Wiesn

As we're writing this blog post, Wiesn (or Oktoberfest) is almost finished. Since we filled everyone in with a lot of information last year, we won't go into too much detail about Oktoberfest itself.

On the opening day this year, our friends hosted a Weisßwurstfrühstück (which is a traditional Bavarian breakfast) at their place. It had all of the necessities: white sausage, sweet mustard, pretzels, the delicious obazda cheese spread, and even the special edition Oktoberfest beer. The Oktoberfest beer comes from the usual Munich breweries, but for these few weeks during the festival, it's a stronger brew. This was the perfect way to kick off the Wiesn, considering we had the traditional breakfast, listened to the usual Oktoberfest songs, and watched on TV as the mayor of Munich officially tapped the first keg at noon to start the festival!

After breakfast, we all made our way down to the festival grounds, where we first enjoyed a round of beers at a Biergarten outside of a tent. The weather was perfect! Eventually, we worked our way inside the tent, where the band was playing live music. Even though we didn't have a reservation, it was surprisingly easy to get our group in on opening day. And we even met some Americans! The band was great -- they even played "Sweet Home ALabama." It was a really fun Saturday.

The following day, we ended up going again, as we had a reserved table with some of our other friends. Even though we didn't drink too much on the second day (still recovering from the day before), just going to the festival two days in a row was exhausting! Oktoberfest certainly is a lot of fun, but our livers are relieved that it only comes around once a year!

Bis bald,
Matt and Kristin