In
September of last year (2011), I went to Germany after an invitation from a
friend, Simone, who I met in Buenos Aires when I was living there. In our agertinian
times, she could see how much I, and most of brazilians, feed this huge passion
for beer! So, right after we were sure I would come live in Portugal, she
invited me to stay in her house, in Ausgsburg, one hour or so from Munich,
where OKTOBERFEST happens every year! YEYYY!
You
know, I traveled to some other places after this one, but, still, this was the
trip I liked the most! Besides all the fun of meeting again someone from the other side of the world, and all the obsession for drinking hehe, of course that staying in a friend's house makes you
save a lot of money and makes it much easier to have a good sense of humor
during the trip - for those used to the little bag from "Ryanair",
you know what I'm talking about! - you have extra money for souvenirs, get in
museums that you maybe woudn't, and, in this especific case, to drink more
beer!!! =))) especially when each 1L mug of beer costs 8 Euros.
Well,
I'll try to explain my tragetory 'till there. I got on a flight here in Porto
to Memmingen Airport, using Ryanair. I remeber that by then it was more
expensive than I expected, 'cause the festival had already began when I bought
the tickets, but, searching for it today, I found out that the prices are still
very low for this year, the festival will star on Setpember 22, going 'till
October 09. So, if you arrive in Memmingen, you still need to catch a train
that will take you to Munich, it costs around 20 Euros and you can check the
timetable and exactly prices here. As long as this train is necessary,
sometimes it's worth it going with Easy Jet, it usually offers a bit more expensive flights, but goes to bigger airports, like Munich, so you don't need to get
in any train, got it? I ended up going to Memmingen, 'cause my friend picked me
up there hehe
I'm not
sure if I was the only one who ever thought like that, but it's not necessary to
pay to get in the festival. The moment you leave the subway, you're already in
the place, all you have to do is try not to get lost from your friends, find a
place to sit and start the all the drinking! The day I went, the sun was really
strong, the place was so busy and most of people (turists or not) were dressed according
to the tradition, really cute! One of the first things one can notice, is all
the crowld in front of the most popular beer tends in the festival. We tried to
get in some of them for one hour or so, but we gave up after a lot of people
pushing. But, if you do not get in the tends as well, or just don't care about
it, you can sit in one of the hundreds of tables outside and order your beer to
one of the hundreds of waiters that are coming and going with loooots of mugs.
Talking
to a brazilian friend currently living in Germany, he told me that he could get in
one of the tends just because he was wearing a brazilian shirt, and - who would
have thought - one of the waitresses had lived in Brazil for a while, sooo, she
felt something by looking at them =) ... But, anyway, what's inside the tends?
Well, there's tipical german food and the beer that is being selled in there, is specially produced for the festival. Besides that, some traditional singing
and dancing will probably happen. PS.: The food is served during lunch and
dinner ONLY, so, if you feel like eating in the between, you'll have to
grab some snack outside the tend, but then you can forget any possibility of
getting back to your sit inside, OR, you can prepare your food and bring it,
like germans do! Here you can find out a bit more about the tends; wich
one is the most popular, what to expect from them and to whom you have to send
and e-mail to skip all the boring part of trying to get in.
If by
the end of the party you're not feeling dizzy enough and still want some
adrenaline, you can go to the rides that compose the festival!
The sad
part is that when the night comes, everything stops, strictly at 11pm! And you HAVE to
leave, 'cause there's a whole team made only to empty the place AHAHAHA, but
it's ok, 'cause it starts all over again the next day, at 9 a.m. =))
Simone,
the friend who hosted me, as a good german and Oktober fan, told me that
uuusually the audiency in the weekends works like this: the first one, the
australians and USA people take control; the second, it's time for the italians
to come (this was the one I went, and believe me, I felt in Italy); the third,
a mixture of nationalities, since it's the last one, it's more calm (if you can
say that! ahhahha).
Is
someone considering going there for this year's edition??? Wants more tips? You
can ask =)
Giu
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