Five Days in Munich: Oktoberfest and Exploring the Beautiful City

DAY ONE – 20th September

Today was amazing. I had an early flight into Munich at 6am (which was timed beautifully with the sunrise), Lisa picked me up and we went straight back to hers. It was so good to see her again after over a year, especially since the plans we had made back then had worked out!

Munich really took me by surprise, I don’t know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t to see as many trees as I did. Henry and I took a nap before setting out on bikes around Munich. We went to Olympia park before the BMW World, and the castle in the center of Munich. We had ice cream at Mad Iceman, before going to the Augustiner brewery beer garden. Munich is such a habitable city, it’s insane. Biking through town slightly tipsy on old bikes felt like something out of an old dream. I have truly fell in love with Munich!

DAY TWO – 21st September

We got up pretty early today to catch the opening parade of Oktoberfest. Due to the name, a lot of people arrive later in the festival, but it usually ends on the 3rd or 4th of October and goes two weeks prior to that. I’d highly, highly recommend to anyone thinking of travelling for it to go to the opening parade. There’s no feeling like standing at the end of a long street and hearing the thundering of drums slowly coming around the corner. The horses and carriages were incredible, and it went on for about an hour! The biggest parade I’ve ever been to. Lisa said in the secondary parade there would be about 9000 people performing and partaking in it alone.

Then there’s the festivalgoers. Munich has a population of 1.4 million, but during Oktoberfest that raises by 6 MILLION.

ALSO, I feel like I expected a lot less from Oktoberfest. Maybe some regular marquees, bit of muddy grounds and a couple of crappy old rides. NOPE. This is a full scale insanity event. 6 massive warehouses are put up and taken down each year on a huge area of concrete that hold about 5000 people each. There are around 80 carnival rides, including a ferris wheel, two 80m spinning chairs, and some that have been there for over 50 years.

These tents are all decorated differently, according to the brewery. One of them, Hacker-Pschorr had an entire sky on the roof of theirs. Each of them had an adjacent beer garden where you could sit and drink before going inside to sit and drink. If you really wanted to sit and drink, you could also go to the old festival area, where they have more history and old fashioned rides.

One thing I have noted in my phone is getting fussed over by a German Mum. Lisa’s family was kind enough to lend me y own dirndl, and it was awesome. Lisa’s Mum made sure the bow was right, ironed and straight.

DAY THREE – 22nd September

Day three was a bit of a sightseeing day before Oktoberfest again. We went into the main city and almost right away we were stopped by tourists and asked about our drindls and leiderhosen. I fit in! We had a bit of lunch before heading out to the festival again. We went on the roller coaster with Lisa’s family which was super fun.

There’s a photo of my dad at Oktoberfest in 1991, and I love recreating my parent’s old photos. So, we couldn’t figure out which beer tent he was at originally, but this photo feels pretty close. I recreated another one of my Mum’s photos when I was in Canada, which you can see here.

The best part of the night was one of the attractions that is verrryyyy old (I don’t remember how old). You pay an entrance fee into a tent with a huge spinning disc on the floor. The idea is that anyone can jump in (called by categories of course) and the goal is to stay on this very smooth slightly cone-shaped disc as it spins. It starts by everyone in a category such as under 18s rushing over the railing onto the disc, all trying to sit in the middle ( as this is where you have less chance of getting flung). It slowly starts to spin and everyone is clinging onto each other. As it gets faster, people start flying. You can absolutely sacrifice your neighbour. Last standing wins.

DAY FOUR – 23rd September

Chill day today! We slept in, planned some more of my trip, got a new phone case, watched a movie, got my ass handed to me in Monopoly and went to bed.

DAY FIVE – 24th September

We started the day by driving early out to Dachau to explore the old concentration camp and museum. I’ve never had much interest in the history of world war two, but this was really interesting to walk around and learn more about. It’s one thing hearing about it in another country on the other side of the world – seeing it in real life is very sobering.

Oh heck. I don’t know why today at Oktoberfest hit worse than the others. Maybe we didn’t eat as much. We started in the old festival, having a couple of Augustiner beers before going over to the Lowebrau tent where we had spent the week. Danced on some tables with the family (everyone was doing it Mum, it’s normal). A very good last night!

Caught the train to Prague this morning! I am in LOVE with catching trains. Such an awesome way to see the country and omg the seats are SO much more comfy than a plane. More legroom, wifi, big headrests you can actually sleep on without drooling on your neighbour’s shoulder. Lovely.

Catch up soon!