Prost!

A Panorama of Oktoberfest

(Apologies for getting my Oktoberfest entry in so late, I've been busy getting organised in London.  Also, thanks to Kate and Bonnie for answering my soup question.  The rest of you, GET ON IT!)

Dear Reader

As I type type this, I am sitting in the hall of the Easy Palace Hostel Munich with the sounds of Oktoberfest outside.  It's about 10:30 at night and I can’t type in my room as people are sleeping.  Also, I can’t sleep because (A) Kat is still out, so I’ve decided to wait up for her and (B) a guy in my dorm room is snoring like a Mack truck. I decided to take the opportunity to get some writing done and get you guys up to date.  It has been an interesting two days.  Myself and Kat spent the first night getting settled and meeting Jess and Lyndsay and the Lowenbrau beer garden, though we decided not to imbibe, as it was already getting late (past nine o’clock).  Early night, no harm done. 

Second night, different kettle of fish.  We arrived at the Oktoberfest grounds, which are only a few minutes walk from our Hostel, at 10AM, thinking that we would have our pick of the tents.  What we were instead greeted with was a completely insane sea of people that stretched as far as the eye could see.  After some investigation, we discovered that literally every beer tent was completely full by ten in the morning.  We were relegated to the outside beer garden, which certainly has its own charms, but doesn’t quite have the same atmosphere as inside, with its live music and table-top dancing.  We settled in and ordered our first round, as well has half a chicken and potato salad for breakfast.  I received my first stein at ten o clock (each stein is a litre) and my second at 10:33.  I made it to five steins, then the world went blank.  I wish, dear reader, I could say that I was composed, even elegant in my drunken stupor.  But that would be a lie.  I was gone, hammered, if you will, and I have no recollection of the hours between six pm and eleven pm, save for what the ladies I am staying with have told me.  Suffice to say, I could not walk, talk, eat, or dress myself.  In fact, the ladies have several videos attesting to these facts, which I will not link to here.  Kat was very sweet, getting me home safely and later went out to buy me fries and Brawurst.  Many conversations since this night have begun with “Remember doing thing x with group y, that was awesome!,” only for the speaker to receive a  blank stare from me as I have no idea what they are talking about.  I had attempted to write some blogging notes on my little notepad during the day, and it shows and interesting descent into inebriation as the writings become increasingly random and illegible.  I will post some photo’s of said pages.

Still, good times.  Also, I wasn’t sick, so that’s a plus.

Kat and I having a laugh.  Notice my psychotic grin.

Day 2 was our recovery day, time to see some Munich sights and let our bodies repair.  We went on a walking tour with our Canadian tour guide Stacy (why our tourguides never from the country you are in?) and ate a delicious lunch of suckling pig at the world famous Hofbrauhuis beer hall, founded my Maximilian the 1^st in 1607.  We spent the evening touring around the Oktoberfest grounds, going on some rides eating some delicacies.  I should point out here that for those who haven’t been, Oktoberfest isn’t just big tents of people drinking beer.  It’s more like the Ekka in Australia, only much bigger, more awesome with less showbags and more beer.  There’s rides, fairy floss, rollercoasters, haunted houses, icecream, you name it.  So this was our night to enjoy the non-beer tent atmosphere and have an early night.  Kat indulged her inner Kleptomaniac and stole a Lowenbrau stein by secreting it in her handbag.  Today she stole another, lets see what score she can manage before the this trip is done.

Jess just lurved her dirndal.

We endeavoured to not repeat the mistake of Saturday and risk not getting into a tent on Monday, the last chance for us to do so, and the last day of the festival.  You see, you can’t simply wander into a tent at Oktoberfest and start drinking a beer.  You have to get in early, REALLY EARLY, sit and guard your table like it’s sacred ground.  By one pm, you won’t get a single seat, let alone a table, and by three you want even get inside the tent to stand up.  Not that standing does you any good, since the fraus only serves those sitting down, or at least standing on benches rather than the floor (Since, I suppose, logically they would have had to begin by sitting at a table before they could stand on it.).  We were terrified of this fate befalling us, and so arrived at Oktoberfest in the wee hours of the morning, (9 AM, to be precise), when not a soul was stirring, save for the trucks resupplying the beer, pork hock, bratwurst and chickens. After some confusion, which is unavoidable when dealing with a group of women (sorry ladies) we decided to go to the Hippodrome tent, which is supposedly the hip, cool young tent where they serve beer and wine.  (This is because Kat and April are still not big fans of beer.  )  However, the lame Hippodrome told us we couldn’t play cards for some reason, so we decided to move on.  We settled on the Shwarzen Festiviz tent, since we had briefly poked our heads in near close the night before and it was definitely a tent for partying, with the band doing a stirring rendition of Highway to Hell.  So we settled in, and I made a very focused effort to spread my beer drinking out over a longer period of time, and with some more food in-between.  This approach proved very successful, as by six o clock I was both awake and (mostly) sound of mind.  Kat and April had gotten tispy from some 3 euro wine (classy!) back in the hostel, and were happy enough that they didn’t care what they were drinking, (as in, beer.)  We had successfully staked out our claim, and were now smack bang in the middle of seven thousand drunken people, standing on the benches and belting out New York, New York at the top of our lungs, smashing our steins into each other at each line of the chorus.  This continued for some hours, with April and I making up our own sing alongs when we didn’t like the bands choices, (favourites included Bohemian Rhapsody and Prince Ali, from the Aladdin soundtrack).  Truly, a sight and sound to remember for many years.

Us and our sevend thousand drinking buddies.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but everyone here is standing on their chairs.

Oktoberfest closes at 11pm each night, but April and I were wrecked by about nine forty five.  Keep in mind, we had been drinking and eating for almost twelve hours by this point.  We elected to head home.  Kat and Jess, showing the fortitude and stubbornness I have come to expect, fully intended to stay until closing.  On the walk home, I stopped not once but twice for Bratwurst with bread and mustard.  Mmmm, so delicious. 

And so, that is where I leave you,  Comrade.  Oktoberfest is closing now, so I’m going to sign off and see if I can find Kat amongst the hubbub streaming out of the grounds.  Seems like a fairly daunting task, but Kat has her hair in very cute, big curls tonight, so I’ll just look for a curly blonde head in the crowd.  Besides, better than sitting in this hallway all night, am I right?

Adam