Day 7 : Oktoberfest Munich

After a depressing afternoon at Dachau, we made our way to a more festive environment to cheer ourselves up at the Oktoberfest, and also allow Frank to see some bit of Munich. 

Doesn’t Oktoberfest starts only in September?  Fun fact : The first Oktobrfest was held in the year 1810 in honour of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildurghausen.  The festivities began on October 12, 1810 and ended on October 17th with a horse race.  In the following years, the celebrations were repeated and later, the festival was prolonged and moved forward into September. 

By moving the festivities up, it also allowed for better weather conditions – because the September nights were warmer, the visitors were able to enjoy the gardens outside the tents and the stroll over “die Wiesen” or the fields were possible for much longer without feeling chilly.  Historically, the last Oktoberfest weekend was in October and this tradition continues into present times.  Each Oktoberfest would last for approximately 17 days!  That’s going to be a lot of beer and sausages served!!!  Apparently in the earlier years, they served about 8 million litres of beer!

We were very lucky to had found free parking about 5 mins walk to the festive grounds.  The Oktoberfest grounds was really easy to find, as all we had to do was follow the hordes of people in the traditional Oktoberfest outfit.  Bear in mind, this was a Wednesday early evening (we got there about 5.00pm). 

I was surprised by the area of the grounds as it was massive.  Huge beer houses and tents lined the pathways, and already there were a lot of people everywhere.  There was also a large section of amusement grounds attached to the venue. 

The entrance was enhanced with strong security, possibly in fear of ISIS – one of the police officers eyed my bag as I was walking into the grounds, and seeing that my bag was rather small and with my “innocent” look, I passed without being stopped. 

We walked into one beer house and I was immediately wowed – the beer house was huge, but what awed me even more was how full the entire place was!  There were barely any empty seats, and many tables required a reservation.  There must have been thousands of people just in that one tent, and all the other beer houses we stepped into were equally packed.  We checked out a few of the beer houses, as we were also looking for Frank’s oompa oompa music – the traditional music that accompanied most Oktoberfest celebrations.

Again, this is a week night and it was still regarded early at the time we got there.  I wonder if people come here everyday and spend all their time here during the entire period.  Does anyone work at all during this period of festivity???  Coming here just to experience the atmosphere one time was good enough for me, wouldn’t be able to imagine being here day after day.

I didn’t have lunch today, so was starving by the time we got to the grounds.  We couldn’t find any seat within the 1st tent we went into, so we walked out and found an outdoor seating area which was less crowded and ordered some food and of course, beer.  The beer came very quickly and it was huge!  For someone who don’t often drink beer, I think I did well as I had about 1/4 left unfinished in the mug when we left. 

We took a stroll along the amusement park section – Frank found out I was an adrenalin junkie while on the trip, so we decided on doing a ride.  I had him picked a ride he was comfortable to go on, and we settled on a roller coaster with the Olympic rings.  Awesome!

 

We also tried our hands at shooting down some targets using a rifle.  Was given 10 shots to shoot as many “stars” as possible.  Considering that it was my 1st time, I managed to hit 9 out of 10.  My archery aiming skills may had paid off here :D  Frank did better shooting all 10 down in an orderly manner.  And for our accuracy, we got an emoticon soft toy :P

Shooting a real rifle or gun is still on my bucket list!

After a couple hours at the grounds, and with the sun setting, we had enough and made our way back to the car.  Oktoberfest wasn’t really on my list of priorities for coming to Munich, but was glad to had experienced it while I was here. 

This also marked the end of my travels with Frank, who had been an awesome travel buddy – Thank you Frank for taking care and watching out for me, feeding me well, driving me around safely in a comfortable and nice car, indulging me with my fantasy castle visit… I felt like a modern day princess! :)

What I treasured most were the shared moments and laughs.  Will certainly miss not having Frank on my travels, and I look forward to the next time we meet!