Danke, Munchen

Lederhosen, bratwurst, and hendl, oh my!

This weekend, Brandon, Andy, Jenny, and I traveled to Munich (Munchen) for Oktoberfest! There were soooo many people there and so much to see - I'm sure I'll forget some things. Anyway, we got there on Friday night pretty late, and checked into our hotel. On the way to the hotel, we saw tons of oktoberfesters on their way home, decked out in all sorts of German attire. Suspenders and shorts and knee socks for the guys, and those low-cut patterned dresses with aprons for the women. Really - all of the Germans were wearing them! And it wasn't just young idiots - a lot of the people we saw were over 40 or 50 and there with their whole families. That was our first taste, but we finally made it to our hotel. It was a 2 person room but there was a king bed and a living room so it worked out perfectly - plus we each basically paid hostel prices since we split it four ways! It was very late so nothing was open except for our hotel bar. We had our first Hefeweisbier (wheat beer) in Munich and some currywurst too. I am DEFINITELY going to start putting curry sauce in my ketchup when I eat hot dogs. I highly recommend it. We went to bed soon after to prepare for our big day.

Saturday we woke up crazy early and headed down to Theresienweise (the stop on the U-Bahn where the fairgrounds are). The subway was PACKED with people headed to the festival, and when we got off the train, the platform was absolutely filled - like when you're going to a baseball game at National's Stadium, or when we went to that pro-choice march on the National mall. TONS of people. Keep in mind, this was 7:45 AM!! We were told by some insiders (aka Michael and about.com) that you have to get there very early in order to get into the tents, or else you won't get in and you won't get served. We walked into the fairgrounds with a ton of dressed up Germans around us. It definitely reminded me of the Prince William County Fair - except instead of rednecks it's Bavarian-themed. There are rides, bumper cars, souveniers, and SO much food! Stands with nuts (the candied kind that smell amazing and make you want to buy them), bakery items (particularly, humongous pretzels that are the absolute best thing to eat while/after drinking beer), and a ton of MEAT -- bratwurst (sausage), various schnitzels (fried pork, veal, etc), hendl (roasted chicken - generally half or whole), and even pork knuckle. Ew! The basic set up of the fair is like this: there are about a dozen huge "tents," each owned by a different restaurant. They are HUGE on the inside - like 2 stories and 5000 seats at least. Just rows and rows of picnic tables. There are also smaller tents with just 30 tables or so, but we didn't go into any of them. Anyway, it's really hard to get into any of the tents without a reservation (which Germans make like 2 years in advance if they're really into it), so that's why we had to get there so early. You either make it in in the morning when the doors open, or you're out for the majority of the day.

We were supposed to meet at the Hofbrauhaus tent (one of the more famous ones, and the only tent that you don't need a seat to get served) with a few other Penn people. We got there and there was already a crowd of about 75-100 people outside the front door. We parked ourselves there and put up our hoods and waited... and waited... and then all of a sudden people started yelling and pushing! There would be a 5 second pause and then another "aahhhhhh" and a push forward. It was kind of funny at the beginning, but it got tighter and tighter until people's elbows were in my neck and my ribs were squeezed so tight I thought they would break! We got closer and closer to the open door (the crowd was very wide and were trying to squeeze into two small doors at opposite ends of the entrance). Andy was a few people ahead of us, and just kept getting pushed to the side -- closer to the door! The three of us were packed like sardines and really uncomfortable, and then we lost sight of Andy. He made it through the door! All of a sudden the whistles started blowing and the doors SLAMMED SHUT! There were two people between us and the door. I saw my life flash before my eyes, and the day go down the drain. I knew it was over. The three of us stood there for over an hour -- squeezed at first but after people started bailing out, there was more room to stand. We saw people singing, laughing, holding steins of beer up at NINE IN THE MORNING, and just oktoberfesting it up while we waited outside! The security guards were being really mean and wouldn't tell anyone what time they'd reopen the doors. We stood and stood and came up with all sorts of strategies to get into other tents - none of which we were confident enough in to leave the door where we were already standing. Finally, the whistles started going like crazy again, and the German polizei moved in and started pushing people out of the way - "not an entrance" "entrance closed"!! CRAP. Now what? Where to go? Everyone was pushed away from the door, and then, we saw it. The outdoor seats! DUH! Each tent has outdoor, or "garten" seating. Of course, it was drizzling and gray out, but I had my raincoat, so what the hell. We plopped ourselves at a table with four Italian men (apparently the Italians all come to Oktoberfest the third weekend - there were a TON). It was crowded outside too, with lots of happy drinking people, singing songs, randomly raising their beers in a toast. We flagged down a large German woman who could carry like 12 steins at a time by resting them on her large bosom, and ordered a stein each. That is the ONLY size they serve there! It is one liter - about 3 beers.

For the rest of the morning we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, the group of Italians left, and about 8 more came over throughout the next couple of hours. Drinking that early in the morning is very odd. We made good friends with this new group -- I learned all of their names, some new Italian, and they complimented me on my Italian accent. Sergio, Paulo, Paulo, Stefano, Massimo, Rocco, Nicola... I think that's it. Somehow we decided to leave the outside of Hofbrauhaus (we had a pretzel, don't worry) and find some friends in another tent -- Hacker something was next door. So, off to a few more closed doors with mean security guards. By this time we knew any waiting wouldn't be fruitful, so we went around the tent to the back. All of a sudden, we saw it. An open door! There were NO guards in front - just a wide open door with people walking in and out. We couldn't believe it! We were finally inside and didn't even think it was true.

We somehow managed to find Michael and a bunch of other Penn kids amid the waiters and waitresses carrying huge trays of 1/2 chickens, Germans walking around in lederhosen and dresses, and people standing on their tables every few minutes screaming "Prost!!" (cheers). The tent was awesome on the inside - like nothing I've ever seen before. There really were so many people, and a big wooden gazebo in the middle of the room with a 12 piece band playing German music - and often some random American oldies songs too. People were having such a good time - lots of Germans, of course, but also Italians and Americans. We stayed there for a little while and soaked it all in but as the afternoon wore on, our restful night's sleep wore off and it was clear what we needed: naptime. So, we met up with Andy, picking up a pretzel along the way, and headed back to our comfortable, quiet hotel for what turned into a 4 hour nap! By the time we knew it, it was 8 pm. We were tent-ed out, so we headed to downtown Munich for dinner.

We found an authentic Bavarian restaurant much like the smaller tents at Oktoberfest - picnic tables where you sat with other random Germans - but this one was much more calm and not as overwhelming. We got - yep, you guessed it - weinerschnitzel, bratwurst, potatoes, and hefeweisbier. What else, honestly? Then again, by the end of the evening I was not feeling 100% -- all of the beer and meat had certainly caught up with me. It was clear we needed to call it a night.

The next morning we actually got some sleep and went to the tent around 11 am. This time we saw much more of the carnival scene - sampled some candied nuts, bought some souveniers, and saw the insides of some more tents. It's much different when you're not freezing cold/stressed about getting inside a tent/on your second liter of beer... right? We sat outside Hofbrauhaus again and had our final beer and wurst, and played a nice game of Rummy 500 (I dominated, btw). We said goodbye to Oktoberfest and headed to a park near some Munich museums to relax for the rest of the afternoon before our flight. One hard day was definitely enough for us, especially since we knew we were going to get on the plane that night and head to class the next morning!

Our trip home wasn't so smooth - at least an hour and a half delay on our EasyJet flight back to London, 30 minutes in customs, and then the train back to London wasn't running so we had to pay 18 quid for a "replacement bus service" back to London, which wasn't even near where we lived, so we had to take another city bus and walk to go home! I was finally in bed at 3:30 am. Oish.

It was definitely a good trip, though, and worth the traveling time and expenses! I don't know if I would go back - in fact, I think once is enough for me - but I'm glad I went. Maybe I can bring back what I learned to Penn for our own little Palace Oktoberfest next year? What do you guys think?

Photos of Oktoberfest:

Brandon and Jenny with their first liters at 10:30 am.

Outside of the Hofbrauhaus tent

Posing with Paulo and Sergio, or was it Stefano? Who knows.

Inside the Hacker tent - Brandon and Jenny with Bryant, another Penn kid who came up to me and started speaking German... I said, no sprecken ze deutsche (I don't speak German), and he started laughing... and I realized I knew him from Penn! Good one.

Some more of the Hacker tent gang

Inside Hacker tent - check out the skylights and the murals on the wall... and all of the people!

View of the carnival itself on Sunday morning

Inside Hofbrauhaus tent

The outside of Hacker

In other news, I have been going to class, in case anyone was curious. Classes are great! I have had 2 art history classes - London Architecture. We take field trips almost every week. The class is almost all American students, and our prof. is a Ph.D. student who doesn't speak loudly enough when we are touring around. We went to Hampton Court last week (Henry VIII's and other kings' castles) and Westminster Abbey this week. Not too shabby. The other course is history - "Britain and the Wider World." We'll only cover from 1880-1935 before we leave in December, but it should be really interesting. It's a lecture (1 hr) and recitation (1 hr) each week, with two papers for the whole term. It doesn't seem like you need to do all of the reading. So, in total, that's 8 hours of class between Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday... and that's it. It's crazy. And barely any work for the classes - pretty much just doing the papers toward the end of the semester - which I am definitely going to get done BEFORE December. If I do one a week between now and the end of the year I should be ok! It's a really nice break from classes and work at Penn, if nothing else. Plus plenty of time to read, sleep, walk around London, eat lots of food, and travel. Sounds pretty good to me.

Off to Amsterdam bright and early tomorrow morning. Gutte nacht!