Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany
Oktoberfest! An annual festival in Munich where people drink beer the way Germans do, wear traditional outfits and gather in a fun-loving spirit! It is the largest festival in the world and over 6 million people from around the world visit this festival every year!
We begin by eating German bratwurst and sauerkraut!
Oktoberfest! We heard that people have to reserve tables up to a year before the festival, so we really had no expectation of how far we could get into the festival. We figured that we could probably walk down the main street and check out the sights, but we were not sure if we could get into the beer gardens!
Surprisingly enough we got to the festival early enough to get into a few beer gardens! This was our first one of the day!
Steven's first beer with a German lady that we chilled with!
Amazed by how many steins of beer they can carry at once!
Jenna's first time EVER trying beer...was not completely sold, but figured Oktoberfest was a good place to try!
Even the conductor of the band drinks beer! Only in Germany!
The cute traditional outfits everyone wears! Plus massive pretzels!
We moved on to see if we could check out more beer gardens...this was number 2, but we did not stay long, we decided to continue touring!
Our tour ended quickly when we made it to the Hofbrau Haus beer garden. The atmosphere was definitely more upbeat and the place was packed! We found a table that we could stand at and did not have to pay so we decided to hang around for a little while.
Steven's 2nd beer
Some French Swiss guys joined our table and were a lot of fun! They had sooo much energy! Good thing Steven could speak French to them, it really helped the flow of the conversation!
One of the guys even bought Jenna a rose! How sweet!
WINE! Yup they have wine at Oktoberfest, thank goodness! Jenna was happy to not have to drink beer!
This beer garden was so full with about 10,000 people! Some people would stand on their table and attempt to chug their full 1 litre of beer. We only saw one guy do it successfully. Ugh, we definitely did not attempt such a dare! If you do not finish the beer you have to dump the remaining liquid on your head.
Our Swiss friends left and next came a group of 3 Americans and 1 Austrian! You can tell that they really got into the festivities by their outfits! They went all out, even traditional shoes! Every so often there was a traditional anthem that would be played where you had to stop your conversation and sing/cheers your glass. We had great conversation with these guys and after a while they just started buying us beer and wine!
Steve sporting the traditional German cap! Very handsome!
Time in the Hofbrau Haus flew by, but we left so that we could try to find Jenna's brother who had just flew in from London, England to go to Oktoberfest!
Oktoberfest 2012 cookies!!
After walking 30 minutes aimlessly through Munich to find Dave and Laurie, we actually found them! We could not believe it! We were so excited!!
Jenna, Dave and Laurie at Oktoberfest!
After visiting for a while, we had to head back to the train station to get back to our hotel in Salzburg. It was sad to not be able to hang out longer, but so good to visit with Dave and Laurie!!
Next Stop: Prague, Czech Republic
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