Was first held in 1810 in honour of the Barvarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festivities began on October 12th and ended the 17th October with a horse race.
Then in the following years, the celebrations were repeated and later the festival was prolonged and moved to September., to make use of the better weather conditions.
Every year millions descend on the city of Munich, they expect 6.5 million to attend this year, and that 6.5million steins will be drunk, 500 000 chickens eaten, and 300 000 pairs of sausages eaten. not the best place for a vegitarian to be found!
We arrived around 3pm after flying into Stuttgart, a 3 hr bus trip away, the night before the festivities were to begin.
The first thing they did when we arrived at the hostel, was brand us.
We each got given bright yellow armbands with the hostels name, address and our room number… It came in handy so many times let me tell you… it was the best idea ever!
First thing in the morning we set off around 8am to head down to the Oktoberfest grounds, to be shown around, and given the details of what was to come.
We ended up in the Lowenbrau tent, where the bus about guides had managed to reserve some tables together, with help from some of the froiline’s (beer wrench’s), and a mix of guys on contiki who sat at the tables too.
Being the first day the tents didn’t actually start serving beer until 12pm. We had many an hour to kill, as the tent got fuller and fuller, they’d intermittently let hordes of people in.
We were lucky to get a table.
Radish's, bratwurst,? dried bread with cheese?
They have a rule that you must be seated to be served anything, and that the more you tip the quicker you will be served for future beer runs.
It was crazy, lots of people were decked out in leiderhausens, and traditional dresses, and some in less traditional attire!
Tried the Spezi (kind of a cola/orange mixture, that was sickly sweet) nothing like paying 10 euro for a Litre of soft drink… the beer was the same price.
First beer orders were taken at 1130am and everyone sat around patiently counting down the minutes…
It was those up high in the reserved section that were served first, and you could hear tables cheering as their beer arrived throughout the tent!
My drinking buddies! what fun was had!
One chick on our table was allergic to hops, and was asking the beer wench what else was available… and she was like you’re allergic… shit for you! (I loved our beer wench, Anita was awesome!)
But came back with a litre stein of wine instead!
Once the beer arrived the oomph a band started to play, and everyone was up on the seats attempting to sing the many German drinking songs..
Ein Prosit,
Ein Prosit,
Gemutilchkeit!
Ein Prosit,
Ein Prosit,
Gemutilchkeit!
eins, zwie,drei
Which translates to A toast A toast to Happiness and good health, 1,2,3 skull!
Loads of beer was drunk,
I called it a night around 8pm, when I went to the toilet, and was manhandled by two rather drunk and horny Italians, who tried to ram their tongue's down my throat, among other things...
I was like I'm not that drunk.. and made a hasty escape...
though looking back at many of the pictures on my camera... maybe I was...
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