GRAB GELATO & GO

September 24-25, 2023

Oktoberfest. The most exciting event of my life. Top of my bucket list. The land of beer and pretzels.

Oktoberfest worked flawlessly in our itinerary because I was coming to Germany for the 2nd time to move my stuff in, and Andrew was already here from moving in our first round of stuff. This time, I was accompanied by my mom, my sister, my brother in law, and of course, my cat! We flew into Frankfurt, rode the Airliner to Darmstadt, and spent the rest of the day in our new town.

The next morning, we trained to Rothenburg Ob de Tauber for a night. From there, we trained to Munich for Oktoberfest.

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The gates to enter were flooded with people, all dressed in their dirndls and lederhosen. It was free to get in and there was a lot to do besides drink beer, so people of all ages and family dynamics were there.

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You do not need to wear dirndls or lederhosen! My sister and I were the only ones in our group to wear them. Our husbands and mom did not dress up for the occasion, which was completely fine! If you choose to dress in traditional clothing, you will not be alone, so don’t be afraid! Most people were in their formal Oktoberfest attire. No one cares! Just don’t wear a halloween costume.

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According to Oktoberfest’s website, there were 17 large and 21 small tents this year at Oktoberfest and the Oide Wiesn.

Beers were 14-15 euros each and you could only pay in cash.

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Armbrustschutzenzelt Paulaner was our first tent at around 4 pm. We walked in and it was absolutely packed. Music was being played in the center of the room; waiters and waitresses were walking around carrying tons of beer.

There were a few tables open in the back so we took one and were planning on eating there. A few minutes later, we were told that everyone in that section had to leave because it was for reservations only. (We looked into getting a reservation, but it said you had to have a group of 8 to reserve a table).

Take Me Home, Country Roads played at Paulaner. I could not believe how many Germans knew this song. If the world ever has world peace, it is because of this song.

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We left and bought sausage and fries from a food tent outside.

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At Hacker Pschorr, we had luck finding a table since my sister asked a waiter if he could seat us. He actually asked other guests to move to different tables and consolidate so we could sit at a table. Finding a table was so lucky, and there were evil eyes on us from people waiting to sit. This was the start of the best night ever.

German songs were on repeat, and we actually started to memorize them without knowing what they were saying. (We eventually looked them up.)

As the night went on, songs we knew like “I will survive” was a favorite to be played. Other people at our table stood up on the benches and danced, and as we looked around, half of the room was doing it, so we stood up on those benches.

Towards the end of the night, every person in the tent was on the benches dancing and singing!

I have to add that I was not expecting everyone to be as respectful as they were. There were a ton of people there and I didn’t see anyone having issues or causing a scene.

But, be careful on the benches…someone might tip yours over!

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There were more rides for children than I was expecting! Andrew hitched a ride around the fair grounds:

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We spent the night at a hotel in Munich and explored the city the next morning while we were recovering from the night before.

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The next day, we found a table at Paulaner and sat there. Since it was a Monday at 5 pm, it was not as busy as the previous night.

After a beer or two each (the beers were stronger here), we ate fries, rode the Ferris wheel, and tent hopped over to one tent then Hofbrau Festzelt.

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We briefly stopped into the Augustiner Festhalle Tent

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Our night ended by dancing on the benches at the shovel tent (I’m working on finding the name lol).

We found a whole empty table, took it, and then ordered our beers. What we didn’t know was this table was actually reserved! The guys saw us there, told the workers it was fine if we stayed, and then went to the table next to us. There weren’t any reserved signs, but since it was late in the evening, they had all consolidated to their other table.

We ended up talking to this friend group for a while and they reserved these two tables 2 years in advance! They were a group from all over the world and they meet up at Oktoberfest to spend time together.