My adventures: Oktoberfest 2015

Hello friends!

On Saturday, my usual group and I decided to make the trip to Oktoberfest in München (Munich). I am the only one who has been before, but I do love hanging out with this group.

We got on the train around 1015 and settled in for a long two hour train ride. I tried to get a picture of Dom looking at me while in his backpack carrier thingy, but he looked away at the last second. He really is adorable!

K and I had to get the obligatory selfie picture. She forgot her camera phone (as usual) so T and I gotta take all the pictures for her to share with her family. If I don't take pictures like this, it's doubtful that I will make it in any pictures at all. 

For some reason, it's really difficult to get C to smile in a picture. I had to insult him a little for this smile, which his wife thought was funny

One of the few words that Dom says clearly is "up". He likes hanging from the luggage rack, which he did several times over the course of the ride to Munich. C and I said now it's time to teach him to do pull-ups. C demonstrated the pull-up motion with Dom by pushing him up and down while he hung there, which made Dom laugh quite hysterically.

Our first stop off the train was Starbucks for T and K. They both wanted a pumpkin spice latte, and I just wanted a croissant and some hot chocolate. Then, K saw this hat that she wanted, so we got it before continuing on our way to the fest. I made sure to get a side view so we could show it was a beer mug in the Bavarian flag colors!

Oktoberfest is the largest fest in Germany, and it happens over a several week period starting at the end of September and going into October. The festplatz is HUGE! There are 4 major beer tents that you have to buy a table for the day to get into, and that can be kind of costly. Last year, I went with the rest of my team, and we got a table for several hours with two beer tickets and a chicken ticket.

There are several smaller "tents" to chose from for food and beer, but you aren't supposed to take the beers out of the tents. Each tent has it's own theme or style, and they are all pretty awesome. Since T is pregnant, Dom was with us, and I was using my cane, we didn't try to get into a tent, that is something they want to save for next year when T can properly drink. 

There were SO many people at this fest (not a surprise) that it actually set C and I on edge a little bit. We didn't ride any rides (although T took a picture of every fun house and cheese 80's horror ride there were- apparently she does this everywhere we go and I just found out about it), but C and I played a couple games. It took us forever to make the walk around the fest anyways, there was SO much to see.

One of my favorite parts of the fests are the fries (in German, pommes). Thankfully, this time, they had the proper fest seasoning, which made me super happy. This was a large thing of fries, so big that K and I shared them and we still didn't finish the entire thing. They were super cheap though, only 4 euro for this big thing, super warm, and super yummy.

I bought several souvenir's this time around (last year I only brought enough money for a pretzel and a mug). This year I bought the necklace above, a mug (cheaper then the one I bought last year), two postcards, two stickers for my travel book, and a t-shirt that I saw last year but didn't get. T also bought me a gingerbread cookie thing that says Oktoberfest on it. 

While you can only get beer in the tents, they have several places to get liquor and other cocktails. Right before we left, C and I spotted a place to get mojito's (he really loves them), so we both got one. This one was MUCH better then the one we got at the Nurnburg fest a couple weeks ago, the bartender actually mixed the ingredients instead of just throwing everything into a glass and hanging it off. I liked the glass, so I took this one home with me as well. It's a harder plastic and I like the Captain and Cola symbol on both sides of the glass.

Oktoberfest has more roller coasters then the other fest's that we've been too, and the one above was themed with teddy bears. I wish I had taken a picture of some of the stuffed bears that were amongst the souvenir shops within the fest. 

Overall, we had a great day. It was slightly chilly, but for the most part I didn't wear my jacket until we were on the train. There were a LOT of people, and they aren't very considerate of people's personal space, but that's nothing new. 

After we get paid, we're making a trip to Ludwigsburg for the Pumpkin Festivle, which is another trip that I took last year, but want to take again this year with my favorite group! I'll be sharing a post about my travel insert here soon once it gets caught up.

Until next time,

Happy travels everyone!