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Prost!

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The elder Salimarkles took a small city break this weekend to meet up with some friends in Munich (München) for Oktoberfest. How could we be so close to Germany and not go, right?! Boom boom was here to watch the little Salimarkles and Munich is less than an hour via plane (we got cheap tickets!) so off we went.

I can take no credit for all the plans - we happen to be lucky enough that one of our friends is the master organiser and indeed made everything happen in perfect form. I was very happy to profit from this though! The one thing I did to prepare was buy a Dirndl. These are the traditional costumes for women. If I had known they'd be sold on every corner there, I would've just got one there but I amazon'd it beforehand and I actually quite like it.

Dressed appropriately for the festivities in a Dirndl and Lederhosen
We arrived very late on Thursday night and while we could have made a run for the tents, we decided it would be better to hit everything fresh on Friday. Our friends had a rough Thursday so we met them mid-morning for some champagne - aka breakfast wine - to start the festivities. We decided to engage with some culture so we walked around the main area of the city, seeing a few things before settling ourselves into the historical Haufbrau Haus. We had several different beers to choose from and I had my favourite delicious veal sausages (Weißwurst). From there, we continued ambling along and took a nap before heading out for the evening to rest up for the night ahead.

Culture...

One of the Haus

Finally, that night, I actually got to the 'Fest. It is basically a huge state fair! There are food stands everywhere and tons of rides. We started off with the flea circus. Why? I mean, why not. Well, I can tell you it's exactly what you would think (if you've ever thought about a flea circus). There are minuscule bugs that carry heavy things around and do tricks. It was weird.

We decided to forego the rides until the next day but I will go ahead and say now that they actually ended up being super fun. It has been a hot minute since I've ridden a roller coaster and they are AWESOME!

We tried to enter the tents but they were fully packed on Friday night so instead we went to an outside bar. We made some "friends" (some of whom we didn't really need or want to be around - like the guy who straight up punched his friend in the nuts... some friend!) but - more importantly - this bar was a homing beacon for all the Bavarian suits in the place! :)

We eventually made it into a tent enough to enjoy a few last raucous songs and get a beer before they closed the place down! Of course, we know none of the German songs so we made up our own words. Instead of "Ein Prosit" you can sing "I'm roasting" and it sounds pretty similar. :) Also, we learned Robbie Williams is hugely popular in Europe. We had no idea (I didn't know who he was...). After that, it was really just enjoying watching the craziness on our way home.

We found a table! Ein Prosit, ein prosit!
On Saturday, we had tent reservations at the traditional Armbrustschützenzeit Paulaner Tent. One of our peeps got turned away at the door for the Bavarian suit. However, once inside, we all had a great time. Beer, songs, chicken - it was really fun! We weren't quite ready to leave when we lost our table so we went to the Moet champagne room instead - because we be classy wishes.

Our tent

Prost!

After that, it was time to leave and get some dinner and fly out the next day... but it was definitely worth the trip and we had a great time! Lovely energy (most of the time) and camaraderie.

We had to get a giant heart for the kids. It says "Ich Liebe Dich" - I LOVE YOU!

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