A Trip Across the Pond : Oktoberfest!!

On the third page of my bucket list, you'll find the words "go to Oktoberfest in Germany." This past weekend, I got to cross that off!

It was a really neat experience. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Gabel had already left for Switzerland last Thursday to go and visit Alex so on Friday, Steph and I flew to Zurich in Switzerland. Alex and Gabel came and picked us up along with Alex's friend Michael. The five of us piled into a tiny chevy aveo and headed off to Munich. Keep in mind that all of us average around 6 feet so it was pretty crammed. It should have taken 3 hours from Zurich to Munich. We all thought we would be there by supper time.

Unfortunately we did not have luck on our side for our travels. Gabel, Alex and Michael got held up in bad traffic on the way to the airport. So by the time we left Zurich it was later then we wanted it to be and so we got held up in rush hour traffic leading out of the city. We got lost a couple of times and ended up in Austria once. That was actually really cool for me since my Omi and Opa are Austrian. The one major thing we did in Austria was eat at McDonalds along the way because we were running super late and needed to refuel. Once on the highway in Germany, we again got hit with MAJOR traffic. We eventually learned it was because a massive 18 wheeler transport truck went off the highway into a ditch and took out a guard rail along the way. It took us about 2 hours to pass the accident scene from when we first hit traffic from it. Instead of getting to Munich around dinner time, we rolled in at 1:00am. Our accommodations were with a company called Stoke Travel. They ran an all inclusive (you get a tent, sleeping mat, and air mattress) camping site near the festival grounds and provided free shuttles from the site to the beer halls as well as some complimentary meals. All that only cost me 100 euros for the two nights.

By the time we got checked in and settled it was going on 2 in the morning. That wouldn't have been so terrible except that we all had plans to get up at 5:30am. Steph and I were sharing one of the teeny tents and although the campground company provided sleeping bags, Steph and I weren't sure how clean they were. So we didn't use them and instead shared a light comforter that Steph had brought. This resulted in a pretty freeeezing night, especially when it started raining. Germany was much colder than England. Additionally, the sleeping mats they had for us were really pool loungers. The long narrow ones that you use to float in your pool. Steph and I were both longer than the pool thingy and also then our tent really so we had to sleep bent or diagonally. I was also almost wider than the pool thing. So that first night was not the best 3 hours of sleep.

We awoke at 530am, cold and wet in the pitch black. Fumbling around in our tents we managed to get ready and go meet Alex, Gabel, and Michael. The free shuttle dropped us off in the heart of Munich and we walked to the festival. We entered the gates at 7am and it was just incredible. There's thousands of stalls selling every imaginable delicacy and souvenir. I don't know how many beer halls there are but they were all so intricate and beautiful looking. At the back end of the festival there's an amusement park with rides. I thought we were early but once we picked out which beer hall we wanted, I was glad we were there. The halls all open at 9am but people start lining up outside hours before. Not everyone is granted entry so you have to make sure you're in line. The five of us waited in line for nearly two hours and it was worth it. We were right near the main doors and there were thousands of people behind us who couldn't all get in. Right at 9am sharp, the doors opened and it was MAYHEM. Instantly the thousands of people in line starting shoving and pushing and squishing each other and suddenly I felt like I couldn't breathe. Everyone was shouting and chanting and I wasn't even really standing on the ground anymore, I was being held up by so many people shoving against me. Once we finally made it in, we grabbed a great table right up front and took in our amazing surroundings. The hall was beautiful and MASSIVE. They have a really neat system. Each table has a bar maid responsible for it. Tip your bar maid and be nice to her because she is your ticket to food and beer! The way it works is that when you order a beer, they bring you a litre at a time. The beer was phenomenal by the way! The menu for food was all in German but luckily Alex and Michael could translate for us. The food was very traditional and basically consisted of meat and cheese haha. Every few minutes, either the Italians in the place would launch into a massive drinking chant or the Germans would start saying PPPPRRROOOOSSSTTTT (cheers) really loudly until every single person was joined in, holding the note and then everyone would cheers and drink. Imagine thousands of people all chanting that, just waiting to take a drink. Steph and Gabel caught some really great videos of it. The atmosphere inside was just so exciting and fun the whole time and we met lots of people (mostly Italians) and just talked with them. We lasted just over six hours and then just had to stop drinking because some of us (aka me and Steph hahaa) were getting crazy. So we went outside and explored all the stalls and got some neat souvenirs. I bought an October Hat which looks like the sorting hat from Harry Potter but it has Oktoberfest pictures on it which I love. I also bought an Oktoberfest tshirt.

Back at the campsite things were pretty soaked from the rain we got that day. Steph and I went to bed around 10pm but again, I wouldn't say we had a great sleep. Our tent was broken so we got kind of wet and it was fairly cold again. At three in the morning, we got woken by someone having a coughing fit. If the coughing wasn't bad enough, some Scottish guy from one tent started yelling at the cougher to get up and get some hot chocolate because if they didn't they would end up puking in their tent from coughing so much. I dont know if it was funny because of his booming Scottish accent but he kept shouting things like "YOU'VE GOT TWO OPTIONS. YOU CAN COUGH UP YOUR LUNGS LIKE THIS FOR ANOTHER FEW HOURS UNTIL YOU PUKE IN YOUR TENT BECAUSE YOUR STOMACH CANT HANDLE IT.. OR YOU CAN GET UP, WALK IT OFF, GET SOME HOT CHOCOLATE. THE CHOICE IS YOURS." What made it funnier was that the cougher never acknowledged him. They just kept right on coughing. The site was fun though if you were in the mood to party. They had really cheap beer and a little bar area so it was really sociable and fun. There was also flushing toilets, showers, and a changing/getting ready area. The camping wasn't terrible, the weather was just not great for it, Steph and I should have brought a sleeping bag like Gabel and Alex did, and we had the misfortune of a broken front end of our tent.

Sunday morning we woke up and commenced our extremely long travel day. We drove back from Munich to Zurich, got on a plane to Geneva, had a layover in Geneva, flew from Geneva to Heathrow, cabbed from London to Southampton. I got four hours sleep and then got up this morning to go and teach at Ryde.

I'd love love love to go again next year. It's a must do for anyone travelling to Europe in September or October. Here's what I would do differently:

- bring my own sleeping bags camping so that I would be warmer

- travel differently: Alex did an amazing job driving and the traffic was not his fault. Nonetheless it was uncomfortable being squished in a car with so many giants. I also found I lost a lot of sightseeing time due to travelling. Next time I would fly into Munich directly and cab to the camp site.

- stay longer: instead of only having one day at the beer halls, I'd want two

Other than that, the only thing I would want to be different would be the weather. It was cold and rainy the whole time but it would have been nice to have been able to take more pictures outside. But alas, a real traveller knows that you can't care about the weather. It will do what it wants, and so will we!

People have asked me how the language barrier was and honestly it was not an issue. The campsite was run by English speaking people. Most of them were Australian or British honestly. 95% of the campers there spoke English as well. At Oktoberfest, we had Alex and Michael to help us order. If they hadn't been there, our bar maid would have understood basic things like beer and food.

Overall, the best thing we've done so far! I love my travel companions and we had some amazing adventures! Prost!

Here's the pictures: