First of all, this experience was definitely one that you have to do AT LEAST ONCE.
That being said you might want to start planning and booking stuff a year in advance and not taking a 9 hour train ride there and back.
Steps to a Successful Munich Oktoberfest:
1. Book a hostel/hotel to stay in WELL IN ADVANCE. Trust me, the getting up early to catch the earliest train to Munich and then staying up all night to catch a train back will wear you out. It'll be easier (and warmer!) to just stumble back to a hostel with a nice comfy bed and pillow. If you're up for an adventure though, go the train route. Be prepared for obnoxious drunk people on the trains to and from Munich, no matter the time you go.
2. Arrive at a hall before 8 a.m. Any time later than that will make it nigh impossible for you to get in. Unless you bribe one of the bouncers like some of my guy pals did. The girls I stuck with did not bribe anyone but we ended up with pretty decent seats outside between two large heaters and beside a pair of friendly Greek men.
3. Bring a set amount of cash and definitely no credit cards. A single (freaking huge) beer costs ~9-10 Euro. Not cheap. If you have endless amounts of cash then ignore this rule. If you're on a budget then this is the way to go. You can easily get sucked into the "Let's drink more!" atmosphere and end up penniless on the streets.
4. Drink. Plain and simple. Experience what this festival is all about.
Anyway! My experiences. Overall, I feel like I'm really glad I did it, but I probably won't do it again. At least not without some serious planning, a ticket into a hall and no backpack. There are so many stories that have come out of this trip, all of them funny in hindsight, but at the time I was just too tired to take everything that happened in stride and laugh. It probably would have been a different story if it had been a warm, sunny day instead of the 10 degrees Celsius and rainy and I had had more than 3 hours of sleep.
We began the trip Friday night at Raphael's, who was gracious enough to put us up for the night as his place is much closer to the train station than our dorms. We were just about to sleep when everyone else in the IUSP group showed up. Big John and Fritz started jamming together, which was awesome and hilarious (John's a really clever lyricist), but made it really difficult to get to sleep.
We got up around 4:45 and were on our way to the train station by 5. Eight hours of train (and chanting soccer hooligans for the last 2) later and we arrive. It's cold and rainy and packed! There are tons of interesting things, drindls and pretzels for sale EVERYWHERE. I got a few souvenirs for people :D. We finally made it into a Biergarten outside of one of the massive Brauhauses but we were happy once the beer came around.
There were as many benches crammed together as humanly possible but there were arena-style heaters overhead so that was cozy. We were beside these two really nice Greek guys who were giving me pointers on where to visit in Greece and at what time of year. We ended up walking around a bit more after that then heading back to the train station once the rain really started to come down.
The other IUSP people had the same plan and we ended up cuddling up with them, getting food and taking over a large section of the floor while we were waiting for our 2 am train. We chilled and random people took pictures with the crazy North American students passed out on the train station floor.
Once 2 am FINALLY rolled around, we were all done. Everyone seemed ready to head back home to Marburg. I slept most of the way home, but just before we had to change trains in Frankfurt I started talking with two guys from Africa (one from Ethiopia and the other from Uganda, I think) who were in Germany working and learning the language.
Anyway, as soon as I saw the castle from the train I felt a huge amount of relief. It made me realize how quickly Marburg has become a home to me. I'm intrigued to find out what coming home to Canada at Christmas is going to feel like.
