Day 14 - Oktoberfest!

Last night was the first day of Oktoberfest. We headed down to the festival around 12 p.m. and immediately realized how hard it would be to get into a tent. The tents are hosted by different local German breweries and they are really the only place you can drink at the festival. This also requires you have a seat inside the tent. We were waiting outside of the Augustiner Tent for quite a while and realized we were never going to get in. In the meantime, we had met a German guy that we had been hanging out with in line and he was telling us how the whole thing worked since this was his 5th time at Oktoberfest. He and Tekla stayed in line and Cormac and I went to see if we could find a gas station to buy beer at so we could drink while we were waiting in line for the tent.

I headed down this alley and saw 3 guys standing around behind a tent. I asked them where we could get beer and that we could not get into a tent. He said "come with me" and walked us straight into a tent! He must work there or know people or something. He let Cormac run back and grab Tekla and the German guy (Michael). We proceeded to meet a variety of awesome people that were willing to share their seats with us so we could order beer.

Each beer is 1 Liter and served in gigantic beer steins. There is a live band playing in the center of the tent and there are a zillion ducks being roasted in the kitchen. We had a whole duck, pretzels, potatoes, and red kraut, which was awesome! The food was fantastic.

We danced the night away and eventually Michael´s brother and his girlfriend were able to meet up with us as well. We partied all day and into the night with them as well as a bunch of other German folks we befriended in the tents.

Today I headed into town with Britta and Phillip and had breakfast at the hostel where she works. We then headed up the street and watched the Oktoberfest Parade for a couple hours before I met up with Tekla and Cormac. We decided to have a chill day walking around the festival because we needed to store up energy for day 3 of Oktoberfest! I went home and went for a 4 mile run and then hung out with Britta, Phillip, and some of their friends. We ordered take out Mexican food and chilled out for the night.