Our Travels...Munich&Oktoberfest

Heyyyy Guys! 

Just arrived home this morning from Munich where we spent the weekend. We headed there from France because for the next 3 weeks there is a huge fair and cultural celebration called Oktoberfest that takes place in Munich. They celebrate Bavarian culture and lots and lots of beer drinking! It's a world renowned festival so we thought we would take this opportunity to check it out because we probably would never go otherwise. The costumes were so much fun to look at, women all wearing the traditional drindl and men wearing leather shorts with leather suspenders and woolen knee socks. The atmosphere was fun and most people were pretty friendly.

 

The Saturday was pouring rain all day. It did ruin the mood for the morning, because we waited outside exhibition tents for nearly 2 hours and weren't able to get in anywhere. It's a lot like the Exhibition at the CNE on steroids and with more drinking. 

taking shelter from the rain

We made the best of the day by going back into the city, changing our wet clothes and getting some traditional German fare including pretzels, half chicken and schnitzel. We attended one of the post-Oktoberfest parties Saturday night and had a good laugh dancing to German music and house. 

Sunday, we had a crazy turn of events. Not only did the sun come out and make for a lovely day -- but we found out that our host, whose apartment we were renting for the 2 nights we were in Munich, is actually a big shot in Munich - having worked with Michael Jackson and been his close friend for close to a decade.

 If you don't believe me, look up this name: Teddy Laskis - there are photos and articles everywhere confirming his connection with the pop legend. So, being as resourceful as we are, we emailed Teddy for advice on how to get into the exhibition tents since he is  VIP (the tents are the place to be and be seen for Oktoberfest, that's where all the action including live bands and beer drinking takes place -- but tickets and reservations are made a year in advance at minimum). By some stroke of fate he invited us to meet him for brunch at a 5 star hotel to an exclusive event, where we were able to watch the Bavarian parade from a viewing deck, and eat an amazing meal! Thanks to his generosity we had an amazing view of the city and festivities as well as getting 4 passes to one of the beer tents for later that day!!! I guess I had a horseshoe lying around somewhere and we ended up thoroughly enjoying the rest of Oktoberfest and our time in Munich!

German is still impossible to understand though! What a weird language -- I didn't pick up a single thing except "danka shen" which means thank you very much. 

ps. also visited the BMW factory and Museum - shoutout to my zio Rob who I thought would appreciate these pics

the 4 cylinder building