OKTOBERFEST! Now this was something I only booked a couple of weeks prior with friends I had met travelling back in London – almost 2 months ago at the start of my trip. Accomodation prices were through the roof, and I had to get from Milan to Munich, but thats all part of the fun right??!
This led to a 12 hour night train, departing Milan, Italy at 9:30pm and arriving in Munich, Germany at 9:30am the following day. It was not my favourite experience. To start with, I’ll explain how these night trains work. When you book, there’s three options. The cheapest option is quite literally one seat in a 6 seater cabin. That’s it. The seat doesn’t recline, there’s no bonuses. It’s just a seat. The next option is a couchette. This is a flat “bed”, with either 4 or 6 beds per room. They are very crammed, and have no other ammenities, including a lack of charging ports but they do include a very basic light breakfast. The third option is a proper sleeper cabin. These have an actual bed with a mattress, charging ports, and bedding. They also include a full hot meal for breakfast. Due to the nature of my budget travelling, I opted for a couchette. That decision certainly made for an awfully long night. The beds were uncomfortable, there were no charging ports, there were one set of toilets and wash rooms per carriage which were disgusting and wet. Overall I got very little sleep. The train was also delayed, and it arrived around an hour and a half late. It was just a bit of a nightmare, I arrived in a new city with 15% phone battery remaining, and a flat power bank and had to navigate public transport in Munich to get to my hostel. I arrived with 2% remaining.
But besides all that, I was in Munich for the ever famous Oktoberfest. How exciting. Upon my morning arrival in Munich I did a walking tour around the old city, and saw many of the key sights. The tour was actually quite interesting and informative but it was very hot. Munich was a mostly modern, innovative looking city,
And then it was time for the big day.
We rented drindl/lederhosen (traditional German clothing) from a rental store. This allowed us to pick up from 9am and then return before 11am the following day. There was a decent queue, but pick up didn’t take too long, and was definitely worth it. The outfit was half the fun! Upon arriving at Oktoberfest around midday, I was shocked at the scale of it, it was so much larger than I expected! It truly was huge. This year saw record breaking numbers with 7.2 million people attending the festival over 17 days and consuming over 6 million litres of beer. But even besides the beer tents there was so much to do, so many carnival/festival rides and different food options to try out. It was well worth it! I had a fantastic day and night, consuming a reasonable amount of beer. The beer tents were a lot of fun with live orchestras and social people. Each beer tent had a different crowd and atmosphere, but the two we visited were both really fun. The night was filled with a lot of fun drunken memories that I don’t think I will share here – but I will say, if you have the opportunity to go, definitely do it!!
Oktoberfest definitely isn’t the cheapest thing around. Even one bed in a hostel dorm was 100€ ($178NZD) per night. The festival itself doesn’t have an entry fee, but drinks are around 15€ ($26.5NZD) per 1L beer, plus you should tip, and the rides cost 5-10€ ($8-18NZD) each. Drindl rental cost me 50€ ($88NZD) for the day, which was a bit cheaper than the guys lederhosen rental. Regardless, I did one day at the festival and had the best time. Many people did a couple of days, but the costs start adding up very quickly and one day was enough for me. It was a fun time!
~ Nikita’s Nomadic Notes
Nikita’s Nomadic Notes 