Oktoberfest! Whoo-hoo!
Day 14
Part of why we scheduled our trip to Munich around end of September was because we did not want to miss the Oktoberfest.
In the morning, my friends and I put on our Oktoberfest outfit. It was an attempt to try to blend in the crowd. Do we blend in?
Anyway, I must say that these outfits are not cheap. I remember the Lederhosen costs about 200 euros! (minimum).
When we entered the Oktoberfest carnival, we were surprised the scale of it. It is completely different from the Oktoberfest that we went in Kitchener, Waterloo, which apparently is already the second largest Oktoberfest festival outside of Germany. It is also funny that we could line up to get our passports stamped with an Oktoberfest stamp, which I'm sure we'll get in trouble later on when we go through customs.
What we didn't know is that people usually reserve their tables at one of those beer halls well in advance - usually around 3 months prior. Not knowing about this fact, we were at a great disadvantage. Since there are many beer halls, it is also important to know which the characteristics of each beer hall. Each beer hall is different. Some beer halls are party-goers, some are family friendly, some are private, some are catered towards senior. Before we made a conscious decision, we decided to hop on every single beer hall and check for ourselves.
As you can see from the pictures above, we went to many beer halls. Another interesting thing at the Oktoberfest is the variety of Oktoberfest hotdogs. There are so many that you can choose and they also have different giant pretzels.
We finally decided to settle at the party beer hall - Hofbrauhaus. We knew that it was going to be a problem to find seats since we never reserved a table. Luckily, the girls were amazing and was able to make friends quickly with the local Germans. We just simply shared the table with our newly met friends.
I remember quickly being able to connect with this guy as soon he knows that I'm a Federer fan. :)
At these tables, you can stand on the tables, spill beer or yell across the table really loudly - no one cares about you. It was basically a giant festival that people spend with their friends and drinks on their hands. There are many Oktoberfest songs being played in the beer hall. However, once in a while, there is this one song that is guaranteed to be played in every single beer hall. The lyric goes:
"Ein Prosit, ein Prosit Der Gemütlichkeit Ein Prosit, ein Prosit Der Gemütlichkeit."
It means:
"A toast, a toast. To cheer and good times. A toast, a toast. To cheer and good times."
