Munich Oktoberfest - Day Two

Alright, so the plan was to wake up early and hit those tents. The theory being, the unreserved seats in each tent start to fill up as the morning turns into afternoon. Now, keep in mind, about 70% of all seats in a tent are already reserved - for long standing families, corporations, friends, whatever. Minimum 10 people required for one reserved table. So, the rest of us folks without reservations need to get their butt in gear and get to a tent first thing. And we did. We were at the 'Weisen by 11:00 a.m. (Although, the recommended time to arrive, had it been a weekend is 9:00 a.m.)


We chose the Schutzen Festzelt tent - about a 5,000 person capacity. It's more Bavarian based. You won't find many foreigners here.



They are known for their suckling pig. That's what we wanted and after making appropriate oink-oink noises to the German waitress, we were brought two glistening pieces of pork, crispy edges and all, soaked in a dark malt sauce, served with a large potato dumpling and a white sauerkraut. Not celiac friendly at all - but today, of all days - it would be okay to have the beer. This is the time to have it. At Oktoberfest. In Munich.

Over the course of the next EIGHT hours, we downed liter after liter of Radler - which is a hybrid of the Oktoberfest beer mixed with lemonade.


Afterall, had we been drinking the regular standard issue beer, we would have been on the floor within an hour.


We knew the Radler was really the only way to maintain some level of decency.



We couldn't have picked a better tent. A better table. We met wonderful Germans who at every turn would help us order from the menu (they serve coffee - who knew?). They helped us with all the cheering, the toasts, what the German phrases meant, etc. We were explained that some of the songs were not only German, but uniquely Bavarian. Song only in this tent. They went out of their way to buy us traditional German foods, whether from the tent or from outside the tent, and brought back plenty to pass around and share. Prost!


We had great conversations with everyone, and the younger generation definitely knows English. And they yearn to practice it, so it was a good opportunity for us all. Some of the gals next to us had even lived in the US for a number of months, so were familiar with where we were from. We talked iPods, cellular phones, VH1's Flavor of Love, Britney Spears, the OC, just about everything pop culture.

As the hours waned on, the dancing progressed to standing on the table-top. No longer were you sitting.
As the hours waned on, the singing progressed from standard oompah-band type songs to cheery sing-alongs, even American songs of John Denver's "Take Me Home" and Patrick Swayze's "I've Had The Time of My Life." Who knew they like to sing to that stuff? It was fairly weird. But after hours and hours of beer, you end up singing to just about anything.




Ein Prosit der Germutlichkeit!
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
Der Germutlichkeit!

Meaning, "A toast, a toast, to coziness!"

Everyone was in lederhosen and dirndl dresses. This is the tradition. Beautiful handmade workmanship goes into each piece. They are beautiful. Folks like us look like obvious outsiders, although they didn't mind us impeding on their traditions, and asking questions.


Even though they serve the beers until 11:00 p.m., Eric and I hit a wall about 10:00. We were pretty banged up, bruises from God-knows-what. Believe it or not, holding those steins takes a toll on your hands! And we wanted to get outside in the coolness to get something to eat, maybe a liter of water, and stagger back to the hotel.




Thankfully, the gluten-free gods were shining upon me and I found a great little stand that sold corn on the cob. For Eric, it was a meter-long braut of some sort. Together, these would help quell the swill of beer currently going on in our stomachs.


And what a night, hard to capture, but the video shows a bit of the celebrations. Yes, we were about two sheets to the wind at this point, so the camera is a little shakey.







We would return to Munich in a heartbeat. Our only regret: not staying long enough. This is a fabulous city. With welcoming people and wonderful traditions.

I can understand how folks can fall in love with a city.

We certainly did with this one.