Beer Gardens & Oktoberfest

Between the beer garden near my house that I keep passing and the fact that I recently booked my ticket back to Germany for mid-September, I've been thinking a lot about Oktoberfest lately. I went to Oktoberfest back in 2006 when I was living in Italy with my sister. We'd been briefly to Munich once before, but I had little idea what to expect of the massive celebration. I also had little idea how to consume as much beer as was expected of me, seeing as the majority of travel drinking I'd done up until then was primarily wine (and boy did I suffer for it; but hey, when at Oktoberfest...).

Some things about Oktoberfest were as I imagined, or at least as I'd hoped. Like the size of beers,

which, on our most impressive night, we each drank two of (or was it three...?); the very Bavarian decor;

the variety of pretzels available;

the wonderfully tacky yet irresistible souvenirs;

(and the fun that could be had with them)

and the omnipresence of lederhosen.

Other things I could never have even imagined. Like a merry-go-round bar,

(wouldn't Disneyland be a merrier place with that!)

 a tent full of traditionally dressed Bavarians,

a heavenly ceiling to party under,

or a giant spinny ride to try.

It was after the two (or three) litres and lots of shameless dancing that we decided it was a great idea to try such a spinny ride. Seeing as my sister lost her purse while doing so (and then proceeded to heed no care and leave the park as if everything were totally fine and normal) and was too nauseous to even sit up the next morning, causing us to miss our train back to Milan, I think we'll try going on the spinny rides before the mass consumption of beers this year.

Here's hoping spring nights at New York beer gardens and my next Oktoberfest adventure will all look like this: