Oktoberfest!

We spent the next week or so enjoying our last European city - Munich. We visited our favourite cocktail bar, mexican food eatery, our favourite icecream shop & the largest outdoors/camping shop we have seen! We also spent two days at Oktoberfest! We hadn't planned to visit the festival (Wiesn in German) but just happened to be in Munich at the same time. We were curious to see how it all looked compared to our imagination (lots of drunk aussies, lots of beer and women with large breasts popping out of frilly tops). It was pretty much exactly like that - but a whole lot of fun. The first day, we went to brunch at a local restaurant with friends - where Ivar started the day with a beer and weisswurst (Bavarian white sausage). We headed over to the festival about lunchtime. It took us over an hour to get into the Hofbrau tent. We lined up out the back of the tent (all of the tents were full by 9am that day!! It was a long weekend in Italy and the weekend is actually known as the Italian Weekend because most of Italy ups and moves to Munich for the three days - camper vans are parked EVERYWHERE and raucous football cheers sound randomly on the streets). After waiting in the hot sun for ages - watching at least three people stretchered into ambulances, and countless others passed out on the hill behind us (remember - only lunchtime so far!!), eventually a waitress spotted us and made the security guard let us in, she took us to an empty table where we were joined by two Bavarian brothers and a feisty Italian couple (sorry Milano! couple...."Italy...pfft!!!!"....they only told us about 8 times. They didn't speak any English but managed to convey that they are Northern Italians, and don't dare group them with Southern Italians....). We spent the next few hours drinking the largest mugs of beer ever, and eating Weisswurst & Bavarian chicken with our hands. The lines to get into the tents were larger than ever, and because security was so busy trying to keep the crowds from coming in, we slipped out with a souvenir mug ;) We wound our way home through the streets - Dee totally gone with a newfound like for beer, and Ivar also taken by the effect of the Bavarian brews! We sobered up a little in our apartment, and then headed out for dinner before allowing ourselves to pass out!!





The next day, we returned to Oktoberfest! (Of course.....) We had some drinks with friends & friends of friends, and enjoyed more Bavarian wurst and beer.