on the fence about buying outfits for the festival, but Alysia and I were adamant! How many times does one get this opportunity? Besides, from now on I’m going to wear my lederhosen to any event that even remotely has to do with Oktoberfest!
Pro Tip: C&A department store is the place to go to suit up for the festival tents. They have the lowest prices for good quality dirndls and lederhosen out of all the shops in Munich that we saw.
Interestingly enough, the extreme popularity of wearing traditional garb to the tents in Munich has only been popular for the last 2-3 decades, according to a local tour guide. Before that, you would usually only find those outfits in the smaller Alpine towns and at traditional formal events, she told us.
Dinner found us at Hofbräuhaus for some warm-up liters in their massive, balmy, and let’s be honest, a little stinky bier hall! I don’t blame them, however. You can only fit so many people consuming pork products and beers by the liter into a place before nature simply wins the smell game. It was still great, though.
Now on to the good stuff.
The opening day of Oktoberfest had arrived! And what a not-beautiful morning it was! When we got to Munich, it was a sunny 85 degrees. That morning, we awoke to a rainy, overcast 60 degree day… “Who cares! Let’s do this!”, we thought.
It was a short trip on the tram and subway to the festival grounds. Jimmy told us that the tapping of the first ceremonial cask was at noon, so we planned accordingly, arriving several hours early to take in the sights and hopefully get a spot in one of the tents.
They took security VERY seriously. Police at every entrance, no bags allowed inside, and careful scrutiny of all the festival-goers at the park and tent entrances made us feel very good about the safety of the event. (Side note: We felt very safe everywhere we travelled. We are glad that fear of a dangerous world didn’t stop us from taking this trip.)
Holy crap, the place was absolutely enormous! We had expected the large tents, sized to hold thousands of people in each one, but we weren’t expecting what looked like an entire State Fair, complete with roller coaster rides, food vendors, and gingerbread hearts as far as the eye could see! I can’t think of a better word to describe the experience than “overwhelming”: It was huge, there were people everywhere, the colors and sounds, the size of the tents, vendors everywhere.
Also, I couldn’t help feeling the anxiety of not being able to mentally prepare for what was to come. Which tent should we choose? Should we eat now? What is the bathroom situation inside? How much cash should we have? Arghhhh! With butterflies in our stomachs, filled with hope and anxiety, we started down the middle of the fairgrounds, arm-in-arm, looking like we were recreating a scene from a very attractively-cast German reboot of the Wizard of Oz.
It was then time to choose a tent! Munich is famous for having the Big 6 breweries, all of whom support at least one tent at the Weisn (festival grounds). They are Hofbräuhaus, Augustiner, Spaten, Löwenbräu, Hacker-Pschorr, and Paulaner. During Oktoberfest, those six breweries alone serve over 6 million liters of beer!
We finally made our way into one of the tents. It was difficult to know which seating was reserved vs. open, but we finally landed a spot for all of us in the Pschorr tent. Until you go inside one of these, it is impossible to comprehend the architectural marvels that are these tents. The Weisn hosts many events over the course of the year, so all these structures are temporary, only existing for a short time before, during, and after this 16-day event! Even knowing that ahead of time, we finally had to bust out a phone to confirm the truth of that fact. We simply couldn’t believe that a beautifully decorated, wood-floored building the size of a commercial airplane hangar was only there for a couple of weeks each year!
At our table for eight, we were seated by a group of Italian guys on a bachelor party trip. We thought they were quite surly at first, but it turns out it was mainly a combination of the language barrier and that they were all pretty hung-over. There was a low buzz of nervous anticipation throughout the tent. No beer is served before noon on the first day, but they did serve weißwurst and Spezi for breakfast! (That’s white sausage and lemonade/cola mix for the uninitiated.) The ladies were a bit more excited about the Auszogne, a traditional Bavarian fried dough pastry.
Even arriving at the tents over an hour early, it turns out we were very fortunate. The tables were totally full in every tent well before noon!
Just prior to noon, and after a long speech, of which we understood very little, despite Alysia’s best efforts to translate, everyone stood up on their benches. The servers started bringing out the liter mugs, 8-10 at a time, and setting them at each table.
I grabbed one and promptly had my hand slapped away. Dammit! Stupid American! We were seated very close to the server area, so unlike many other tables, we had our mugs for the first toast of Oktoberfest. We could barely see the tapping in our tent, more relying on hearing the crowd counting down the seconds (or maybe the number of handle-pumpings of the cask, we were never sure), and suddenly IT WAS ON. There was a raised platform in the center of the tent where a traditional German band struck up a rousing oompah tune. The whole place erupted into a deafening cheer. We crashed our heavy glass mugs together over the table, raised them high in the air, and then, finally, poured that sweet, golden nectar down our throats like it was the elixir of life.
The easiest way to tell you about the rest of the event is by which number liter we were drinking. I’d like to try and immerse you in the experience by highlighting some of what we were saying and thinking.
1st Maß (meaning “liter of beer” in Bavaria, the letter ß being an abbreviation for ss. So, “Mass” becomes “Maß”):
“Prost!”
“Oh, this is so good.”
“Hey look, giant pretzels for sale!”
“Oh, we gotta get some of those sausages!”
“Holy crap, our American chant game is weak. Every other country has tons of amazing things to cry out while drinking!”
“We finally made it!”
“Wow, we finished those really quickly.”
2nd Maß:
“This is really cool.”
“Prost!”
“This beer is sooo goooood.”
“Alysia, you are a genius for ordering a radler. (beer/lemonade mix)”
“I can’t believe I already have to pee again.”
“We should learn the words to ‘Ein Prosit’ so we can sing it too.”
“Sweet Caroline? Awesome!!!”
“What do they have to eat? German-language menu. Google Translate to the rescue. No surprises, it’s all pork.”
“These Italian guys are pretty cool! Which one is getting married?”
3rd Maß:
“Prost!”
“We did it! We’re here!”
“This is amazing!”
“This beer is soooooooooooo goooooooooood”
“This tent is ridiculously HUGE!”
“I’m getting radishes.”
“EIN PROSIT, EIN PROSIT, der (muffled cough), hmmm hmmm hmmm!”
“These Italian guys are awesome! One of them works for Ferrari!!!”
“Arm wrestle? That sounds like a fantastic idea.”
“Italian mafia…IMPOSSIBLE to lose!”
“Cheese spaetzle might be the best thing I have ever eaten.”
4th Maß
“Prost!”
“This beer, you guys, this beer is sooooooo…. wait where is everyone? When did all these other people join our table?”
“I have to pee again.”
“Julie, you are cut off.”
“We should take pictures with every person we see. I mean, every single person who comes within 10 feet of this table, selfies!”
“Man, my German is getting really good.”
“We love you guys.”
“Selfie!”
“SELFIE!”
“Another beer?” everyone: “Oh god, no!!!”
“I am so hungry right now.”
“How the hell did we spend so much money?”
“We are definitely doing this again tomorrow!”
“I can’t believe I have to pee again.”
We finally said our goodbyes to all our new friends and made our way out of the tent. Strong coffee was the new mission, followed by food. Any food, it did not matter! A long and convoluted journey “home” was punctuated by a long walk through a driving rainstorm, and all our shoes were soaked through before we got back. Once we got back to the apartment, the call of the pillow was too strong for some of us to ignore, so the evening went out with a whimper, probably for the best!
The next morning, bleary-eyed, and craving coffee, we started our day with a pastry and a brisk walk back to the Weisn. I believe we all were torn between wanting to recapture some of the previous day’s fun and excitement and sense of international community, but we were also feeling tentative about getting sucked all the way back into the frivolity and debauchery and expense that comes with the territory. Our plan was to catch the costume parade that had come highly recommended to us all, but we were all so chilly in the rainy morning air that we sought the shelter of the tents much sooner than originally planned.
We walked through the Spaten tent, and it was very pretty, but it was almost empty, and the crowd that was there was much, much older. Some were drinking coffee out of a thermos sitting next to a beer! We moved on. Sadly, the Lowenbräu tent held no appeal, either. We kept walking, cold and shivering, only taking consolation in the smell and tastes of the freshly-grilled bratwurst that Jimmy and I decided to get. Well, that and this sweeeeeet felt hat that I got!
Suddenly, as we walked by the Hofbräuhaus tent, we heard what sounded like the crowd noise from a stadium as the home team scores a goal. We all exchanged glances, and wordlessly, unanimously grinned and started walking to the tent’s entrance. Forgetting all our reservations about taking it slow and easy, we decided to grab a table and see what in the world was going on in this tent!
As it turns out, the Hofbräu tent is somewhat famous/notorious for being the party tent. We quickly found out the cause for the commotion we heard from outside: Every few minutes, some daring young man or woman would stand up on their bench or even the tabletop, hold aloft their full liter mug and make the attempt to finish it in one go. A cacophonous, celebratory cheer rose in pitch and finally burst forth from every mouth for those successful in their endeavor, and boos, jeers, and catcalls abounded when those less-hearty souls failed to complete the task. Jimmy and I looked at each other and said, “I’m not doing that.” Turns out, only one of us was telling the truth!
I’d like to say we all took it easy, paced ourselves, and made no bad decisions. But that would be untrue, and a much more boring story. I’ll leave most of the day to your imagination, with one exception.
My worst idea of the day was that we should have a friendly competition between the husbands and wives: Each team going out into the crowd on a 10-minute photo safari, with kudos and bragging rights to the team who could provide the wildest, most interesting pic. When it was our turn, Jimmy and I grabbed a fresh mug, and took off into the crowd, doing our best but knowing there was no way we were going to win this thing. As we got close to the end of our ten minutes, in a moment of desperation I jumped up onto a bench to take a crowd-shot, waving my hands for people to cheer and wave and yell so I could take a picture. A cold realization settled upon me. I just jumped up on a bench, full beer in hand, and was waving my arms around trying to get people’s attention. Oh, God, what have I gotten myself into?!? The good news? It turns out I can power down a full liter of beer! Well, 9/10ths of a liter, to be fair. I wore the rest. But, consuming maß quantities (see what I did there?) that quickly comes at a cost. We left, got coffee, and headed back. I think I was in bed for the night at 6pm!
We all agreed that any other parts of that story gets filed under “What Happens in Munich Stays in Munich”, and that the moral of the story here is Never Go on a Drunken Photo Safari!
The next couple of days were easy ones, with Julie and I going out on our own to do touristy stuff while Jimmy and Alysia worked. The city of Munich and the surrounding countryside are beautiful, and we loved visiting both the city sights and the alpine castles. After that, it was on to Belgium for a totally different but equally wonderful experience, but that’s a tale for another time.
So, we did it! We made it to, and through, Oktoberfest!! It’s an event that I would recommend to anyone. There is a place and pace for just about anyone, and despite the fact that we went “all in” for the full tent experience, you can easily go and have a fun day that is much gentler on the liver and wallet. You can walk around outside and it’s very family-friendly. There are countless rides and games, great food stands and many souvenir vendors. The fact that it is such an English-friendly area only adds to the ease of enjoyment.
Thanks for reading!
PROST!
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