200 Years of Oktoberfest in One Day
It was much too early to be up and about but we were leaving about 7.30AM so we could get a good position in the Paulaner Tent at Oktoberfest. We were promised a lot by the Fanatics but they seemed to let us down. Supposedly there were reserved seats in the tent for us but when we got there we were told the tent was full and they were only letting a few people in at a time. It was extremely frustrating, but eventually they got us in to the beer garden area where we had to all squeeze into any seats we could find so we could get served a beer. We were then told that once we finished our beers we could start making our way inside, a few people at a time, and even this involved a short line up before we could get inside. So Mark and I finished our steins, got our stein count started on our arms (where each stein you finished would be tallied on your arm) and then left the girls, Elese, Abigail and Sam to make our way inside.
It was HUGE inside. Such an incredible sight to see. There were people everywhere and the noise was so loud with people talking, yelling, screaming and singing. The tent could hold nearly 8500 people inside, along with another 2500 outside in the beer garden, and it was pretty much full when we got in there, and this was about 10AM in the morning so we knew we were in for a big few days.
We found the rest of the Fanatics that were already inside and we joined them in the section they were in. There was areas called boxes which were kind of enclosed with seats and booths arranged in them. This one was the one that was supposedly reserved for us, but there was nothing stopping anyone going in and out of there that weren’t from the Fanatics, so we weren’t really sure if they actually had anything reserved for us or not. It was a big letdown in what we got from them, but we weren’t going to let that stop us having a great time. It only took a few minutes before the beer wench was coming over and taking our order which was impressive because the boxed was packed and we could barley move around in there. There wasn’t anywhere for us to sit so Mark and I stood around with our beers and had a chat with anyone and everyone, which was mainly other Australians with the Fanatics. After a while Elese, Sam and Abbers managed to find their way in and join back up with us. The rest of the day gets a bit hazy but it pretty much just involved drinking more steins, keeping the tally on our arms and just singing along with the band and all the other 9000 odd people in there. By the end of the day my stein count on my arm was 5, but I’m sure that I had 6, or maybe 7 by the end and just forgot about getting the tally updated, or couldn’t find someone with a texta to do so. Other than that, we ordered chicken, which was just half a chicken on a plate that came out and then not long after, Elese and I made our way back to the hostel early in the afternoon. It had been a long, long day and it was time to sleep.