It began like most other adventures, an early morning with a long bus ride. However this trip promised to be so much more. Tiffany and I were veterans of many Oktoberfest celebrations at Cap Ale House in Richmond and knew of the liter steins and big pretzels. However this was different, this was THE Oktoberfest in Munich. The bus departed and we laid back, dreaming of flowing beer and salty pretzels. After another long bus trip (5 1/2 hours) we pulled into downtown Munich and began to see people everywhere dressed in the traditional Lederhosen (men) and Dirndls (women). Our bus dropped us off and we had a short walk through the city to the celebration. Following the masses towards the beer celebration Tiffany asked me where the camera was.... Of course, I managed to leave it on the bus. The bus that was heading out of town to park so the driver could nap before our 5+ hour ride home that night. Great, we buy a brand new digital camera, and I leave it on the bus. Well the hunt was on for a disposable camera so we didn't miss out entirely on capturing our memories from our first Oktoberfest.
We arrived at the fair grounds to beautiful weather and thousands of fellow beer enthusiasts. Luckily we found the disposable camera and took off to find a beer tent to begin our day of drinking and partying. Walking towards a first tent we noticed, well for lack of a better description, a bunch of drunk 12-14 year old kids stumbling around, not something you see too often. Then we say some skinny drunk kid getting in a fight with a bouncer (security guard). When i say getting in a fight, i mean getting his ass kicked by a huge (think London Fletcher) security guard. He took two haymakers to the right cheek and kept talking shit in German. Lesson learned #1, don't screw with the security guards, they can and will kick your ass.
We made our way to the Spaten tent and joined a line trying to make our way into the tent. We heard reservations were a good idea, but that you needed to make them up to a year in advance as they are full very early. Waiting in line we met another young American Couple, Jo and Ryan. We got to talking with them and after a while of waiting, the 4 of us took off in search of a new tent we could actually get into. We bought giant (think 18" across) pretzels and had to use them as a way to identify Tiffany walking through the dense crowd as she held the pretzel above her head. We luckily found a tent that serving food and had an open table. The 4 of us squeezed in a big booth with a group of Italians.
The first thing we ordered was beer, large 1 L Steins of Spaten Oktoberfest. Jo, our new friend didn't want a beer.... who comes to Oktoberfest and orders a wine? Well after some poking fun at her, we managed to get her to drink part of a beer and then she moved on to her wine. Well in addition to the beer, we ordered a roast 1/2 duck for me and a roast duck breast and dumplings for Tiff. The duck was delicious and so was the beer, that is until a large Italian man thought that it would be better for us to wear his beer than drink it. Over the glass went and 90% of it landed on Tiffany's lap and legs, the rest made it's way down my right pant leg. Fortunately it wasn't the wine, and it wasn't her beer, so Tiff kept on eating and drinking, wet pants and all.
Well it turns out that our great tent find was only so good for a while. We were told that our time in the tent was limited and after we finished our 3rd Liters we were ushered out to make room for other party-goers. So we did what any other people would do in this situation, we went on a bunch of roller coasters. Not before we parted ways with our new friends, who had to make it back to the train station for their ride home. The giants swings were first and gave us an amazing view of Oktoberfest and Munich from the skies high above the fair grounds. Then we moved on to the biggest and baddest coaster there. The ride was tall, fast and insane, nothing like a bunch of huge drop, banking turns and quick stops after half a duck and nearly a gallon of beer.
As the sun dipped behind the clouds, the celebration went from packed to chaos. Every 6 inches there was another person, making walking with someone almost impossible. Tiffany got her favorite fair snack, some warm sugary nuts and we walked around enjoying the sites and sounds of the craziest celebration we had ever been a part of. After a while, we decided to head away from Oktoberfest and into downtown Munich to grab some dinner (and more beer) at a less crazy location where we could sit down and enjoy each other's company. We found a small bistro and ordered another liter of beer and some salad and delicious grilled pork. After dinner we made our way back to the bus station and met up with the rest of our group and awaited our long ride home. Finally at 11:30 we hopped on the bus and pulled out our neck pillows for a passed our trip home. The day was fun and sometime soon we will develop the disposable cameras and post the pictures from our day at Oktoberfest. And as for the belated post, i will try to write more often.
David, Tiffany and Oliver
