Oktoberfest

Wow! I can’t even begin to explain how amazing this is. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that they can supplant the experience of Oktoberfest anywhere other than in Munich, Germany. This was unreal! An international festival by all accounts we met with people from all over the world including Holland, England, Australia, the US, South America, Germany, Austria, another Harvard student, New Mexico….everywhere. They came from all over the world with one intention in mind, to DRINK!

It was incredible to see all the Germans dressed in their native attire, thousands upon thousands of people singing drinking songs and truly enjoying themselves. This festival is a must for everyone to do in their lifetime. It’s the largest state fair in the world with all the rides and the greatest Bratwurst I’ve ever had! The first night we took the train to Munich which was quite the ride. It was the first overnight train I’ve taken since I was a child and we had a private sleeping room for just the family. So, this was a little bit of a different experience. We were mixed in with some random Italians, a little nervous about this; we tried to switch-in some friends that were on the same train into our sleeper car. This caused havoc for the Italian ticket collector who wanted us in our assigned seats despite all the parties having agreed to switch. Anyway, it got sorted out for the most part and we had a good time on the ride there and tried to sleep as much as possible. On the ride there it was Stuart, Paul, Joe, Sierra and I, in one cabin with an Italian guy named Leonardo. In the cabin next to us was Harper, Kelsey and her two roommates (Carla and Blair).

The ride there was 9 hours, arriving around 7 am. Once we got to Munich we went to the Holiday Inn that we were staying at and Joe, Myself, Sierra, Harper, Kelsey, and her roommates checked-in. By 9 am we were headed out for Oktoberfest not sure what to expect.

We got there really early because there was hardly a person there. But, it really gave us a sense of how massive the area is that was setup for the festival and the number of guests that it accommodates.We took a look around and went straight to the most international of all the tents (and the only one that doesn’t require reservations 9-months in advance) Hofenbrau! We had to wait until 10 am to be served and already there were several thousand people eagerly awaiting the beer.

Sure enough, with little sleep and being overambitious about the whole event, we all plummeted into some sort of oblivion filled with beer, bratwurst, decorated horses, new people, and falling asleep by 5 pm. A few good men from Holland warned us that this was in typical American fashion but we thought that we were better than that. I guess not… After some sleep, we headed back to Oktoberfest the next day around 11 am. This time we came to a full festival. A Saturday morning every nook of the fair was packed with people. That day we paced ourselves with expertise. We went on a number of rides ate, thoroughly enjoyed the day and made it well into the night. About mid-day it was so packed that on our way from one tent to the other (literally about 40 ft. at the most) Sierra and I totally lost each other. We didn’t find one another again for probably another 3 hours. There were a lot of people. We ended up spending most of the night at the Paulner tent and left when they stopped serving, some time around midnight. Had one more night in the Hotel and headed back to Florence on Sunday the 7th of October. This whole weekend was also a pre-emptive celebration of Sierra’s 21st Birthday! What a way to turn 21…

Here are some pictures: