Oktoberfest!

We took an 8 hour train to get to Munich so we arrived and went straight to our apartment that we rented. The owner was super friendly and the place was beautiful and only 2 stops away from Oktoberfest. We found a place to get pasta, sauce, and frozen pizzas and made dinner that night. We went to bed early because we had to be up at 4. To get in line for the tents. We woke up that morning still in a dream and tried to make ourselves look as presentable as possible. We got to the festival at 5am and it was literally a ghost town. It was so cool because each tent was themed differently outside and the festival had a ton of rides!

We decided to meet everyone in front of the Augustiner tent  and were the second big group in line. The proprietor of the Augustiner-Brewery, Manfred Vollmer has built up something very special during the course of the past sixteen years. This tent is considered to be the friendliest of all at Oktoberfest. The waitresses never forget to smile, regardless of how busy or hectic it gets. Families feel very comfortable on this tent. The excellent Augustiner beer also contributes to ensuring a great atmosphere which often already gets into full swing in the middle of the afternoon. We literally became squished like sardines for 4 hours until the doors opened at 9. We saw the sun rise but still no hope to get into the tent. With an hour to go things got pretty physical. People were pushing and shoving to try to get to the front. Multiple times we got pushed back and it was frightening. At one point we were all so close together we couldn't breathe. Finally at 9am, 8 security guards came in and said you needed ID to get into the tent. Not only could I not breathe but there was no way for me to reach into my bag and grab it. This is when the chaos began. Everyone started pushing and shoving to get in. Thank god we are a big group and pushed ourselves in and were able to get 3 tables. 

But now we still had 3 hours until the first keg was tapped. Luckily, they started serving food at 9, so I had my first taste of a German pretzel and it was delicious! We played card games to pass the time, then finally 10 minutes to 12 the crowd became rowdy. A full band came into the Augstiner tent playing traditional German music and everyone was standing on the tables. The first keg had been tapped and we got to see the beer maidens carrying 10 mugs at a time, it was crazy! The way it works is they bring enough mugs for each table and you say if you want all of them, if not they move on to the next table. This is a crazy amount of peer pressure because they come with new mugs every 45 minutes. Obviously, many Americans cannot handle that amount of alcohol every hour which is why only the Germans last all day in these tents. What was also a surprise is our tent had a full restaurant of food. The best thing on the menu was a half chicken for only 4 euros! Overall, it was so fun to be apart of a world-known festival. My favorite part was every hour they would sing a drinking song and everyone would cheers together. If I could do it again, I definitely would have bought a drindl, everyone was in the traditional German clothing.

XOXO RIVA DIVA