Oktoberfest

Okay, let's be real. The real reason I went to Munich was to attend Oktoberfest, which was one of the best decisions of my life. We had a fantastic time, and it is definitely one we will never forget!

For one thing, we stayed at this all-inclusive campsite that was fairly cheap. It sounds great when you read about it online, and it's horrible in person. They provided the tents, sleeping bags, and "air mattresses", aka pool floats. Yes, you read that correctly, they gave us pool floats to sleep on. In general, camping isn't too bad, however, once you add Oktoberfest to the mix, it's just bad news bears. The bathrooms were disgusting in every way imaginable. We decided it would be healthier and safer to just not shower for the 48 hours we were in Germany. Yes, we felt totally gross afterward, but, hey, showers, real beds, and small-town living never felt so good upon returning home to the Czech Republic!

After checking into the campsite, we headed to the actual party.

Me and Mariel

This is the insane crowd that had already arrived before 11AM on Saturday.

Oktoberfest can best be described as a fair, festival, and theme-park all tied into one. There is something for people of all ages from games and rides to food and beer. These are heart-shaped ginger-bread cookies with various sayings. They are quite popular, especially with your name written on them. You are supposed to wear them around your neck.

Gingerbread Cookies

The main idea for adults is to get into these big beer tents, where the festivities really happen. When we heard about these tents, we were definitely not expecting what we witnessed. We assumed casual tents outside with a brewery's logo, but it's really the front of a huge building with a gigantic circus tent attached. I mean, there were thousands of people inside!

We actually had to wait outside for over three hours to get inside one of the tents. When they finally let us inside, we literally felt like we won the lotto. We were the happiest people alive, shouting "WE MADE IT INTO THE TENT, YEAHHHHH!!!" Of course, now we had to go searching for seats, which took a good half hour. There are these long picnic tables that sit 10 people each. Why were we so adamant about finding seats? Well, for one thing we just stood for over three hours, but more importantly, you can only order beer if you're sitting!

Clearly we drank half of our beer in this picture, but they only serve it in 1 liter mugs. Let me tell you, this beer was delicious and extremely strong!

Top: Mariel & Lee
Bottom: Emily & Me

As soon as we sat down and said "Prost", the German word for cheers, the Germans we shared our bench with started chanting the German songs with the band and swaying to and fro, thus so did we. It's also a tradition to stand on the benches and sing, sometimes on the table, and when things get truly crazy, everyone is dancing in the aisles. Yes, I did all of the aforementioned and turned German for the day! Here's a video of people in action (unfortunately not us). I apologize that it's not the best quality or entertaining, but it was in the beginning of the evening. Clearly, when more popular songs came on I was having too much fun to take any more pictures/videos.

Of course, there is more to this story, however, what happens at Oktoberfest, stays at Oktoberfest...