Our final stop: Munich. In some ways, Munich was disappointing that we were unable to see it properly or enjoy it to its fullest with us being sick. It meant that we hadn’t planned it through fully beforehand, and with Germany not included in Three’s Feel at Home, we were unable to work it out on the fly.
Nevertheless, we powered on through, going through the sick and the slightly lost nature of wondering round Munich and managed to enjoy some of our time there. The main reason of course that we came to Munich was Oktoberfest, a yearly festival involving the drinking of beer. However, it is a lot more than that as we found. Its also a celebration of not just the beer but the food and its a whole family thing. Not only are there a whole lot of fairground rides, including rollercoasters built just for this, but the whole family dresses up and attend. Sure the children can’t drink and have to leave the tents by 8pm but the whole thing is remarkably calm and a whole heap of fun. To be honest, we didn’t see people drunk or acting disorderly at all, though it might change at night and if that, its probably the tourists!
Again, I know I have said it a lot but its no surprise when one hasn’t travelled like this before, but I have never seen anything quite like it. The people, the food, the atmosphere of the place. It was electric, it was exciting and I really quite enjoyed myself despite being sick and the brief shower of rain on our second day. The tents, as you can see below are decorated, the one below looking like it was some kind of Christmas tent.
One of the main tents that we went to was the Hofbrauhaus tent, serving probably one of the most well-known beers at Oktoberfest. Inside it was busy, packed completely. The first day we went, we couldn’t get in as it was full as it was the weekend and we had come in the afternoon, so the second day, we came in the morning but was held up by the fact we had a backpack and had to leave it at the gate — something that annoyed Edd since handbags which were just as large were perfectly fine. However, we got in and enjoy the atmosphere, jammed pack with everyone else. It was great, the band playing, the food going round — something we wished we could afford. Unfortunately, everything at Oktoberfest in Munich was expensive — one needs more money, and probably shouldn’t make it their last stop on the trip.
There was even a live band inside the tent, playing music over the crowds, adding to a whole party atmosphere. Every now and then, they would sing this song called Ein Prosit, a song that’s essentially a toast. Everyone would get up or start singing, and then at the end, toast everyone around them. It was a good way of bringing everyone together.
Outside, they would have the horses and the carriages going round with the barrels of beer. I don’t think this is actually any of the barrels used and probably more for show and for the parade that happened on Sunday but it was something quite traditional about it, something which this whole festival still quite felt like — traditional with all the costumes and things despite it becoming probably quite commercial.
The other thing that we noticed is that everyone who’s there is quite friendly. We might have just been two but we talked to quite a large number of people while we were there. Sometimes, it was to remark on my lack of beer in my hand (I was sick and poor). But it meant that we met quite a few people, including a guy from Barcelona Mariano who joined us and we had a brilliant time with him. It makes the whole experience great, and I think Oktoberfest is definitely something that everyone should experience, even if they don’t drink beer. It certainly isn’t a drunk madness like if something like this happened in Dunedin in the middle of the year with the students!
Unfortunately, we spent most of our time at Oktoberfest when we weren’t sleeping for eternity (like I did with my 12 h sleep — though I did feel great after that), so we didn’t see much else of Munich. We later learnt we could have caught a two hour train to Salzberg in Austria as well, so it just means that we will just have to come back. With lots of money.
