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.

München (Munich to all of you english speakers!)

We woke up early on Monday morning so that we could catch the train into Munich and spend the day in the city. Just based on the amount of people on the 9am train we knew the city was going to be packed. After about a 1 hour ride, we got into the train station, luckily there were still a few lockers available so we stashed our stuff and headed out to catch another FREE walking tour (love these!) The tour met at 10:45 and the guides had just enough time to tell the 60+ people waiting about the world famous Glockenspiel. Our guide told us about how almost all of the bells are out of tune, but that no one in the city of Munich cares because it is something only for the tourists. Honestly, it was kind of underwhelming and we both liked the astronomical clock in Prague much better!


The carillon (glockenspiel), not actually a very old building, just built to look old.


Munich was a main headquarters for the Nazi party and as such, most of the city was bombed by the Allies. Everything in the city was carefully recorded and photographed by the Nazis before the war so that every detail could be rebuilt. However, in the re-building process, some corners were cut to save money and so there are many details that are simply painted onto the facades of buildings.


St. Peters church: They only rebuilt one of the two original towers and then just painted the clock faces on.

The maypole in Viktualienmarkt (a big market in the city). If you steal someone else's maypole, they have to pay a ransom... In beer! Our guide told us a funny story about the Munich Police department stealing the maypole from the Munich airport, the airport then had to throw a huge party for the police force.


The 6 main beers in Munich: Augustinerbrau, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Paulanerbrau, Hacker-Pschorr Brau and Spatenbrau. All of which have huge tents at Oktoberfest and of course all of which have been tried by us! The yellow and black symbol in the middle is representative of Germany's pure beer laws.


We got to visit the famous Hofbrauhaus.

Huge beer halls

Practicing carrying the heavy 1 liter mas mugs.

Live bands in every beer hall/tent.

The church the devil made (rumored to have been made with the help of the devil because it was built in only 20 years, in actuality is was built so quickly because it used local, easy to use building materials.

The devils footprint inside the church (actually the architect's footprint).

Weird shrine to MJ all over an old statue.

Painted on facades on the Residenz building.


When we finished up our tour we got word from our host for the night that he was home so we headed out towards his house. We were greeted by friends and beer (of course) and Tobi (our host) took us out for the night.

The Isar river that runs through Munich. We sat by the banks and had a drink.

Kurtis with a Weisbeir, Amy with a Radler.

Second bar of the night with Tobi, not nice Kurtis.

We didn't stay out too late because we needed to be fully rested for Oktoberfest in the morning! We could tell already that we were in for a great day.