Finally! Oktoberfest!

Amy and I, accompanied by three of our german friends (Tobi and Jacob and a friend of Jacobs), hit the Oktoberfest festival around noon. The place was already full of people and surprisingly there were a lot of families with their children (Oktoberfest seems more like a state fair outside of the tents with rides and food stands). One thing that a lot of people don't know as that Oktoberfest is a celebration of King Ludwig IIs marriage in 1810.





We made our first stop at a food tent for their 8 euro snitzel, potato, and beer special. It was so good and gave us a nice base for the drinking that we would be doing for the remainder of the day.


Kurtis and Tobi at lunch!

Yum!

Beer number 1!

Amy tripped on her way out of lunch. ouch!

Topped off with pork and potatoes we went to the Lowenbrau Tent. The tents are designed with a big stage in the middle where the band plays. All around the stage in the middle of the tent are big wooden tables that can seat up to 16. The perimeter has reserved boxes, the kitchen, and the bathrooms. We easily got a seat (it was 1 pm on a Tuesday) and had a mas (what Germans call a 1 liter beer). They run around 9 euro each but you figure you're paying more for the atmosphere then the beer. After hanging out for a bit (and after Amy stuffed a liter mug in her purse) we left the festival to go grab a coffee and to swing by Jacobs place (we had to pace ourselves of course).






First official mass at Oktoberfest!

Caffienated and a little sobered up we headed back. We were greeted at the entrance to the festival with a taste of what the night would offer; a man in lederhosen passed out in the grass. Unfortunately Amy and I didn't get the traditional garb (lederhosen are close to 200 euro for the full get up and Amy wasn't going to dress up if I wasn't).

We stopped in to the Paulaner tent and were unsuccessful in finding a table. We huddled near the end of one and drank another mas before deciding to head back to the Lowenbrau tent.


Hey Selena Gomez, what are you doing at Oktoberfest?

There we grabbed a seat with a man from Nimibia (spoke perfect english and german) and his german wife. With good company and a good table we started indulging in the beer and pretzels.




This describes the rest of the night pretty accurately.

and this.

and more of this!

Eventually, as expected, we were dancing on the tables with the rest of the tent and singing american oldies, thats right, the band played nothing but american oldies and germans, americans, italians, and every other nationality in the tent (regardless of whether or not they spoke english) knew and sang the words. It was a pretty shocking surprise.


It looked so good at night!


Closing time came and we shuffled out into the streets. Amy managed to get another mug and a hat while the boys and I grabbed some leberkase sandwhiches (its like a fried spam sandwhich). We made our way back to Tobi's to rest up before our flight to Ireland.