We took the train to Munich on Thursday night. Everyone stocked up on some 'rail beers' before we left and we enjoyed those over the course of the ride. Some people (Bruce and Mike) got waaay too drunk. We arrived in Munich and took a tram to our campground. After checking in, we set up our 3 tents and chilled out for a bit before hitting the hay. Ohh yeah, and Holly showed up!
We got up at around 8 on friday. By the time everyone had gotten organized and we managed to leave and take a tram and figure out how to get to the grounds, we arrived at Oktoberfest 2009 at around 10. First order of business was to grab some breakfast, which, being at Oktoberfest, was inevitably a giant Pretzel. We then headed into the Hofbrau tent and found a table. We had to wait a little while before the beer service began, but when it did it was greeted by enthusiastic applause from the entire tent. By the way, these tents are huge. Each one probably holds over 1000 people.
So, we began drinking at around 10. We spent our time in the tent singing, playing cards, talking, eating laughing - it was great. 4 and a half hours and 4L of (7%) beer later, we made our way out of the tent. Chris and I went to get bratwurst. I dropped mine on the floor (and followed this with a few expletives), picked it up and put it back on my bun, disappointed but committed to this sausage. The cook at the stall, seeing this, promptly stole back my sausage, said something along the lines of "NOT IN DEUTCHLAND" and game me another one free of charge. Good guy, always liked him.
Upon finishing my food, Miller and I made a mad dash for a ride. We bought tickets, strapped ourselves in, and started spinning rapidly. The only other people on the ride were a grandpa and his two grandkids as well as two 14year old looking girls. All of them were quite amused by me and Mike as we laughed our heads off the entire time. Interestingly, Mike's iPhone flew out of his pocket, off the ride and across the cement ground. Fortunately it was picked up by a carny and it wasn't even damaged! Next stop was a rollercoaster. Mike has a hillarious video of it in which all you can here is our histerical screaming. This is made funnier by the fact that it was possibly the most tame rollercoaster ever....
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the fairgrounds (very comparable to the stampede grounds). We eventually had enough and decided to head back to camp. It was about 5 when we got there and I decided to take a little nap. I woke up from that nap 3 hours later! We spent the rest of the evening playing some board games and hanging out by the fire. Eventually went to bed again.
Saturday, again woke up around 8 and took our time getting to the festival. Decided to visit another beer tent, not as good beer as the first one, but interstingly decorated. The highlight of this tent was when the polka band marched (yes marched) onto their stage each with a litre of beer in their hand. They then proceeded to chug the entire thing in synchrony. Pretty impressive! We also got some tasty food at that tent.. We were forced to leave because the reservations began at noon (and clearly we didn't have one) so we wandered around, did some more rides, got some more food (ate half a duck with Steve Paige - soo good) and eventually got tired around 2PM. This was about the same time Bianca decided to show up. Holly stayed with her and we didn't see them again until that night (more on that later). The rest of us headed to Munich's english gardens where we chilled out and napped for a bit. We then attempted to visit the famous Hofbrau Haus (a beer hall) but it was too busy so we went to a traditional Bavarian restaurant across the street.
Had delicious roast pork and delicious Augustina beer. MMM. Headed back to the tent and we proceeded to play a hillarious game called telephone pictionary. I believe Steve Paige's blog'll have some evidence of what that turned into so feel free to link there (he's under followers). Eventually got tired and went to bed. I made the terrific decision of buying earplugs but it didn't stop me from hearing Bianca shout "I'M SOOO DRUNK! WHO WANTS TO SLEEP WITH BIANCA?" when she arrived back. She proceeded to fall into our tent, taking out the fly and leaving the door open ALL NIGHT. So cold!
The next day we had to check out of the campground, pack up and move along. We decided to do a free walking tour of Munich so went looking for that. It was pretty cool, very informative but we'd just walked pretty much the entire thing the previous night (albeit drunk). This tour was followed by cheap delicious beer and bottomless Bavarian stew. This, believe it or not, was then followed by another (successful) attempt at entering the Hofbrau Haus.
I got their dark beer. It was glorious. Very very tasty. We killed the rest of the day here, singing lots of drinking songs very enthusiastically. Apparently some Asian tourists were impressed enough to snap some pictures! After this we had to head to our train home. Along the way, Steve Paige fell flat on his face walking down the street and Bruce crushed a lady falling down the escalator. On the train, Steve puked everywhere too. Messy, messy, messy! Still, totally worth it! A great trip!
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