Written by Kim
We had a fantastic time at Oktoberfest. What a party! This year was the 188th Oktoberfest in Munich which is held from September 16 to October 3, 2023 at Munich’s Theresienwiese. It’s been 9 years since we were here. We’re a bit older and greyer but felt like veterans.
There are 14 big tents that are put up for this 3 1/2 week festival. It’s amazing. Each one is decorated a bit differently.
Each tent serves 1 liter beers ranging from 13€ to 14.50€ and lots of great food. The roasted chicken is my favorite.
We got to the fest about 2 pm and stayed till about 9. We each drank 6 Liters of beer (I marked them down in my phone or we wouldn’t know).
We met a bunch of great people. We sat in almost exactly the same place as last time in Hofbrau house near the water closets. Lol. At our table we’re 2 girls from Staten Island and some German young men. Behind us were some crazy Aussies. Craziness ensued. In the afternoon there is a traditional German band in each tent. In the evening a rock band comes in with lots of dancing. At our table the kids paid one of the men to drink a beer from his sneaker. 100€ buys a lot of beer so he had no trouble sucking it down.
At some point around 9 Alex said, “we gotta go”. Our walk back to the hotel was about 20 minutes but took us a bit longer as we stumbled along. Alex fell on the sidewalk and skinned his knee so now we have matching banged up knees because I fell in Prague. At least he was drinking. I tripped on the cobblestones
Day 2 we vowed we weren’t drinking but decided to go back up to the fairgrounds because a friend of mine, Eugene, who I hadn’t seen in 24 years posted he would be at Oktoberfest on FB. We met Eugene in the Lowenbrau tent to catch up. It was great to see him. He still lives in NJ but I had to fly across the ocean to connect. Lol
Each tent has their horses and carts carrying beer outside
The fairground have lots of rides and food vendors kind of like the boardwalk. Lots of families are there during the day. Don’t these people work it’s Wednesday & Thursday in our pictures
We made a great choice in our hotel it was right across the street from the Central train station and about a 15-20 minute walk to the fest.
We enjoyed a nightcap at our hotel and met some great Aussies so had to have a few more drinks and share travel stories. They were doing a similar trip to us but in reverse. They started in Paris, went to Berlin prior to Munich and then we’re going to Prague, Budapest and Croatia. They live near Brisbane.
While we always said we wanted to go to Oktoberfest just once more but I can see another trip in our future. I know Alex would love for his boys to join us but maybe we will need to wait and take the grands. We will see. We have so many places on our list. Off on the train to Heidelberg now.
