Ein Bier, Bitte!

When Jonathan and I started planning our long awaited delayed European honeymoon we knew we had to go to Munich. Why? OKTOBERFEST. 

Seriously, it was a bucket list item for Jon and since I knew first hand (I went in 2005) how awesome it is it was a no brainer. Our flight from Dublin arrived in the evening on the first day and dropped our stuff off at the hotel/hostel. Yeah... we booked a hotel but it was not the best and we both thought it should've been called a hostel. Expedia let us down. Anyway, once we were settled we made a beeline for the Hofbrauhaus. We've been to the one in Las Vegas (which is a pretty accurate replica) but nothing compares to the original. 

The next morning we had a quick breakfast and went to Oktoberfest. Don't judge us... it wasn't that early when we got there, maybe 11am? Oktoberfest is known for liters of beer but it's also a carnival. There are rides, games, tons of souvenir shops and of course the beer tents!

Clearly we were there for the beer. Jonathan wanted to visit as many tents as possible in order taste all the different beers. Our first tent was sort of crowded but we got seats on the upper level and ate a traditional German lunch. There was a German couple with a toddler in front of us. The parents were drinking and the little boy spent the majority of the time picking up his bottle and saying Prost (cheers in German)! The dad would clink glasses with him. The little boy also asked Jon and I to Prost with him. Precious. 

Tent 2 was also crazy full but we managed to get seats upstairs again. We ate one of the huge pretzels there because they are delicious and because we knew we needed to keep food in our bellies. 

At the third tent we snagged seats on the main floor by the band. Some kind doctoral students from Scotland let us sit with them. We also bonded with some German men sitting behind us. I think this was the first day of the government shutdown so one German kept telling us "America, America is kaput!" and the other was obsessed with Las Vegas. He said "I love Las Vegas!" a few times and asked Jon for his phone number so we could meet next time he was in the States. It was just as ridiculous as it sounds. We had the most fun in this tent. Our new drinking buddies were funny and super nice. We had a great time singing along with the band and Prost-ing with everyone in the vicinity. 

Three tents and a few liters later it was 4pm and time to go. Thanks to all the food we ate and the fact that we "napped" around 5pm neither one of us was in rough shape we woke up. We each drank a liter of water when our nap was over but that was the worst of it. 

Danke Oktoberfest! Best. Time. EVER.