Oktoberfest

Good grief. How do people attend this event for multiple days in a row? How do they come back more than one time a season? Not only can I not imagine going back to Oktoberfest again for another SOLID year, I'm not sure I am fully recovered yet. Ugh!! Friday afternoon we arrived in Munich at our hotel around 5:00 in the afternoon and we walked around before settling on dinner at a great Greek restaurant.The food was great and I probably should have not have partaken in all the alcohol the night BEFORE Oktoberfest! Oh well! It was fun. SO, Saturday morning we were up early and on the train to the legendary Oktoberfest. We were forwarned by a friend that all the "tents" would fill up by 8:00am and that if we wanted any shot at getting in one without a reservation we had to be there that early. 8:00am??? Yeah right. We arrived around 9:45am to an already HUGE crowd.Here are some pictures of the tents on the grounds. Most of these bigger tents seats up to 10,000 people!!!!! I have never seen anything like it.After trying to get into two tents and being unsucessful we were feeling pretty rejected. We stopped for lunch at a smaller tent while we hatched a new game plan.After lunch it was time to get down to serious business! Every tent was PACKED. We were pretty sure that we were never going to get into one. Until my friend Lindsay decided that she was going to take no for an answer. She walked up to the back door of this tent....flashed some cash to the security guard and for some unknown reason (he didn't take the money!) he let us slide in the back door!! I couldn't believe it! After standing around taking in the sight for about half an hour we were able to cram into a table full of Italiens. Thankfully there was an opening! Some fool had already passed out and the paramedics carried him out, thus giving us a space!After about 6 hours or so we decided that we had to call it a day at the good ole Oktoberfest. I think I ingested enough beer and inhaled enough second hand smoke to last me a lifetime. Don't worry, we didn't leave before purchasing these ridiculous looking hats!All and all it was a really great (and long) day. We finally got back to our hotel after taking the wrong train like 2 times. It was lucky we made it home at all. We walked to the Greek restaurant for a bite to eat and this is what ended up happening after my husband ate.And he claimed it was from the OUZO!!!! Yeah right!! I'm not that dense!! We were home, in bed and asleep by 9:00pm!! Who wants to come with us next year!?!