Oktoberfest: Beer is Proof...

Ok, so this is generally considered to be a misquote and Franklin was actually talking about wine.  But, in my limited life experiences, it is very true nonetheless.


Last weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to go to München (that's Munich to you) for Oktoberfest with some of the best people I know.  It was an incredible experience.  I don't even know how to begin to describe the craziness other than to say it was amazing.  It may be a tourist trap, but it is also the world's largest fair and the continuation of a historic tradition that has been held since 1810 (although a few years were missed due to disease and war).

Oktoberfest was originally held to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hilburghausen on October 12, 1810.  The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the happy royal event.  They repeated the celebrations the next year and the tradition has gone on since then.


The basic layout is like your average carnival.  There's a ton of food stands, souvenir shops and and even rides all over the grounds.  Then, of course,the most important feature in my opinion is that there are the 14 amazing beer tents built for the festival.  These aren't your average festival tents you know from Musikfest or Celtic Classic, but legitimate wooden structures with two stories and a huge seating / standing area.


It was a great time.  It was a little touch and go there in the morning/who knows when because I lost all sense of time since I drove 4.5 hours to Munich on very little sleep and then drank the extra-alcoholic beer right away, but all was well and it was a great couple of days.


Fun Fact: Only special beer can be served at Oktoberfest per an old law.  The beer must be brewed within the city limits of Munich and is a minimum of 6% alcohol (so it's incredibly easy to get very drunk very fast - just trust me on this one).

I don't know all of the official Oktoberfest breweries, but the following are the ones I remember:

• Augustiner
• Löwenbräu
• Paulaner
• Spatenbräu
• Hofbräu

Sadly, we didn't have time to visit all of the tents / party mansions, but we did manage to have a really good time at the Schottenhamel tent, the Hippodrom, the Hofbräu tent and the Ochsenbrei tent. But we managed to drink a lot of beer, make new friends, and eat a lot of German food like Oxen!, pork knuckle and weisswurst.


Side Note: I was amazed at how incredible and efficient the servers are all over the festival.  It's like magic.  Also, I've seen this before in a beer hall, but it's still crazy to see these servers, men and women, carrying armloads of full beer liters like it's nothing.  It's seriously impressive.  I'm talking like 6 in each hand at once.


The atmosphere is great.  I love all the friendly neighbors, the drinking songs and the good time vibes.  For Future reference, if you are ever going to go to Oktoberfest, you're gonna want to know the words to Ein Prosit, which is seriously played every 20 minutes.  Here they are:

Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der Gemutlichkeit

Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, der Gemutlichkeit

Then you chant "Eins, zwei, drei g'suffa!"
 

This should be followed by a chant of Prost! (Cheers) & a cheers with everyone at the table.(REMEMBER: Eye contact is a MUST!)

Here's a few more pictures of the awesomeness.

 

I loved every minute of the experience and I would go back in a heartbeat.  It's definitely something off the bucket list!  By the end of our whirlwind trip, we all kind of sat back and looked at each other and asked, "Who lives this kind of life?"  The Answer: "We Do!"