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Published: February 2nd 2008
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Thanks to Nina's local knowledge we arranged an early train to Munich and what’s-more we only had to buy one ticket. They have a deal where you can buy one ticket and five other people can travel on it! It's a good way to get people to use public transport, although a lot of people don't buy tickets and ask to sit with you so they can travel on your ticket. We thought about trying this, but the fact we didn't speak German severely hindered this plan.
Anyway we slept most of the trip and woke to the laughs of German's equivalent of My name is Earl. He was a dead-ringer and obviously excited about Beerfest. We too were excited by this stage, that sapped a little though as we walked in stinking hot weather with our packs to our hostel. We had to wait for Jaimee and Joel to arrive too. By the time they got there I was ready for lots of beer. We put on our beer drinking t-shirt/uniform and walked with the hordes to the festival. I really had no idea what to expect. All I had pictured was a giant beer tent with people getting
smashed. That was partly correct, I had no idea that it was set in a fairground and that there were loads of different beer halls. I also had no idea of the magnitude of it. 7 million people visit over a 15 day period, about half of them families, the other half heavy drinkers. Quite an odd mix but thankfully everyone there was for a good time and I didn't see any fights. Admission into the festival is free but obviously food, drink and rides all cost.
We arrived into the festival at about 3pm and decided to try and find the rest of our group which contained about 40 kiwis. We found them alright, in the 'pig pen' (the only place where you can order drinks without a table, and where if you are wearing undies they get ripped off and thrown onto a blow up cartoon thing hanging from the roof). Most had started imbibing before breakfast and were well and truly sh*t-canned. We thought it would be rude not to join them so called over the beer wench. Joel recommended yelling nee-ha really loud to get their attention. It seemed to cross the language barrier and
got her attention. In order to get good service you tip the beer ladies and then they tend to be close by when you need another. After no time we were in the swing of things, Nicola was doing particularly well considering she had never drunk beer before (she thinks wine is more civilized - Beerfest probably wasn't the ideal place to try and change her stereotype).
People from all over the world flock to Beerfest, we talked to some Italians, Scots and Americans. I can't really remember what about. No doubt very philosophical conversations though. Some of the sights you see are hilarious, Joel and I were having a yarn when we spotted a guy grab his mate, pull his t-shirt over his head so he couldn't see, spin him around a few times at high speed and then pushed him, the guy plowed into a table, pulled his shirt on with a huge grin on his face and started drinking the first beer he saw. Another guy thought it would be funny to tuck his bits between his legs, take his pants off and get up on a table. He was laughing until a security guy pushed
him face first off the table. A few minutes before a glass had been smashed somewhere around where he landed. It could have been all over for his child-rearing abilities but he returned about an hour later to cheers and seemed in good spirits. Perhaps when the alcohol wore off it might have been a different story.
After several steins, one becomes hungry. Thankfully there is great beer food in abundance. We went for cheese breads, pretzels and hot dogs on the first day. Another thing that aids in your beer consumption is snuff. This is a powder that you snort in order to clear your senses and allows you to fully appreciate and savour the flavour of the beer. A lot of people were using it but as to the number of people savouring the flavour I think that was a lot fewer, well unless they had developed a special ability to taste while open throat skulling.
Later in the night we caught up with friends James and Amanda (I used to flat with Amanda). They too were enjoying themselves, James so much so that he disappeared into thin air. They stop serving around 11pm. I decided
to leave in style by throwing the last quarter of beer from my stein as high in the air as possible and then tried to catch it in my mouth. Surprisingly, I got some in my mouth. Unsurprisingly, I got most of it over the massive German guys next to us. Unsurprisingly, we decided to leave...fast.
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