Oktoberfest - The One Day Special
Hello my “on the goers”!
Munich was one of my “wish list” destinations that I had in mind when I came to Europe. I also really wanted to see Oktoberfest, but trying to plan a trip to Munich during that time was too expensive. Hostel and airline prices had gone up and I figured that I was just going to have to miss it. I wasn’t the only au pair that had this problem, but luckily some of us found a solution. AM to PM student trips is an organizer that does one day or weekend trips for young travelers on a budget. Some au pairs and I found out about their one day trip to Oktoberfest from Amsterdam and decided this was our chance.
My 10 a.m. beer. My dad has never been more proud.
First thing I learned, do not plan on getting a normal amount of sleep on an overnight bus. The drive from Amsterdam to Munich was 8 and a half hours. All together, both there and back, I maybe got two hours of sleep. And not consistent sleep, more like ten minutes of snoozing before the loud bus drivers would wake me up again or make a sharp turn, causing me to almost fall out of my seat. At one point, I got up to use the bathroom and noticed one person had given up and was just laying down on the bus floor. I almost did the same thing. We were all exhausted by the time they announced it was time to put on your Dirndl. Despite the sleep deprivation, we all had a blast at Oktoberfest.
The first tent we visited was the Italian tent, Löööwenbräu. We each had one beer (ones we didn’t even have to order but rather were plopped on the table in front of us), but that was enough. It was probably one of the strongest beers I’ve ever tasted. It was also 10 in the morning, but again we were so tired I don’t think we had any idea what time it really was. We had a breakfast of soft pretzels the size of our heads before leaving the tent and heading towards the rides. We did the swings and Ferris wheel just to get a sky high view of the festival. This was the only chance I got to see the actual city of Munich, so I guess I’ll just have to make time to visit again before my year is over.
The other tent we visited was the wine tent, Kufflers Weinzelt. This is where we listened to live music, ate lunch and danced on the tables to 500 miles. A quick note about the Oktoberfest tents, it’s very difficult to find a table unless you have made a reservation and you can only order if you’re sitting at a table. Reservations have to be made very far in advance, so we were not able to do that. We ended up sharing an open table with some people that were already sitting down.
The bus ride back was also rough. I got back home Sunday morning and slept the rest of the day. I only had one day to see all that Oktoberfest had to offer, but I’m still so glad that I did it. Without this, I would have missed out.
Until next time. Prost!
