Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit

Time for yet another European festival - Oktoberfest in Munich! Met up with my sister Richelle for some German mayhem. It's a bit of an expensive time to hit Munich. Best deal was with Lufthansa from Heathrow, with stopovers in Germany, leaving at 9am:( But it meant I hit London town on thurs night and caught up with good 'ol mates Bryan & Jill. Wow she is visibly pregnant. Congratz.

I don't know what the story is with Lufthansa, but their landings are terrible. Had the worst landing in my life coming into Munich. We slammed into the runway, seemed like the plane was going to crack. Everyone was all scared, surprised, etc. Coming back we landed in Hamburg, same thing, though not quite as bad. Seriously, these were the worst landings ever, and I've been on a few flights in my time... Having said that, it was nice to fly on a non-budget airline for a change. And I impressed myself by ordering stuff and asking questions in German. Seriously. I don't know where my skills German skills came from. Thank you Pimsleur.

Basically there is no (affordable) accommodation during Oktfest. Though I found some from this dodgy guy pimping out apartments on the internet. Well, his apartment was full, but he hooked us up with a family renting out a room. We took it because it was cheap and not too far away. It was totally bizare experience. First we couldn't find the guy, he said meet at the Service point, but we were a bit confused, especially since there was also an Info Point, Service Center and a SErvice point. Then he was all pissed off when I called him asking exactly where he was. Eventually we found him and he took us to our house. It was a young family, and I think we took over the room of the youngest son. My new-found invinciability in the German language was quickly shot down in flames, as the mum didn't speak English. But one of her sons, Thomas, did. But not that well - he informed us he was 'the class loser in Englisch'. Anyway we were all laughing at our broken communication skills. We decided to head out, and the mum told Thomas to take us to the train station. So we were chatting away to our young airian guide when it seems like he wants to come with us. What?! The kid was nice & funny, but we're not going with a 12y/o to Oktfest! We tried to thank him saying that we are OK and can understand the S/U Bahns, but he insisted on explaining. I tried to be a bit more direct - 'nicht mit ihnen'. He started slapping his head saying "Doh, my english is so bad" - we reassured "No your English is good, it's our fault - we don't speak German!". One guy on the U-Bahn was laughing at our conversations and helped us out a bit. Anyway, young Thomas ended up taking us to the Oktfest, but then going on home. Hahah he was a nice kid. So worried about the accommodation, trying to be a good landlord, all worried about us, asking things like 'what time will you come home', 'do you have the address', etc - asking the same questions thousands of times. It was pretty amusing, but it wasn't necessary as we'd manage to arrange things with the mum with gesutres..

Hating the lack of tent space...

Choc bananas easing the pain

Ok so the Okt fest - I went there with Richelle. Too bad my mate Benedikt couldn't get back to Munich for that weekend; he's probably out saving the world or something. It was pretty amazing to see the whole city crawling with people dressed in lederhosen and dirndls - everyone of all ages up for mayhem. Actually I was totally impressed with the quality of German chicks - not sure if it was because they were Bavarian, the dirndls (some versions are 'sexy') or what; but yeh, very nice scenery. Oktoberfest takes place in a park, and reminded me of a smaller Royal Show, with rides, food stalls, etc. All the action takes place in the beer tents, which are hardly tents, but massive venues with people consuming pork or chicken, standing on chairs with steins, prosting and singing. We hit it up Fri evening, but got there a little late because that's a busy night. So we couldn't get into any of the tents. We expected this, but were still a bit disappointed. However, we had some Okt snacks and then headed into the centre of Munich to eat and explore a bit. Had to go home early and sleep well, because apparently on Saturday you have to get there REALLY early to get in. And I had only one day for Oktfest mayhem, so I couldn't miss it!

About 9.15 we arrived and went straight to a tent (Spatenbrau festhalle) that looked pretty awesome the night before. People were strolling in greeting with 'Morgen' 'Morgen'. We walked up and kinda hesitated. THe bouncer said Morgen, and we stuttered out Morgen, then he said it was reservations only. We couldn't believe it, because everybody else was just walking right past him, without showing any wristbands, papers or reservations. Richelle asked him if all the tents were like this, and he was like "you can go to any other tent but this one". Maybe they didn't want obvious (Turkish-looking?) foreigners in there. Or maybe there were reservations but we just didn't understand the system. We purposely avoided the Hofbrau because it is apparently the most dirtiest tourist tent ever. Determined to get into a tent, we found our second choice - the Pschorrbrau. A small line, we get in and find there is absolutely no where to sit. The place is completely packed. Apparently you can't get served if you don't have a table, so we'd need one quick if we wanted to have fun. After several strong "NO!"s from asking people if we could join them, we stood around for a while. A beer wench (love that term) asked if we wanted beer - didn't we need a table? She said no, so she got some beers, but brought them to a table that we pretended to be part of for the transaction. Apparently the beer wenches make so much money in the two-weeks for Okt fest that they don't need to work for the rest of the year (students anyway). Not sure how they get the cash cos I've heard conflicting stories - either work only from tips, or buy beers from the bar and then sell them for profit. So anyway, we started downing our first beer probably around 9.30am. Earliest beer in a while! Actually I had heard that you have to go early on the weekend to get into a tent, say 9am, but that they don't start serving until midday. Clearly not in this tent, although the band didn't start until 12. The guys on our table said they lined up at 8.30am and had to run to get a table. Apparently the tent was 'locked' at 10am. So we JUST made it!!! Excellent

German + Aus crew.
"Germans are just like Australians who talk funny" - Luke Rogowski
I've heard that Oktoberfest is just a drunken tourist event. I'm not sure how touristy our tent was, but everyone we spoke to was German. Well, I think everyone except for one girl that I spoke to was from Bavaria, and except for a group of Jap guys. Actually the Jap dudes were standing on the tables and skulling steins at like 9am. I think they'd left (or died) by midday. It didn't take us too long to get seats. We saw a sorta-empty table and we asked them if we could sit down. They said people are coming, but then the guy recognised our accents and asked us "are you Australian?!" - in a thick Aussie accent. We talked for a bit and then they let us sit down. They weren't lying, they actually were saving seats for their mates, but they came way later. This was the best table (for us), because there were two Australian brothers, well Australian in that they grew up in oz, but they both have German parents and now live and work in Bavaria. So they grew up speaking German in Australia. That was awesome, 'cause they'd explain about the differences and quirks of both countries, tell hilarious stories etc, always relating stuff back in a way that Aussies understand. The rest of the table was German, but everyone was friendly and cool so we Sat there steining it up for several hours - starting at like 10am, next thing we know its 2pm. We then tablehopped for a bit, more random conversations etc. Things got a little bit blurry at times, we lost our jackets like a thousand times. ANd it's weird when you feel tired and drunk and then it's still so sunny and only 3pm! That's what you get when you start 6 hours earlier.

Tent mayhem

Steins are heavy. I am so impressed with the skills of the wenches carrying like six-or-so in every hand. I was told that apparently some girl can do 19 total. 19!!! Totally amazing. There has to be some trick/strategy. And the band was cool, playing all these different songs - some traditional German, as well as modern covers but in traditional German band style. They played "Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit" where everyone stands up and cheers/prosts. Though as it kept playing over-and-over it soon wore thin. Until of course, the beer kicked in again. I didn't actually purchase that many steins, because you end up table hopping and somehow there is always a beer in hand. As the day went on we met more and more people, and spent much time standing on tables singing and dancing with many randoms. Such good times. And although people are insanely drunk, there isn't much rowdiness or aggressiveness. I doubt this festival could work in either the UK or Aus. Though the first night we did see a girl stretchered away - apparently the hospital detox fee for non EU citizens is 450EU. But basically the vibe was good. Hahah we were at one table and most of the dudes spoke English except for the real drunk one. Some chicks came and sat with us and we were all hanging out. Then that guy (sitting to the other side of me) points to the girl next to me saying bitch, then pointing to the other chicks screaming out bitch! bitch!, but then "your sister not bitch", "German girls bitch". So random. His friends and brother were trying to get him to shuttup - and explained that he meant foreign chicks are better than German. But screaming it in their faces, and the chicks just sat there quietly taking it, the girl I'm talking to telling me 'ja he ist just drunk'. He wasn't being aggressive, more like it was a joke. The story sounds pretty bad when I type it, but really it was more amusing/weird/random event.

Mr Bitch & I
The night came to an end when I went to the toilet and then due to lines & the size of the tent I took a while to return. Meanwhile Richelle went out looking for me, and left the tent. So we didn't find each other until much later, because her phone ran out of credit. We finally met up, but by then it was 9.30pm, we'd had enough after 12 hours of mayhem. I didn't check my email that morning, but apparently Bene's bro got me onto a guest list for a good party that night, but it's probably just as well since it was an insane day and I prob would have died. The tents were pretty crazy at night - everyone was standing up dancing and having a great time. So fun. It would be good if you could start like 4-5pm rather than at 9am. Maybe next year:) Tell you what though, although sober before sleeping, my head was still very sore. Perfect for the billions of hours to commute back to Cambridge. Uuggghhh

I love Germany, it's one of my fave countries. But I've been there five times since December - once every two months! A bit overkill - but there's always something cool going on there. Seriously though I must start heading elsewhere, maybe take French at the Cam language school this year, as that's a country I gotta see. But all-in-all, Germany delivered some awesome times.. yet again! :)

Pics Here.