Have you ever been at a party when a friend says “hey, book a ticket and come to Oktoberfest in Munich tonight”? Neither had I until this year. Obviously, there is only one answer to that question, especially during Ramadan. And so it was 10pm and I had a ticket for a flight that left in four hours. The next morning I woke up on touchdown in Bavaria.

Munich for Oktoberfest is one of those things that everyone needs to check off their list at some point in their life. It was great, like a giant carnival for adults that centers on drinking liters of beer in massive tents. If you show up at 11am, you are late to the party and by 1pm people are standing on benches and best friends with everyone at the tables around them.

I was there for four days which during which I subsisted on beer, brauts, and brezeln (pretzels); little surprise that by the final day we were all dressed in lederhosen and well versed in German drinking songs. The final day my flight left at 10:30pm so I ended up going from the tents to the airport (still in lederhosen). The next morning when my flight landed in Doha (still in lederhosen) it all seemed a bit surreal but certainly a good way to pass the last few days of Ramadan.