Back to München - Oktoberfest final weekend

Oktoberfest again, back for the final weekend this time for free YEW:) Thanks to Hostelworld.com and Busabout. Emil my German friend and myself departed from Stansted airport early Friday morning on 1st of October and got into Stuttgart about 10:30am. After liaising with the rest of the tour group we headed for the Busabout tour bus.

Dax   n  Damo

We met our tour guides Dax from Australia, Damo from Germany and our driver Johhny Rockstar from the UK then we were off. We headed out of the airport and where on the way to Oktoberfest in München.



We listened to many a beer drinking song on our way, (including Kevin Bloody Wilson lol) and where educated on Oktoberfest, its history and some of the do's and dont's.

people leaving Oktoberfest grounds

Arriving in Munich we could tell we where nearing the hostel as we passed the Oktoberfest grounds, there where people everywhere...

I was back into the craziness again :) look out liver here I come.

We got to the Wombats hostel which is only a 15 minuet walk to the Oktoberfest grounds and right in the heart of Munich, it was a great location.
We had 20 minuets before our orientation walk started, so we checked in and made our way to the rooms. They where HUGE, these are the biggest hostel rooms I have stayed in yet and they had there own bathroom! which is a 1st in hostels for me so far...

New Town Hall

Most of the group met for the orientation walk, and we set off for the Marienplatz, Munich's central square since the foundation of the city in 1158. We passed the New Town Hall, which is an impressive Neo-Gothic style building built between 1867 & 1909 and the home to the famous 'Glockenspiel'. It is also the 5th largest building in Europe.

Glockenspiel

*NB: the 'Glockenspiel' despite being well renowned is not a very impressive spectacle, in fact it is more fun to look at peoples faces when they have just realised this fact after they have been waiting a while to see it...lol

We continued around town on our orientation; we saw a few of the beer halls and some other impressive sites before going back to the hostel. Damo and Dax where taking those who wanted to into festival for there first glimpse of Oktoberfest. As Emil and I had already been before we went back into town to get a nice meal and have a few beers. Tomorrow was going to be a big day so we where just warming up.

In the morning we had a typical German style breaky of cold meats bread, toast fruit and cereal at the hostel. Those who survived their first night got up early as well, and after a feed we commenced our mission to Oktoberfest.

Lowenbrau Lion

Its was early Saturday morning, arriving at the grounds at about 7:30, we headed for the Löwenbräu tent - (Löwenbräu = meaning Lions Brew). The tents open around 9am on the weekends (or 10am weekdays).

reserving tables

Our guides had some contacts on the inside, Damo and I where able to get into the Löwenbräu tent at about 8am (before anyone else) so we could reserve tables for our group.
<--- Here is a pic with all our stuff on the tables to reserve them for when the tents where opened and the following stampede occurred ..

As soon as they opened the doors it was on!!! it was a struggle to hold the tables as everyone raced in, with people trying to steal our seats left right and centre...luckily more of our Busabout group made it in quickly and we where able hold our tables. You find a lot of the tables are already reserved* which makes it hard for people who haven't booked to get seats inside.
But we where in and the drinking began.. again :)

my table

The Löwenbräu tent filled up fast and by 11am the doors where closed because it was at capacity. No more people where able to get in! and it stayed this way for most of the day.

Our beer wench

There was no smoking in the beer tents this year, so a lot of people where smoking in the toilets as there where no provided smoking areas, if you get caught you get kicked out and they wouldn't serve you again. This happened to me and a friend & we where thrown out. Luckily our beer wench and tour guides where able to talk with the head of security and we got back in = very lucky :)

NB* if you ever go to Oktoberfest you can reserve tables through the respective tents providers, these book out very early, so you have to get in quick.

Emil and Me

Most of our group had their orange Busabout/Oktoberfest shirts on which made it easy to identify each other in the masses. During the day I got to know the most members of our group pretty well, as well as a lot of the people on the tables around us.

Band Stage

We drank a lot and it slowly progressed into a messy but lively afternoon, there was singing with the band, dancing on chairs and tables, socialising and enjoying beer related foods like half chickens, pork knuckle, pretzels and more :)
There was traditional beer drinking songs being played all day and we where actual sitting just behind there stage.

Natasha and the English lads

An ingenious way to monitor how many steins you have is to mark each one off on your arm with a pen, this way when you wake up the next morning you can tell how much damage you did. I managed 8 steins that first day and set myself a bench mark. I also lost 2 pens..lol

I ended up bailing in the late afternoon and can remember stumbling out of the Oktoberfest grounds and jumping in a cab, (luckily we had Womabts hostel wrist band with the address on it :), I got some pizza from a little place across the road then went and passed out cold. It was a good day.

 ''Prosit''