Last weekend, a few of us had the opportunity to attend the world-famous Oktoberfest! (And no, not the one in Frederick!)

When we got there at 8:30 a.m., there were already hundreds of people in line waiting for the gates to open! We decided to try to get in to the Hofbräuhaus tent, one of the most famous tents in the festival! After pushing and shoving our way through hundreds of men, women, children, and other study abroad students, we were finally able to sit down.

The atmosphere of the tent was so awesome! Many people were standing on the benches drinking, eating, and singing along to the songs that were being played by the band in the middle.

After a few minutes, we ordered some food and drink, aka the most important part in my opinion! In the festival, each tent gives out their own type of beer. We were in the famous the Hofbräuhaus tent, and the beer we received was from the Hofbrau brewery. It was a beer specifically brewed for Oktoberfest! The beer was one of the best I have ever had, even compared to some that I have had in Prague!

Besides the beer, our table ordered some of the famous Oktoberfest food including pretzels, roasted chicken, and sausages. The pretzels were some of the biggest and best I have ever had: They were around the size of my entire head! The outside was crunchy; but as soon as you bit into it, the inside was super soft and doughy. We ordered the pretzels from the waitresses walking around in Dirndl’s, the typical German outfit which many of us were wearing at the festival! Each waitress had dozens of pretzels on their arms; and in minutes, they were gone!

After being in the tent, we walked around the festival for a few hours and some of us even went on a few carnival rides. This was a really cool experience because this part of the festival reminded me of a huge carnival that I would go to back home, but so much bigger and with much more (and better) beer!

After we all walked around some more, we decided to end the night with, what else, some food! We tried some world famous Oktoberfest sausages that were sold from the street vendors. Even though it was really simple, it was one of the best sausages that I had ever eaten. It had a really smoky taste, and it was almost the size of one of my arms.  Oktoberfest was a day to remember and I definitely realized that the festival is a lot more than just the beer- but the food as well!

This is one of the dishes of German sausages, served over sauerkraut.

It was as long as my arm!

Next week, we go on Fall Break so many of us will be traveling. Dr. Kennedy (our blog advisor at the Mount) will curate some posts from some of the other students on the trip, and we’ll even hear from Fr. Jim Donohue, a Mount professor who is traveling with us. Make sure to “Czech out” Jeremy’s next #KavaMonday post on October 15!