Also known as ... Oktoberfest! :) So as most people know, it is actually held the last few weeks in September. It started as party for King Ludwig I's marriage (the crazy's one grand daddy) to Princess Therese. It recently celebrated its 200th year, but it was not the 200th Oktoberfest. It was cancelled around 20 times due to wars or illness. So you can plan that trip in the future! :) It's held on a large field known as Theresienwiese (this is why the locals call Oktoberfest Wiesn). It starts with a large parade with all the beer makers bringing the barrells of beer to Theresienwiese. The mayor of Munich taps the first barrell and then the fun begins!
So now to the beer. Only beer that is brewed within the city limits of Munich is allowed to be served. Lets see if I can name them all: Augustiner, Spaten, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Löwenbräu and Hofbräu. The beer is served in a maß or one liter of beer. And they are all served in tents. There are currently fourteen large tents and twenty small tents. I was in what was known as 'Oide Wiesn' or Old Weisn. Its a bit calmer then the big tents and they served beer in the ceramic mugs.
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| Oide Wiesn |
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| My friends Keith and Katharina enjoying some beers |
As you can see in the above picture, most people wear the traditional Bavarian garb. This includes the lederhosen (leather pants) for guys and Drindls (dress thing) for the ladies. No, I did not buy one so I did not wear one. But here is my friend Matt wearing the outfit to work one day! It was quite common to see this at work during Oktoberfest.
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| Looks happy to have his picture taken, right? haha |
I thought Oktoberfest was kinda like the New York State Fair, but with way more beer. But there are tons of rides and food vendors. I went on a few rides. I think they try to find the rides with the most possibility for people to throw up. I mean, look at my first picture! Spin, drink beer, spin. They also have these cute heart cookies that everyone wears. They are made out of Lebkochen, or the german version of gingerbread. Most are hard, so sadly not edible. Here's my friend Katharina wearing one:
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| It says, "I love you." Awww :) |
So overall experience was pretty awesome! I think it is something everyone needs to experience at least once ;) The 2012 dates are Sep 22 – Oct 7 (hint, hintttttttt). One thing that I learned is that Erin + maßes of beer = Erin falls down a lot. Now come on, who doesn't want to see that?! haha
