The Best Fest, Pt. 1

I'll start with a zinger--Munich's Oktoberfest is the best time we've had in nearly a year in Europe and ranks among our top parties of all time. After having tentatively planned to attend for years but now finally within striking distance, our nagging apprehension that the event would be campy or touristy or overrated was off base. If marathon beer-drinking isn't your thing, you should probably select a different vacation spot. But if your liver can handle a weekend of craziness, this is the carnival for you.

In a nutshell, Oktoberfest (held since 1810) runs for two weeks and three weekends hosting six million visitors in Munich's festival grounds. It's a gigantic carnival whose prominent feature is a wide corridor of 14 "tents"--temporary structures but more like gigantic decorated warehouse buildings--hosted by local Bavarian breweries. Beer is served only by the Maß, or heavy 1-liter glass stein, early and often. Each tent holds three seatings per day, lunch from about 11pm-3pm, happy hour from 3-7pm, and an evening seating from 7-11pm. Tickets are required for bench seating, otherwise crazy people queue outside for hours for general admission standing room. Various tents hold anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 people. The festival is additionally celebrated by men dressing in traditional Lederhosen, or leather trousers, and women in Dirndls, which look like a St.Pauli Girl dress.

Our Chicago friends Matt and Mel--who quit the rat race and have crewed in the Caribbean for the past two years and just obtained their own 45-ft. catamaran for chartering (check them out and book an awesome vacation at http://www.sailfreeingwe.com/)--got married the last weekend in September and subsequently honeymooned for two weeks in Europe, including visiting Oktoberfest accompanied by a group from their wedding party. Steph and I obtained tickets (via eBay in German, not easy) for the U.S. group for seats in the Hofbräu tent on Friday evening Oct 3, and we were also invited to the Hippodrom tent for Saturday lunch with a group of Zürich friends.

Matt & Mel came to Zürich to unwind for a few days at the Park Hyatt (he's a former Hyatt employee) after their wedding and before the big event. I greeted them at the airport and showed them around Zürich a bit the first afternoon before jet- and wedding-lag took its toll. The four of us spent two nice evenings together and then boarded the train for Munich on Thursday morning. The ride was uneventful save for an atypical draught beer vendor hawking his wares up and down the train aisles--at 8:30am (we declined, beer and espresso don't mix). The various U.S. group members and one early Zürich couple--our good Australian/Philly friends--rendezvous'ed throughout that afternoon and evening. Steph and I had briefly toured the city (two days, one night) way back in 1998 and our group similarly visited the Marienplatz and Rathaus Glockenspiel and meandered through the old town before (like all groups) being irresistibly magnetically drawn to the legendary Munich Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. In that cavernous raucous beer hall we luckily snagged a far-flung corner table, began drinking beer in earnest and seemingly barely stopped for the next 48 hours.

Coming out of the gates far too early on Thursday night made Friday afternoon a bit rough (I'd say Friday morning but we didn't actually see it). We walked from our hotel through dismal steady rain to Munich's enormous public park, the Englischer Garten, for lunch and a recovery panaché, or 50/50 beer with 7-Up (so as not to shock the system too much either way). After a critical nap, I donned my Lederhosen and traditional German shirt (obtained from eBay and a Munich clothing store, respectively) and we all headed to the fairgrounds (I was the only U.S. group member decked out but Saturday's Zürich group was well-costumed; Steph had tried in vain to procure a Dirndl...next year)...

OK, sorry to stop here for now, but there's more description and, more importantly, pictures of Hosen, Dirndls, massive steins, bloodshot eyes, etc., to come.