PROST!---Really LONG!

We're back from Oktoberfest and I think Mike and I can both agree that it's something everyone should do once...and I'm sure we'll be back!

We left for Munich first thing Friday morning and arrived around 11. We were hoping to catch a 12:30 bike tour, but after taking the train to the city from the airport and figuring out our hotel and getting to the meeting point, we missed the tour. Fortunately, the meeting point was around the corner from the Hofbrau house, so we decided to grab a beer and a quick lunch. We wound up staying for 6 hours or something like that. We sat down at a table with a couple from Fairfax, VA. They were there on their 20th Anniversary. After they left, there was a couple from London...He was fine, but she didn't like beer. How to you go to a BEER FESTIVAL in a city where they drink beer in lieu of coffee with breakfast if you don't like beer??? Finally, a group of about 6 or 7 German guys sat down. They really just wanted to practice their English so I obliged. At the other end of the table two guys from Italy sat...Sadly between my lack of Italian and their lack of English, I think somehow me trying to discuss Italian soccer with them led them to believe I was part of a crime family...They left shortly after! 6 Hours and 3 Liters each later, we made our way back to our hotel, but not before I got lost in the bathroom. So much for touring the city!



The next day, Saturday, all of our friends were coming--Chris & Kialee, Chris & Casie, and Duff & Larissa! They were scheduled on a flight that got in around 11AM, so Mike and I headed to the parade. It was the first day of the festival and they bring all of the kegs in with a lot of pomp & circumstance. I think the best part of the parade was all of the women in their drindls and men in their lederhosen.

Chris & Casie were in first and gave us a call. We told them we'd meet them for lunch near the city center. Chris & Kialee called a few minutes later...They were already in a tent having a liter! We all met for lunch at a Schnedier Wiesen Beer Hall which was cool since Casie's last name is Schneider. They had tablecloths on the tables with Schneider Wiesen all over them. Casie asked to purchase one, but unfortunately they weren't for sale. Not to fear...Chris has the thing off the table and in Kialee's purse before the waitress could say "Auf Wiedersein"!

From the Schneider Beer Hall, we went back to the Hofbrau House for a few liters in the beer garden....The night was just beginning though...We also hit up the tents. It was really hard to get in the big tents on the first night, but we got into a little Paulaner tent for dinner and .... You guessed it, MORE LITERS. Duff, Larissa, Mike and I got separated from the other 4 and wound up sitting with a couple of Bratislavan guys who insisted that we dance on the table with them. We were only too happy to take part. Who would have thought that table dancing is one of Mike's favorite things to do! After they left, the other 4 came and joined us at our table. Lucky for us, the tents all close at 10PM so we had a nice early night. We had a tent reservation at Hofbrau for 11:30AM the next day, so we had to be up and running early.



Mike and I got up bright and early to meet Casie in the city center. She and I had this bright idea to buy drindls (Beer Wench Outfits) for our day at the tents (It seemed like the thing to do!). Unfortunately, Munich completely shuts down on Sundays and we were out of luck. Lucky for us, all was not lost, we ran into another parade. After we watched the parade for a little while we went to the Hofbrau tent to meet up with everyone else. When we got inside it was like heaven! Our table was on the balcony and we could overlook all the goings on below. We ordered our first round of liters and our beer wench arrived with them. It was wonderful...the hall was decorated with hops and in the center was the "Hofbrau Guy" a huge paper mache' looking head that rotated...people were throwing their bras and underwear on him.





4 hours, 40 liters, 10 half chickens (hendels), 2 necklace cookies, and 5 pretzels later our reservation was over and we were kicked out. At this point we lost 4 of our group of 10 (they just couldn't hang) and we headed to an outdoor beer garden to ...you guessed it...have another liter. Oktoberfest is an extremely friendly place, and at the beer garden I noticed a group of younger boys all wearing NY Yankees hats so I decided to go and make conversation. They were actually very nice boys, wanting to talk to me about American rock music and telling me how much they liked Mike Piazza. When I went back to sit with our group, Kialee and Chris were trying to tell me that they were neo-Nazis but I didn't believe them--they were so nice. It was only when they started to sing Nazi songs that I realized what I'd walked into. I have to say though, they were very nice, and polite, I suppose it could have been different if I wasn't white with blue eyes.




After another 6 liters and 2 hendels, it was getting kind of chilly so we decided to go into the Lowenbrau tent. We actually sneaked our way into a side door exit. Chris pushed all the girls ahead and insisted that they'd let us in and then we could sweet talk the security into letting the boys in. No need. The bouncer just didn't care. It was REALLY crowded and as I mentioned before you have to be seated in order to be served. I took it upon myself to get us seated. I'd already managed with the neo-Nazis so how bad could I do, right? I first sat down next to a guy in liederhosen, in my VERY poor German I asked if he spoke English. He was having none of my little game. Then, I went to another table, they spoke English and told me that I could sit and order beer for our group. I had NO money on me so I flagged Chris over to take my spot and get our beer. I moved on to find us a place to sit. There was a whole table with only 4 people sitting at it. When I tried to speak to them, again in my piss poor German, they were more than welcoming! They told us that 4 of us could sit there which was fine. The were two older German couples who were concerned we hadn't eaten and kept trying to get us food! There was a language barrier...they spoke very little English and with Kialee and Chris our only (high school) German speakers being 3 sheets to the wind, communication was limited. We had a great time though!

Mike became obsessed with the Lowenbrau lion. I even took some video of it.  I think it's more than possible that it's more interesting when you've had a few liters.

On our final day in Munich, we tried to do a bike tour but it was absolutely pouring! We wound up taking a bus tour of the city which really was kind of disappointing! There really wasn't much to the city, so we were happy we came during Oktoberfest!