Oktoberfest

My real motivation for visiting Nuremberg was to have a bed near Munich during Oktoberfest. On Saturday morning I took an early train to Munich, arriving at the Party grounds (Oktoberfest party grounds) at 9:30 AM. Phone airtime is expensive, I waited until I arrived to make my first call to my buddy AJ - who audibly fumbled with the phone as he picked it up and was generally groggy. He was still in bed at his hotel, along with the rest of the group I was planning on spending the day with. I gave them a few words of encouragement and went on to explore the Theresienwiesen grounds.

The scene - photo by AJ

According to lore and wikipedia, Oktoberfest was first a celebration of a marriage between Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese (whose name graces the grounds). It was so much fun that it became an annual 16-day event.

Oktoberfest is centered on a main street, on which all the major beer tents are located. Each beer tent is run by one of Munich's local brewers. Tent is an understatement - these are humongous semi-permanent structures that hold hundreds, maybe thousands of people. They house their own cooking facilities for serving local fare to tent-goers, including whole chickens, while storing enough beer for the tent's consumption. Beer is only served in one liter denominations.

I never made it inside a tent, but this is what it would have looked like (photo borrowed from Ali Feinstein)

Surrounding the main street and the tents are carnival-type amusements like rides and games. After getting a feel for the place, I settled in near the subway stop at one end of the grounds. I found a beer counter where I could sit and watch the people funnelling out of the subway, decked out in tracht, lederhosen, and all sorts of festive halloween-style costumes. At around 11:00 AM my friends arrived and we tried to find a beer tent, but it was too late - they were all full. We settled for a beer-garden, the outdoor sibling of the beer tent, but couldn't find a seat there either. Patrons are required to be seated at a table to be served at Oktoberfest, but Ilana, my friend from Westport, brokered a deal that let us sit on the ground outside the beer garden and still be served. We eventually finished our pints and wandered a bit. AJ got a call from his friends who had space at a table in the beer garden outside the Hacker Pfetzelt brand tent. We pushed our way through the crowd of people outside, while they cursed and whined that we were cutting. Oh well.

Outside Hacker Pfetzelt

We found space across from some obnoxious French kids and settled in. We stayed around six hours, drank numerous beers, and met tons of people from all over the world. It was a lot of fun, and good to see AJ, Ilana, Maddy, and Ilana's awesome friends. At around 8PM we went our separate ways. I headed to the main train station to get reservations for an overnight train home. I bought some food - my first solid meal since 8 AM and took a seat, extremely satisfied. That is until I realized I was missing a small bag from inside my backpack that I had packed with all of my valuables. Nervously I trekked back to Oktoberfest, made my way into the beer garden, searched for my bag, and could not find it. What was at stake? Passport, Ipod, french rail discount card, a bit of money, and lots of pride and sanity. A German man approached me and said "Did you lose your passport?" Why yes I did. It was too good to be true. He went into the main tent and returned with my belongings sans a little cash, which probably disappeared hours ago. I thanked him profusely and made my way back to the train station, satisfied, and now relieved.

The overnight train was a blessing, I slept for a few hours, then listened to my ipod for a while longer. This was also the first trip that made my Eurail pass truly worthwhile, allowing me to forgo expenses of around 240 euros. My bag of vitals had been rescued, but I had my good fortune was wearing thin. Karma would take hold the next weekend in Marseille.