Oh the beer...so much beer

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To pick up where I left off...I took a 7:30 am train out of Innsbruck to Munich on Thursday. This train trip was very successful! Again, totally different seating, but I picked a seat that was not reserved and avoided being yelled at in German. This equals a successful train ride. It was quite foggy, so not much site seeing on this trip. I was a bit sad to leave the mountains. They were so impressive...I miss them. Anyhow, I ended up reading through my Munich book to try and prep what I wanted to do while I was there...other than Oktoberfest. I arrived about 9:30 am and this time when I bought my subway ticket, I very nice English speaking German helped me. Therefore, instead of standing there for 15 mins, it was only like 5. Again, the small victories while traveling mean so much :-)

I made my way to the brew house (bar) where I was to meet the rest of the group. The group was arriving that morning from the US. This included the Mamie, Greg, Chad, Stacy, Jose, Frank, Lauren, Melanie and Gina. Now, due to some of the stories I will tell, names will not be used. But nonetheless, I was meeting all of them at the brew house. So, as I arrive at the bar, there is a man trying to go in the front door...its locked. Its just before 10 am and I have about 90 mins before the group shows up. The very nice and cute German man started talking to me and lead me around to the side door of the bar. Oh that's right, I'm in Munich 30 mins and I'm already going in the bar at the back door...swingers style! The guy was very nice, wished me luck throughout the weekend at the fest (I should have taken this comment more seriously) and headed up the stairs to his office/work. I was the first customer in the bar and quickly made friends with two of the waittresses. I ended up ordering the traditional German white veal sausage that is served with a sweet mustard. And I've not found my favorite sausage dish! I denied the temptation to have a beer. I mean, just because German's drink at 10 am does not mean that my liver can handle drinking at 10 am. C'mon people...college was a long time ago! The time seemed to pass very slowly...but finally, through the open window I could hear suitcases rolling along the cobblestone square. They were here!!! I was ever so excited and they all seemed ever so tired! The overnight flight and time change can do that to you. I was coming off of 10 hours of sleep and could not contain myself...I was talking a mile a minute!

We moved to a big table in the beer garden outside. Let me tell you, German's do beer drinking justice. We ordered beers and some of the people got some food. We had a table reserved at the Hippodrom tent at the fest at 3 pm. Now, the beers...at beer gardens you could order a beer in two sizes...small or large. The small was close to what a pint in the US is. The large was like a litre of beer. I was of the opinion, when in Munich...so it was a large beer for me. At 2 pm, we headed to our condo that was about a block from the bar. Since we were planning to sleep 10 people there, I was a bit nervous that it was going to be a tight squeeze...the place turned out to be huge! And, it had a secret loft that could sleep two people. So as it turns out, everyone had a soft place to sleep. We knew we'd be drunk when we would come home, but no one wants to wake up sober on the floor. After claiming our places to sleep, we quickly changed into our group t-shirts. (see photos) And we were off to the subway to make our way to the fest. It was about a 20 min ride to the subway stop that literally dumps you at the fest. You come up from the stairs, and there it is! Now, a few things that I did not expect, it not only had the large beer tents that you hear about, there were all types of food and beer vendors set up outside. There was a huge carnival with a couple of small roller coasters. There were a bunch of vendors selling all sorts of souviners. It was actually more than beer.

It was a little tough manuevering with the group through the crowd, but we made it to the Hippodrom tent and were quickly seated at our table. Stepping into the tent for the first time was like going into the beer verison of the Magic Kingdom...it was a HUGE open floor with an endless number of picknick style tables and had a second floor that was like a balcony or tier all the way around the ground floor. There was a traditional band in a separage box lifted up above the ground floor. There was colorful fabrics hanging from the ceiling and thousands of people drinking and singing! This is a little slice of my heaven! We were seated upstairs kind of in a back corner. Not the ideal spot, but knowing us, we wouldn't be sitting there long. Our servers were fantastic! As it turns out, at the tents, you have two choices in beer...the large one that was the given tents Oktoberfest brew (this tent was Spaten) or the hefeweizen that they had. I think we've already established what I was drinking. For today's festivities...we had two additional people join us: Greg's friend Trey and Chad's sister Cam. So, now we are a party of twelve. We are all drinking and laughing and having a blast. Going in to this, I was a little bit concerned that the beers would be heavy and hard to drink quickly. But this was not the case. Once you had one in you, the rest went down like water. I was two beers in and hammered! A couple of us girls decided to explore the tent and meet some people. Since as a group, we had on the t-shirts, talking to people, especially Germans was pretty easy. We sat with a couple of German boys (they seriously could not have been more than 24) for a bit. There was lots of giggling there. Then we moved on and ended up sitting for a bit with a group of older German men (the youngest was 43). This table was one of my favorites. The one guy that spoke the most english explained that he brought the rest of the group here for a work function. That's right...he brought his client to Oktoberfest. Um, I think I need to move to Germany.

I'm now on beer # 3 and I won't lie...its tough for me to recount every moment from here forward. We didn't stay much longer at the tent. Our table was good for three hours. So somewhere around 6 pm we left the Hippodrom and were back out in the crowd. Four of us split off from the entire group and headed into the tent next to the Hippodrum. I have no idea which ten this is but I do remember finding a table full of men and convincing them to buy the four of us beers. One of the rules of Oktoberfest is that you can only get beer if you're sitting at a table. This is a bit of an obstical at times, but overall it keeps things in order and tame. We hung with this group for a bit and then left and went to the next tent. Again, I have no idea which tent this is, but I'm pretty sure this tent had the green streamers hanging from the ceiling. Again, we find another table of men, get more beer and continue the party. We're pretty certain that after staying here for awhile, we leave and go to the next tent. Its at this point that we're fairly certain we loose one of the four of us. According to her later account, she stepped away to go to the bathroom and never said anything to us. In her head, she'd find us again. One down, three left. We head into the next tent and I don't even remember being here. Apparently, I found another table full of men, got the three of us drinks and we continued the party. Somewhere while in this tent, I got separated from the other two. I don't remember this, but I do remember leaving the tent. I'm hammered and now standing out in the open air area of the fest with all sorts of lights and noises. I'm shocked that A) its dark and B) there are SO many people. I have to think fast...I need to leave and get back to the condo. I look around and realize that I have no idea where I am on the festival grounds. So, natually, I pull out my map. Now this map is a map of the city of Munich, not the festival grounds. This map is going to do me no good. Now, while holding my map a couple of people come up to me and start talking to me. I'm pretty sure they are speaking German, but can't be entirely sure. They realize that I only speak english and switch to that. I tell them that I've lost my group and can't figure out how to get back to the subway. Again, why I think I'm going to be able to navigate the subway is beyond me, but at the time, seemed like the right thought. I pick my head up and realize I'm talking to three men and one of them has put his hand on my arm and they're saying come with us, we'll help you. I won't lie. I panic. I begin to loudly and sternly say, I don't need your help. Leave me alone. And as they try to polite say that they are simply trying to help, I continue to yell. I can only assume that later they were like, crazy American girl! I put my map away realizing that I couldn't look more like a target and try to regroup. Its at this point I realize I've started crying. Now I'm drunk and crying. Perfect. I decide to just begin walking in one direction and it turns out to be the right direction. I come to an entrance/exit to the fest. Now, this is not where I came in earlier in the day, but at least I've left the grounds. I quickly spot a guy on a ricshaw (you know, the bike with a two person cart like seat thing behind it). I walk up to him, crying, with the little piece of paper that we were all given with the address of our condo on it and hold it up in front of his face and say "can you take me here?" He looks very sympithetic and says, yes of course. I sit down but am on the very edge of the seat. Almost in a position to jump out if need be.

Our condo was not close to the fest. We were at least 5 miles away. This ride felt like it took hours. I quickly realize that since I took the subway to the fest, I have no idea what the streets of Munich look like. This guy could be taking me anywhere. I now panic even more and can't believe I've allowed this to happen. With all my traveling, I've never been in this position. The bike guy could not have been nicer. At each stop light he'd turn around and say, "it's going to be ok. I'm going to get you home." And I'd wail "no it's not!" This happened at several lights. We finally pull infront of our condo and one of the girls opens the door. The bike guy is like, "do you know her?" And I said, "yes, that's my friend. Thank you so much." Crying even harder as I say this and apparently paid him. I say apparently, because I don't remember giving him money. But, the next morning I was out 50 euro was was all I had left in my wallet. Thank you very much Mr Ricshaw guy!

When I roll into the condo, there's a bit of chaos going on. Two people are still unaccounted for. I'm still crying and trying to explain to Mamie what just happened to me. At the time, this whole thing was quite frightening. But, when you hear the next part, you'll understand why we are laughing so hard about it now...

As I'm trying to tell Mamie why it was so scary, she's going, yeah I know. I'm like, you don't know. She's like, yeah, I do. I just heard this story. So the person we lost earlier at the fest when she went to the bathroom had almost the same experience. When she tried to find us again she realized it was dark out and there were a ton of people at the fest. It would have been like finding a needle in a hay stack. She found the same exit I did, found a ricshaw guy, held up her piece of paper and asked, can you take me here? He said yes, she sat down and started crying. Yes, that's right, we both cried the entire way back to the condo in ricshaws. She was having similar thoughts as me, this guy could be taking me anywhere...I don't know where I am, ect. The only difference, every time her driver stopped she would yell, "don't stop peddling! Just keep peddling!" We're pretty sure that all the ricshaw guys meet up at the end of the night to swap stories and one guy was going, so I had this crying american girl, and the other guy is going, no I had the crying American girl. As you can see, my drinking training in the US did me no good in Munich.

Now, back to the happenings at the condo...there is another girl crying at the condo when I get there. If you're keeping score, that's three crying girls in one night. She's crying because she lost one of the other girls. After some text messages and a few arguments, we finally got word that she was fine and with one of the other people that we knew that was staying at a different hotel. Thank goodness. The final person we were missing came in somewhere during this and thus we were all accounted for. All in all, I think we can consider this night a success.

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Photos

Our Tent
This is where we had a table.

More Beer Please
This is the group T-shirt and the front says, More Beer Please

Go Ugly Early
The back of the shirt says Go Blue Early which in German means, go ugly early. I took this a little too seriously.

The Sea of people
This is the ground floor inside the Hippodrom tent. Gives you a good view of all the people. During the day, people were mostly calm and sitting at the tables. As the night wore on, it was all about standing on the benches.

Fellow fest goers
This could be at the second or third tent and I have no idea what's up with the fish. The important thing is, we got free beer.

The Exit
This is where I eventually walked out of the fest later in the night. For those of you that can read a bit of German will see the irony here.

Comments

[Rachel]

Back door bar entrance...swinger's style
I am laughing so hard I think I'm going to pee!!!!! I should have known that any day strating at 10am with the swinger's style entrance had to end up in drama!!!! Serioulsy, I am glad to hear everyone accoutned for, healthy, and aside from some emotional tarauma, A-OK. Even with all of the drama I wish I could have been there with you! Sounds like a great experience. Can't wait for the next installment. Take Care, Rach