A Birds-Eye View of Madrid: Oktoberfest

Jamie Claros is a junior at Boston College, studying abroad in Madrid, Spain for the fall semester.  As an Eagle in a foreign country, she wanted to share with us her birds-eye view of the Spanish culture.  This series will chronicle her study abroad experience, detailing the food she tries, the people she meets, and the places she explores!

¡Hola mis fellow collegiettes™!  While most of you were off-campus playing beer pong or flip cup with some classy Natty Light this past week, I was in Munich, Germany for the ultimate beer fest— Oktoberfest.  If you ever have the chance, I would highly suggest making it over there.   Not only is the city absolutely beautiful (and the food- so good!), but Oktoberfest is unlike any other experience out there.  The only way to describe it, as my friend so eloquently put it, is organized debauchery.
 
As an avid participant of the mayhem that is Marathon Monday (and face it, all us Eagles are), the early morning routine of Oktoberfest felt slightly familiar— though that’s about where the comparison ends.  From morning to night, it is pure mayhem and ridiculousness.  Starting at 5 am to make it to an already packed line at 7 am, the day began with loud (and already drunk) people everywhere scrambling to get a good table in a tent.

Hofbräuhaus tent at 7:30 am.

Inside is even crazier.  Venders walk around with pretzels and donuts the size of small cakes and the majority of guys and girls are dressed in traditional German outfits (think almost Hansel and Gretel).  The outfit was a tempting thought, but the 140-euro price tag quickly put out that dream.  By the time the waitresses finally come around to take your beer order (approximately 9:30 am), everybody is already chanting and standing on their seats. 

Me with my first stein!

Beer is served in a liter stein.  A LITER.  For reference, that’s 3 beers in one glass mug.  Don’t expect to just nurse your drink for a few hours, either; liters get downed quickly, with one brave soul stepping up every few minutes to chug the entire thing in one shot (Note: Do NOT attempt this if you don’t think you’ll succeed.  You WILL get booed).

This guy’s second chugged beer within the hour.  Quickly followed by a whole lot of puking.

And don’t worry, collegiettes™, the girls definitely held their own.  There were a lot of girls who finished their beers in one shot, to the loud applause and open-mouthed stares of the crowd.
 
A warning, though: as the unlucky percentage of the world with a higher drinking age limit, we Americans tend to be excessive in the way we approach alcohol when it’s served in large quantities and without limit.  By 11 am, a lot of my friends were already way beyond their limit (with one we even found asleep in a bathroom stall after an hour-long search), and ready to go.  While Oktoberfest is the ultimate drinking extravaganza, it’s still a good idea to not knock back countless liters in a small amount of time- especially if you plan on making it through the entire day.  Have fun, but be smart!
 
One final note: If you can, definitely try to steal one of those cool liter steins as a little (well, huge) souvenir and trophy that you survived Oktoberfest.  I know I did!
 
With Barcelona, Segovia, Oktoberfest, and Morocco already crossed off my list of travels, study abroad is turning out to be full of more lifetime experiences than I could ever imagine- and I’m sure there’s countless more to come.  Until then, ¡adios and ole mis collegiettes™!