photos and ramblings documenting my trip around the world and other stuff
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Munich / Oktoberfest
Day 250 - Friday, September 28
So I'm going to assume all of you have some familiarity with what Oktoberfest consists of. Given it's popularity, basically every hostel bed and hotel room in Munich fills up many months in advance -- in many cases within a few hours of when the rooms are opened up for booking. So when I searched for hostels/hotels in Munich a few weeks before the fest, my options were absurdly overpriced hotel rooms way outside of town or to join one of the many "tours" run by travel companies that involve all-inclusive camping. One of these is Contiki, who does tours all throughout the world ("for 18-35's"). They have several Oktoberfest options, some of which had filled up, but I was able to book a spot in the 4-day / 3-night camping "tour"
When I got on the train to Munich from Salzburg on Friday morning, I was a bit surprised to see that about half the people on the train were already decked out in their Oktoberfest costumes, and a majority of them were opening bottles of champagne and beers and such. It actually reminded me a lot of the train ride from Orange County to Del Mar for Opening Day at the races. This definitely raised my excitement level for the next several days. Eventually I arrived at the campsite in Munich:
The Contiki group seemed to be dominated by Australians (and really most of the hostels I stayed in while in Europe for that matter).
So the actual Oktoberfest event is kind of like the fair, but in addition to the rides and the unhealthy food, there's also 12 massive tents, which are beer halls the size of airplane hangers. Oh and there's also several million drunk people all dressed up in Lederhosen and Dirndls (aka cleavagey dresses). Actually, other than the rides, it's really not much like the fair at all. A few photos from Friday outside the tents:
Getting inside one of these giant tents is actually quite difficult, much less finding somewhere to sit/stand once you're inside. So each of the tents also has beer "gardens" which help with all the overflow. On Friday, we got to the fest around 4, and I walked around with my new Australian friends for 2 hours trying to find a table anywhere (outside or inside) -- they won't serve you beer unless you're at a table. After 2 hours without any success, they decided they were just going to go back to the campsite and party there and get to the fest early the next day to get a table. I, however, was not as easily dissuaded. So I set off alone and finally came across a table with empty seats, friendly faces, and the conversation appeared to be in English. As it turned out, they were Contiki folks as well (but on a "tour" that included accommodation in a hostel, not at the campsite). The table where I spent most of the evening:
We got to talking and it turned out that 3 of us were chemical engineers (can I still call myself that? I think I can). In 8 months of traveling I had not met a single other chemical engineer, and here I was sitting at a table at Oktoberfest with not 1, but 2 other chemical engineers? Odds of that happening have to be about as good as ... teaching cats how to play patty cake? So we tried to take a picture and this happened:
I made the tough decision that just this once, I would spend a Fall Saturday without watching college football. I got to Oktoberfest a little after noon, and again, all the tents were full (they close the doors, and don't let anyone in once they fill up). I did find a seat at a table outside with some very nice Australians. A picture:
That guy there on the left is known as "crazy Dave" and he said he was on his 6th liter when I sat down to join them (his previous 5 would equate to roughly 14 12-oz beers). The sad thing is he wasn't even the drunkest one at the table. And it was only 2pm. You may have also noticed the umbrellas in the photo above. Well the light rain became harder rain, so I went in search of someone leaving with a wristband to try to convince them to give it to me (people on the inside could leave to smoke, but were given wristbands). While my efforts to speak English to a lot of German people as they were leaving was totally fruitless, I managed to spot a wristband on the ground someone had ripped off. And then I managed to get it rather precariously tied around my wrist, but it worked and I got inside! Woo hoo!
Now it was just a matter of finding a seat. I wandered around for a bit to see if I could spot any Contiki bracelets or any of the people I had met the previous day. A pic of one of the waitresses that I took while I wandered around:
While I was wandering, I ran into one of my tablemates from the previous night - a Kiwi named Sarah, who invited me to join her and her friends and their table. Sweet! And then I proceeded to continue with the Oktoberfesting:
Yes, I used Oktoberfest as a verb. I had taken a couple of pretty sweet videos of the singing and dancing and general craziness, but I'm an idiot and accidentally deleted them, but don't worry, I took a couple more on Sunday...
Day 252 - Sunday, September 30
Sunday morning I was supposed to be doing a bike tour at 9. When I woke up at 8:50, saw that it was dreary weather, and felt like I had been run over by a truck, I decided a few more hours of sleep was a much better idea. When I finally got up around 11, I still wasn't feeling so hot. The previous two days had started to take their toll on me. So I took a few hours at the start of the day to make plans for after Munich and catch up on what happened in the world of college football the previous day. Then I explored Munich a bit having missed the bike tour. I figured I should see something other than just Oktoberfest. But around 4 or so, I made my way back over there. And to my pleasant surprise, it was considerably less crowded than the previous day, making it much easier to get into the various tents. I checked out a few and took some photos:
Yes, all those plants decorating the tent are hops. I guess one of the waitresses saw me wandering around aimlessly looking for people I knew or felt comfortable joining, and she was like, "You want beer?" I hadn't conclusively decided that I was even going to drink again that day, but how could I say no? She told me to go stand next to one of her tables, where naturally I made some friends. As it turned out these friends were really drunk, didn't speak english, and smelled a little. I think this is what their vision was probably like:
I actually have no idea how I managed to take a photo like that, but thought it was kind of neat. So anyway, I extricated myself from that table and moved to another filled with Germans that spoke passable english, but it was much better than the previous table. Then I proceeded to Oktoberfest with some actual Germans until they closed the tent down, while they taught me the words and accompanying hand motions to all the German songs. A couple of photos of my German friends:
And a video:
At some point in the evening I noticed that the table behind us had a group of kids that looked like they were about 12. Fourteen tops. Turns out the legal drinking age in Germany (at least for beer) is 16, and they don't really check any IDs at Oktoberfest that I saw. I asked my new German friends, and they confirmed that they drank beer at their first Oktoberfest at age 14 or so. So yeah, there were definitely 12-year-olds drinking at the table behind us.
Day 253 - Monday, October 1
Wow. Sunday morning I felt bad, but Monday morning was on a whole other level. Needless to say, Monday I did not drink any beer. After packing up and such, I explored the city a bit more, ate some more traditional german food (bratwurst, sauerkraut, cheese, hot dog loaf (there was some German word for it, but that's pretty much what it was) - all very healthy stuff), and went shopping for a replacement beanie, after losing mine at some point on Saturday (this after leaving it at the table on Friday night and then having to go back 20 minutes later to retrieve it). And then I spent about 4 hours just sitting on the sidewalk in front of the Apple store using their free wifi, while I waited on my 2am bus to Switzerland. Of course, it didn't arrive until after 3, while I shivered in the freezing cold at the bus station.
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