Oktoberfest!


Photos 19 - 36 out of 56 | Back to Albums
We are pissing ourselves laughing and trying to take a photo, but Hugh stops vomiting before we can get the camera out. But it turns out he is just holding it back, and as soon as the camera is packed away, he lets loose with the rest. With only two steins under his belt we all wonder how he is going to cope with the main event tomorrow! It's the morning of the big day, and we have been well-advised that if we want to get a table inside a beer hall, we had better get there early. So we find ourselves quite literally lining up outside the Schottenhamel tent at 7:45 AM, along with a whole stack of other people. Nothing is really happening yet except people wandering around the park. None of the tents open until 10am and they don't start serving beer anywhere until 12pm. So we wait. This Irish bloke had already had about 4 beers for breakfast and did his best to keep everyone amused while we waited. 'Lean forward, lean backward, to the left and to the right. Sit down, stand up...' Before long we realise that the line up is a complete waste of time. Matt's idea of getting into the Schottenhamel tent seems doomed, and we are informed that basically if you don't have a reservation for a table, you're pretty much not going to get one. Being the first day of the festival, the Schottenhamel is very popular with the locals, as the parade finishes out the front and this is where the Mayor of Munich taps the first keg. Eventually they start letting people in one at a time but it is pointless as we will not be served beer unless we are seated at a table, so we bail out of the lineup and find an outside table. It turns out the atmosphere in the beer garden would be fantastic so we would not complain.
It's pretty cold and all the ladies are wearing jackets over their dirndles.This wouldn't be a problem for long as they had these mammoth outdoor heaters above the tables which they turned on when the tent opened. I have never seen so many BBQ chickens in my life. This is a typical rotisserie, and there are another 4 ovens outside of the camera frame. Inside the tents I would eventually see even larger kitchens with literally 1000's of chickens cooking away like this. I would hate to be a chicken in the lead up to Oktoberfest. While we waited for the beer to start flowing, I caught the end of the parade. I'm glad I did as the costumes, floats, horses and everything about it was so wonderfully colourful and spectacular!
Here are some of the Paulaner beer kegs being hauled to the Paulaner tent during the parade. I'm assuming they tap these eventually, but I also recall seeing much larger kegs in the tents also - beer kegs literally about as high as a house! Ah, and here I am in my traditional Austrian tracht, which earned me so much attention I was amazed! I said a little bit about this in the salzburg photo album (when I made the purchase) but it's worth repeating here. Austrians were literally stopping me in the streets of Munich, complimenting me on my fine dress, and raising all sorts of questions like why (because I'm Australian), and how did I know to chose so correctly the Austrian national colours and uniform? If I'd wanted to, I probably could have jumped in on the parade. Nobody would have known I didn't belong! The beer is served! We had an excellent waiter by the name of Arthur I think. He was capable of carrying 14 beer steins at once! We asked him what the record was, and apparently it is 26... You see the weirdest things at Oktoberfest. I don't know why but a little old lady was walking around selling bunches of raddish. Handles seemed to enjoy them! We ended up consuming around 6 steins here before we moved on. We drank in a part of the garden where there were a lot of young Aussies, seppos and Germans. It didn't take long before we had a really good mexican wave going! By the way, that big thing in the background is one of the monster outdoor heaters.
Later on I get a message from the Adelaide girls - they are in the Hofbräu-Festzelt tent - the 'pig pen'. I had been warned about this place - appropriately full of Aussies, Kiwis and Saffas, it is the largest tent of the Oktoberfest by far, with a capacity of 10,000 people! I was told not to go in here wearing any undies, lest I risk their removal via massive atomic wedgie. (Don't worry I wasn't wearing any). It took me a little while to get in. I'd already had 6 steins by this stage, and inadvertently I walked straight past the 'line-up' to the front door which was locked. There were a handful of revellers waiting here also. I struck up a conversation with a german bloke called Anthony. He had been waiting for 20 minutes already (so pity those people who were actually lining up behind me!). Before long, out of the blue a beer wench came over and asked us if we wanted to get inside. Well, yeah is the Pope Catholic? 'Come with me' she said, and we followed her up to the staff entrance, where she muttered something to the security guard who nodded. 'You buy your first drinks off me and then follow to table, and you can go from there' she said. We head through the kitchen and beer pouring area - it was amazing to see the way they clean all the steins and so forth. Very quickly she grabs five beers and leads us to a table. We pay for our beers each and we are on our way. You beauty! This photo does not do the tent justice. I had soooo much fun in here, it was just mind-blowing. It feels like the tent stretches as far as the eye can see, I'm sure you could fit one of the new Boeing Airbuses inside it. There were 100's of Aussies boozing on wearing these unmistakably bright yellow 'Fanatics' t-shirts. It was like an Aussie invasion and the atmosphere was unrivalled. I meet up with the Adelaide girls and before long we are dancing on the tables, singing and carrying on and things end up getting awful messy! There are vague memories of me later arguing with a taxi driver about a 30 euro cab fare for travelling just 2 blocks... Next morning - despite the massive drinking session the night before I feel absolutely fine. Thanks god for the natural brewing processes of German beer! I find out that the German Beer Purity Law (originally enacted in 1516), permits only four ingredients in the beverage: water, hops, barley, and yeast. That means no preservatives, and nothing that's going to give you a hangover. So despite consuming probably about 15 litres of beer the night before, I'm feeling as fresh as a daisy! Matty Thompson isn't feeling so good. I find out that he literally tripped over when walking out of the 'pissoir' to the amusement of all the Germans around him, and has now twisted his ankle or something. He's hobling around but that doesn't deter him from backing up the second day either! Here we are in the streets of Munich ready to go again. Breakfast consisted of a german kebap. My god, check out the size of the rotisserie! Gazza, forget Brighton Kebabs at Sans Souci - put the number of this kebap shop in your phone!
The parade continues on the second day (Sunday) and it turns out that it goes right past our hotel room! Handles scored us this brilliant accomodation at the Hotel Atlas Residenze which was two blocks from the central station and only another two blocks to the Oktoberfest park! The sun comes out and once again I am just blown away by the colours and the marching bands and everything about it! We hit the theme park and take a ride on the Olympic rollercoaster - it has 5 loops in the shape of the Olympic logo. It is an unbelievable ride, one of my favourite rollercoasters definitely. Then it's a bit of 'sightseeing' through some of the beer tents to see what they are like. The Augustiner beer tent was nice and traditional, but we ended up choosing the Löwenbräu tent for a stein. It is busy and the Aussie 'Fanatics' have settled in here for the day, so we are lucky to score half a table with the Adelaide girls. This is one of many random photos with cute chicks. Again the Löwenbräu tent atmosphere was just unrivalled. I remember walking in here behind a parade of Bavarians in full traditional costume, to the sounds of Johnny Cash 'Ring of Fire' being played by the Oomp-ah Band in the middle of the tent. It got me going right away - like one of those goose bump feelings that says oh yes, this is going to be bloody good and unforgettable! In a way, this tent was better than the Hofbrau tent, being a bit smaller the whole tent could actually hear the band in the middle and the sing-a-longs were fantastic. Some of the best were 'Take Me Home Country Road', 'Hey Baby, Will You Be My Girl' and of course 'Ein Prosting'!
As soon as I put my lifesaver cap on, coupled with my authentic Austrian costume, I was an absolute hit. This girl immediately recognised me as a lifesaver and came over for a drink. I remember her but not her name... Ahha, here is the lovely Kate Harding. Always looking cheeky and up to something :) Ok I don't know where it came from but by mid-afternoon somebody had found a face-painting kit. What started out so innocently as 'Shane Warne style zinc stripes' to compliment my lifesaver theme, soon took a turn for the wurst!
   
Photos 19 - 36 out of 56 | Back to Albums
Description: If there is a place on earth that is better than Cronulla, I am yet to find it. However, Oktoberfest is clearly the runner up. Welcome to the 'Easter Show on steroids'. I had great expectations for this event and all of them were exceeded. This place is boatie heaven, so it was appropriate that I would meet up with two of them, even if they are from Elouera 🙂 It's hard to stand out in the crowd in a beer tent full of 10,000 drunk revellers at Oktoberfest, yet somehow I managed to pull it off, and finished off my week in spectacular and unforgettable style that I'm sure will go down in hostel history.
Location: Germany

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