Mr. Selfish and I made plans to be in Munich during Oktoberfest.  We didn’t really know much about Oktoberfest – other than that there was lots of beer drinking.

We learned that Oktoberfest originally celebrated the marriage of Prince Ludwig to  Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, which was on October 12, 1810. Today, Oktoberfest continues as an annual 16-day Bavarian festival beginning in late September through early October.

Oktoberfest is celebrated on Theresa’s meadows, which is about a 20 minute subway ride away from city center.  I didn’t realize that there would be roller coaster rides, a ferris wheel, and tons of other rides.  However, the most festive aspect of Oktoberfest is that about half of the population is dressed in traditional Bavarian clothing.

I read online that you should go on the rides prior to drinking beer.  Sounded like good advice to me.  Mr. Selfish and I decided to take a ride on the giant swing. It went up pretty high, and the view was pretty epic.

Then, we went to the Hacker-Pschorr-Bräu tent for some beer.  They only sold 1 liter of beer at a time.  We became friends with our table mates – two older German fellows.  They spoke a little more English than we spoke German (which is to say not that much English), but we still managed to have a great time together.  They also informed us that if you are drinking beer, you need to eat pretzels or you’ll get really drunk.  We followed their advice and had a delicious cheese pretzel.

We drank waaaaaay too much beer.  Of course, we had a wonderful time.  On the way out, I had to take a picture with some men in lederhosen.