We did it! We made it to Oktoberfest. This bucket list item has been a long time coming. Today was the day!! We were fortunate enough to have two locals come with us to make sure we had an authentic and traditional experience.

What we did not expect, and this is 100% on us for not doing our homework, was the midway, the games and the side shows. We were expecting beer, beer tents, beer gardens, lederhosen and more beer. Okay…yes, there was definitely all of that, but I wasn’t expecting to be hanging upside down and spinning at ungodly speeds in the middle of it all!

Think Calgary Stampede on a much smaller scale and instead of cowboy hats you have lederhosen and dirndl.

Fun fact. Did you know that flea circuses still exist? And by flea circus, I mean a circus that is made of fleas. Actual fleas. Like the fleas that bother dogs. Honestly. These fleas had collars on them and they were trained to perform tricks for us. I swear. We debated writing about this because it makes us sound delusional. Especially since we weren’t allowed to take pictures so there is no proof. But this is true. Completely. You can train fleas to dance, pull a chariot (a teeny tiny one) and spin a (teeny tiny) plate. It was nuts.

The beer tents are predictably jam packed. Filled to the brim. Overflowing with people holding litre sized beers. We had a choice: try to find a table where we could squeeze 4 people into a spot that would normally hold half a person and pay an obscene amount of money for a beer OR…leave the grounds and find another beer garden just outside.

So we left. The Löööwenbräu Beer Garden was calling our name. Although that may have been the voices of our friends (who just happened to also be in town for Oktoberfest) calling out to us. Of course we’ll join them for a pint or two litres…Probst!

Our wonderful hosts had spent the day making us the most amazing Goulash that we got to enjoy at the end of our sensory overloaded day. It was the perfect meal to celebrate our final night in Munich.