On Saturday, 9/25, we had woken up early so we could make it into the Oktoberfest tents while there was still room. So, what exactly is Oktoberfest? It's an18-day festival held each year in Munich, and is the world's largest fair, with about six million people in attendance every year. Oktoberfest started on October 12, 1810 for the public commemoration of the marriage between Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (namesake of the Theresienwiese festival grounds) in which they organized a great horse race. And, the tradition began. Oktoberfest is now one huge fair of tents, games, and rides. (Thank you, Wikipedia, for the information!)
We made it into the (already very crowded) Fischer Vroni Tent around 9 am. I really had incredibly different expectations walking into the tent, and it's nice to say that what I saw completely blew away anything I had in mind. I was picturing a white canvas tent with crowds of people standing around. Instead, the tent was more like an actual building with rows upon rows of wooden tables and benches. And the tents were huge.
The inside of the Fischer Vroni Tent
A huge pretzel (Riesenbreze) that Laura and I shared for breakfast
We hadn't gone into the English tent, and coincidentally enough, in a tent full of Germans, we stumbled upon a table that had probably one of the only other English speakers in the building. There were 3 others, Jürgen, Jon and Elissa. Jon and Elissa graduated from college last May and have been married for a year. They are a month into a four month car trip all over Europe. They have been "couch surfing" this entire time and haven't stayed in one hotel or hostel! Their host in Munich was Jürgen, who has spent tons of time traveling himself. He is native to Germany and has spent months in South America and India. All 3 had such interesting stories to tell and we had such a great time in a festive atmosphere. Meeting our new friends was especially nice since we were absolutely sick and tired of Ben. (Alex, I don't know how you put up with him in Poland, but we found out that Ben is incredibly annoying, the way he speaks English is very confusing, and acts like a 5 year old). We managed to get rid of Ben when he found some of his friends, and we spent the rest of the day with our new friends.
Time for the band to start!
A roast chicken (hendl) for lunch - we ate this with our hands in true Bavarian style
With a side of potato dumplings (knödel)
The grounds is comparable to one huge carnival. There were at least 30 different rides and plenty of stalls selling snacks and German food. Other stalls housed "board walk" like arcade style games. I couldn't leave without trying out at least one ride, and we chose Cyber Space. The ride rose you 50 meters in the air and went as fast as 100 meters per hour. The ride also cost 7 euros... so after taking some more time walking around the grounds, we didn't go on any more rides.
Bavaria statue above the Theresienwiese
Cyber Space ride!
That night we joined our new friends for a home cooked meal of spaghetti and tomato sauce that they were nice enough to invite us to.
Just another day in Munich!
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