that time I drank 6 liters of beer in a day

I went to Oktoberfest this past weekend and man, oh man was it a blast. The festival is in Munich, Germany and it lasts for 2 weeks (3 weekends) and this past weekend was the closing of it. It literally consists of drinking obscene amounts of beer and eating delicious food, and it didn't get old at all. The majority of the people that go to Oktoberfest are German too (approx 75%), so it's totally an authentic cultural experience.

My (lonnnnnng) weekend began Thursday night when I went to the bus stop with Grace and Vero to meet up with the tour group I was traveling down with. My friends from NYU had booked a hostel earlier in the year and I had a spot in their group, so all I had to do was find transportation and going with Florence for Fun was by far the cheapest option. So we left at 11pm and arrived in Munich around 7am, when we promptly dropped off our stuff, grabbed some coffee and headed to Oktoberfest!

me, Grace, Olivia, Vero

We got into the Hacker-Festzelt tent at 10am when it opened and promptly ordered a beer. Alcohol that early has never sounded remotely appealing to me, but something about the Oktoberfest vibe just made it exactly what I wanted. The beers only come in one size, and that size is liter (just over 2 pints). They come in massive glass mugs, and after the first day my hand was sore from holding it for so long.

our first Oktoberfest beers!

We sat at a table next to an awesome group of Germans and we ended up staying in the tent for five hours. I wasn't too sure of how much fun it would be just sitting, drinking, eating, and socializing for hours in the tents before I went, but it was such a great time. The waitresses come around and take drink and food orders and the service is unbelievably fast, especially considering how many people are there. The tent we were in had a 8,000 person capacity!

Inside the tent

The food was also unbelievably tasty. It was a bit of a struggle finding a vegetarian option since I wasn't sure what any of the German words were, but one of the German girls we met spoke really great English and she helped me find spätzle! It's basically German mac n cheese but SO MUCH BETTER. It has saeurkraut and onions mixed in and then topped with some sort of seasoning. I had it both days for lunch. Obviously the meat was the best thing to get in Germany, and seeing the chicken everyone was eating made me truly crave meat for the first time since becoming vegetarian this summer.

Olivia with her half chicken

my (half-eaten) spätzle and mixed salad

We left around 3pm because Grace had to go meet up with some friends who had just arrived, so I went with her to her hostel and Olivia and Vero went back to theirs to drop off their bags (and take a little siesta). Grace and I happened across a church that was allowing people to climb the bell tower for only 3 euro, and it was quite a trek but it ended up being a great view of the city and the entire festival grounds, and it was huge! You don't really understand how massive it all is when you're in the middle of it.

aerial view of Oktoberfest

We went back to her hostel and recouped for a bit, met up with her friends, and then headed right back into the thick of it. The group of friends I was meeting up with decided to go to Dachau (the concentration camp) before coming to Oktoberfest and, seeing as I was already 3.5 liters deep, decided I should probably skip it. We went to the Hofbrauhaus beer garden (which is just the area outside the tent) and got some more beer (of course) and I hung around with her friends until my group showed up at 8.

There were six of us then and we got a table and caught up for a couple of hours until the tent closed at 11pm. I was pretty poussed by the end of the day, so getting back to our hostel on the outskirts of Munich was a bit of a struggle, but we got there with no issues and promptly all passed out. Our hostel was called The Tent and it was literally a big room with a bunch of mats on the floor, and I have never been more cold sleeping in my life. We piled on the blankets and got through the evening in a massive cuddle train.

In the morning on Saturday, we were told that if we wanted to get into a tent we had to get there by 7:30, but we got there at 9 and got in fine. Rachel and Christina opted to sleep in a bit and meet up with us later, so Dom, Gabbie, Cullen and I ended up going early and got into the Paulaner tent. It took us a while to find seats, but no worries, we had our first beers before 10 (and Dom and Cullen finished theirs before 10:45). Gabbie and I were slightly slower, especially as I was still recovering from my first day in the tent.

Gabbie, Cullen, Dom and me

inside the tent!

The second day went much the same as the first, except with less drinking on my part, and at around 3 again we ventured out in search of other activities. We rode an Olympic rings roller coaster and got snacks from the venders outside. Cullen and Dom were in need of a nap, and Dom had to take his stolen memorabilia home (he successfully stole a beer stein!), so Gabbie and I went to meet up with Rachel and Christina at the train station to explore Munich's historic center city a bit. There honestly wasn't much to see except for some beautiful architecture, but it was great to see/hang out with Rach for a bit.

the roller coaster!

the famous Hofbrauhaus restaurant

We got dinner in center city and then met up with Cullen and Dom in the tents at night and spent the rest of our evening there, of course drinking beer. I surprisingly didn't get sick of beer the whole weekend, although I might be done with it for a while now.

The swings on the festival grounds (I did not partake due to the beer and food inside my already sensitive stomach)

On Sunday Rachel, Cullen, Gabbie and Christina left early because they were going to a castle a couple of hours outside of Munich, so me and Dom were left to our own devices. Despite the rainy weather we decided to go check out the 1972 Olympic fairgrounds. It was cool to go but we couldn't really go inside anywhere, nor were there any info boards so we were more guessing what we were looking at.

the track field

the main Olympiad area

After our exploring we went back to the hostel where my tour group was leaving from, and Dom departed to catch his train. I managed to stay awake for the 8 hour bus ride home so my sleeping schedule wasn't too messed up, and we got back to Florence around 11pm. Exhausting yet amazingly satisfying weekend!

New thing: Literally everything I did this weekend? My new favorite thing was learning/singing all the German drinking songs. I still have no idea what I was saying though.