By Bud
After an exhilarating drive on a German Autobahn into Munich we found our campsite. We were greeted by lederhaussen and drindl’s everywhere. We met up with Shaun, Alexia, Nathalie and Stu and made our way to Oktoberfest. On the way we picked up an Australian named Hutch. The place was absolute mayhem. There were so many tents and so many people and the vibe was awesome. We couldn’t get into any of the tents so we managed to get a table at a beer garden in front of the Spaten tent. A german couple joined us next door and was good to ask about some German culture. Hutch was a saviour and made sure that we didn’t lose each other, although Stu managed to get lost in the streets of Munich. Memory dwindles after the 3rd 1L stein and I am pretty convinced that I also got a bout of food poisoning as I spend half the night emptying my lungs out the door of our tent…. About half a metre from where Alexia was sleeping.
Saturday we woke up feeling a bit woozy. Whoever said that German beer doesn’t give you a hangover has obviously never had German beer. Hangovers aside we donned our trachten and headed back to Oktoberfest. We stopped at a restaurant on the way and I ordered the largest Eisbein in human history (Only managed to eat about a quarter of it…) and Lauren had some sour potato thing.
We walked around and it was even more packed than the day before and couldn’t get table in tent or garden. We left the festival area and went in search of a restaurant. After a few beers we started reviving ourselves and then heard news that some friends we were meeting, Marc and his fiancé, Anke, were able to get us into a tent. (Most tents require reservation about 11 months in advance so this was exciting news).
After negotiating our way back into the festival area and observing the queues 100 people deep we went to the back entrance to the Augustiner tent, where Anke’s friend gave us tickets to get in. Once inside we miraculously managed to get a table, made friends with Germans next to us (who evidently took a lot of photos and emailed them to us) and stood on the tables for the rest of the night. We sang song after song, even when we had no idea what we were saying with lots of prosting in between. This certainly was an amazing night and really grateful that Anke organized tickets for us!!!
Sunday morning we woke up feeling tired once again. We stumbled out of our tents and donned our trachten. Met up with Stu and Nats and headed down to Starnberg, a large lake south of Munich. It was really pretty and peaceful and we walked around a bit before finding a nice restaurant overlooking the lake for lunch. After filling our bellies, Nathalie organized an electric boat and we spent an hour cruising on the lake. Was a really nice and peaceful change from the previous two days. Being in Munich during Oktoberfest we couldn’t not have a beer, so we headed back into Munich to the Hofbrauhaus in centre Munich. We had good fun watching the Asian Tourists celebrate Oktoberfest. They are definitely the most jolly race on the planet. Back at camp Shaun and I had another beer before heading to sleep.
Monday we woke up and went up to the Munich botanical gardens. They really were impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed it although I was not too keen at the start of the day. They have climatised tunnels and have species of plants from all over the world. Really cool! After this we went to the Augustiner beer garden (Same beer company as the tent from Saturday night). We ordered some lunch and some beers before saying farewell to Shaun, Alexia, Nathalie and Stu. It
was a really fun weekend and the liver required some TLC after Oktoberfest!
Next stop Augsburg to meet up with Marc and Anke and explore some more of Baveria!