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Brewed by the “Big Six” breweries, the special Oktoberfestbier is served in a 1 liter Maß (mass). Each Maß costs about €8, and at about 6% ABV, it’s wise to enjoy them with pretzels and chicken!

There’re 14 main tents at Oktoberfest, but we spent most of our time in three: the Augustiner-Festhalle (Augustiner Bräu), the Hofbräu-Festzelt (Hofbräu München), and the Käfers Wiesen Schänke (Paulaner). As you can see from my post on the festival, the tents are actually very large tin sheds (constructed and deconstructed each year), but the insides of each are elaborately decorated creating an atmosphere perfect for “merrymaking.” As an example, more than 600kg of hop decorate the ceiling of the Hofbräu-Festzelt.

Getting into the tents before 4:00pm is easy, but finding a seat is not. Even at about 1:15pm on a weekday, John and I found ourselves crisscrossing the Augustiner-Festhall for 15 minutes before we found places to sit (you’re only served food and bier if you have a seat).

In the end, we always (eventually) found places to sit, and we had a great time in all of the tents we visited. My favorite, though, was the Augustiner-Festhalle, where we spent an entire day (from 1:30pm-10:30pm). Augustiner is the local favorite, because – at least according to the Germans we met – it has the best food and the best bier! It’s impossible to describe the atmosphere (singing, prosting, eating, etc.), so I’ve included a short video, featuring the music of the Augustiner Oktoberfest band. Enjoy!

Oktoberfest is the largest public festival in the world, with over six million people attending each year. Featuring beer-drinking and merrymaking, Oktoberfest is about 16 days long, and it’s held on the grounds of the Theresienwiese (field of Therese) in central Munich.

Munich, home to Oktoberfest, was our home from October 1-4. (In reality, the TENT was our home, but we only spent time there to sleep.)

As one of the main catalysts for our trip, most of our time in Munich was spent at Oktoberfest. One post isn’t enough to do Oktoberfest justice, so I plan to do six short posts on it: the festival, the tents, the bier, the food, the rides, and the people.

From September 25 – October 6, I traveled with a friend from Minnesota on a whistle-stop tour of Europe. Over 11 days, John and I managed to visit four countries (Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium), master public transportation, witness a small avalanche, hike into a glacier, eat amazing foods, participate in the world’s largest fair, and take over 1000 photos. Over the next few days I’ll be posting some of the highlights of the trip and my favorite photos.

To answer the popular question, yes I am taking classes this semester! Because of the scheduling here at TU Delft, though, I only have one class this quarter, which meets once a week. So, there’s some free time to explore a bit.