Oktoberfest 2013

October 5, 2013

Oktoberfest Fair Grounds

What do you get when you blend a state fair with a frat party? Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany!! Carnival rides, circus lights, food stands, and of course alcohol. This is not the type of event you bring the kiddies to in my opinion; it was more like Disney for grown ups.

Rainy Weather at Munich Campsite

We arrived a little before sun down on the last weekend the festivities were being held. Immediately we noticed the German pride illustrated in the pageantry. Women with braided hair wearing checkered dresses, with corset style tops and aprons. The men sporting brown corduroy shorts with suspender like vests along with hats with feathers in tow.

I was thrilled; I had no idea that there would be so many carnival rides. Our first mission was to get a beer; that ended up being a task. The beer houses were full and unless you already had a wrist band you could not get in. Crowds of people circled around the beer house entrances pushing one another in their drunken stooper trying to get in. That was not a game we wanted to play so we searched for an alternative. It had been raining so the biergartens, the outside bar patios were mostly closed but we managed to find one. After waiting for 30 minutes we ordered two steins of beer which cost $26 total. We proudly chugged our beers with the others around us singing and dancing on the table tops. It did not take me long to realize if I drank many more of those I would spend the rest of the night running to the ladies room because each stein equaled about 3 pints.

Drinking at a Biergarten

                                               

One of the crowded beer houses

German Pretzel

After polishing off our beers we wandered around sampling different German foods. We tried almost everything! From the baked chicken, bratwurst, pretzels, and ice cream. It was all so tasty! My favorite was the cheese filled brat with mustard and ketchup.

Cheese Brat 

 Smoke Mackerel on a stick...We did not try this...It looked scary

I know that alcohol and carnival rides do not seem to mix but we ignored that little voice in our heads and frequented the prevalent liquor huts located throughout the festival park. Buying shots was cheaper than drinking beers so tequila shots for $4.5 did the trick.

Cyber Space

After chatting with a few locals about the best rides we decided to go to Cyber Space, not really but that was not name of the ride. For $11 each we bought tickets to ride. We noticed that we were not being aggressive enough to hold our place in line so we shoved past those who had skipped us and waited 30 minutes to ride. Us and four others buckled in to the ride; which was a air boat fan attached to a 200 foot pole that would spin us and flip us around 360 degrees. 5 minutes of screaming laughter then we were safely back on the ground.

All in all we had an amazing time; unlike a few others who we saw leaving on stretchers, probably because they consumed too much alcohol.