Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest: Chaos, singing, drinking, crowds, cheering, singing, drinking, eating, eating, drinking, and some incredible corn on the cob... that in a nutshell is Oktoberfest!

After almost a year of planning, we just arrived home from experiencing the opening weekend of the world's largest party- Oktoberfest. (I think I may see how many times I can use Oktoberfest in one post). I've put some memorable pictures below... we had a great time. The city of Munich is gorgeous and very accommodating. We had a super fun time with our friends while drinking, eating, drinking, singing and drinking some more.

Here is what I pictured- think "European Vacation" circa 1985 with Clark Griswold and family donned in drundels and leiderhosen drinking liters of beer while singing along with the crazy Germans. Well, Oktoberfest isn't quite that, but there are tons of people around and the whole aim is to just drink yourself silly in the various beer tents. It is a big festival- with rides, fair food, stands selling all sorts of things German and kitchy, and then there are a load of brewery tents that seat up to 10,000 people with long rows of tables and benches. If you are lucky enough to score a seat by lining up early or you have a reservation (we had both on subsequent days) then you are served your liters of lager by a fine gal in a gorgeous drundel with the brute strength to carry up to 10 liters of beer in huge steins with a nice smile on her face. There is music and loads of singing and toasting and yelling. It is pure chaos. We heard accents and languages from all over the world and toasted friends around of all ages and backgrounds. It was a fun way to spend the weekend.

I won't go into terrible detail, because in essense we arrived Friday, started drinking and eating almost immediately, and didn't stop until we left the last tent yesterday at 5pm. If you have a chance to go, I would recommend it. It does take some years off your life though- but we'll recover. I 'll leave you with some memories:

Rachel travelled all the way from CA for Oktoberfest and even taught us some German phrases!

Here is part of the group as the day was winding down on day two:

We had reservations in the Hofbrau tent on Sunday- the biggest and craziest scene I've ever seen!

More pictures posted on shutterfly. Enjoy!