Eat, Drink, and be Merry

Good food, good beer, and many laughs!

I've never seen so many happy and drunk people in my entire life. I've been to Chicago's version of Oktoberfest a couple of times, but it obviously doesn't compare to the real thing! Walking around Oktoberfest, guys are dressed in their Lederhosen, while the women are dressed in their sexy Bavarian dresses, or Dirndls.

Oktoberfest is known as the world’s greatest beer festival and after this weekend, I have no doubt that it is. In fact, Germany is by far the world’s largest producer and consumer of beer, with almost 1300 breweries – 40% of the world’s total! Beer halls and tents were filled with many people enjoying this wonderful occasion!

I met up with Abby and Jeff on Friday and we immediately hit up Hofbräuhaus, Munich's largest, most famous, and most tourist-packed beer hall! I've never been to a beer hall before, and I must say, its a sight to be seen. We luckily got seats outside in the beer garden, but it turns out that all the action takes place inside! Nevertheless, we enjoy our 1 litre stein of beer, and in fact, had a couple! You can imagine how after a few litres of beer will do for the rest of the night.

The next day we try and get an early start. Unfortunately, little did we know, Saturday was quite busy and when we arrived at the fest at 10AM, all the tents were closed due to full capacity! We're talking about 14 tents here. Each tent can seat an average of 3000 people! The largest tent holding up to 9000 people! In an case, we do get into one of the tents, the Löwenbräu tent! I've included a picture just to get a feel of how large this tent is. This sits 5,700 people inside! Unbelievable. And when the brass band comes on at noon, the place goes absolutely nuts! We find out later that people queue up as early at 6:30 in the morning. (Tents open at 9)

On Sunday, we continue our drinking again and decide to start early to make sure we get a good seat. When I say start early, I mean getting up at 7AM and showing up at the festival by 8:30! We end up going into the Armbrustschützenzelt tent on the recommendation of our friend Kristoff who we met the day before. I must say, it has been a long time since I had a whole litre of beer for breakfast. I believe the last time I had beer for breakfast was during Spring Break in Daytona Beach during my early days at Uni!

For what its worth, we did get a good feel for the city of Munich. It wasn't all drinking as you may think and we did get to do some sightseeing! (For those of you who are in the know, another new city, another robot!)

Overall, it was a great weekend with good eats, good drink, and lots of laughs! I got to catch up with some old friends, talked about unforgettable memories we had in Uni, and experienced one of the greatest beer festivals in the world.