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Oktoberfest
9/22/2009 Disclaimer: When I do these trips,
I’m often criticized that the pictures I post are all of me and my friends
drinking. This has then led to the
assumption, by some, that drinking is all my friends and I do on these
trips. That isn’t true at all, it just
seems that way from the pictures I choose to post. This trip is an exception
to this. It’s Oktoberfest in Munich
and every cultural experience possible that week revolves around one activity:
drinking beer. |
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Bob gets some practice in Logan Airport
before the flight.
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I join the training session.
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Blaze gets some needed shut eye on the
red-eye flight so we can show up with fresh legs.
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En route to the Munich from the airport.
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Similar picture from the Ireland trip a couple years prior…
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Hotel checkin: Complete. Separation of double beds: Complete. Go to beer tents: Incomplete
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Outside the fairgrounds…
not a good sign. It’s mid-afternoon.
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Then we hit
Oktoberfest.
Oktoberfest is in a
big open space in Munich called Theresienwiese.
There is a giant fairgrounds with everything you expect at a
carnival. There are also massive beer
tents. |
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Inside the massive
beer tents people are doing pretty much what you expect. Sitting at large tables on benches slugging
beer and listening to German folk bands.
It’s very crowded but fairly subdued during the earlier hours.
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So Bob and I jump in. We’re kicking things off at the Augustiner
tent. |
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It’s smoky, sweaty
and beginning to get a bit sloppy. |
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But I make a new friend (who speaks
no English) and we communicate by clinking glasses. He later brings me over to the kegs and
forces me to watch them tap open the kegs. |
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Girls in dirndls start getting a little
frisky standing on the benches. |
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Bob gets a picture with the
waitress who was nice enough to take pity on a couple clueless Americans
looking for a table. This represents the
last time a waitress will help us find a table, so indeed special she was. |
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Meanwhile things are really picking
up with more bench standing and dancing.
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Band rocking out pretty good. Sticking mostly to German folk songs at
this point. |
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Lederhosen and dirndls abound. |
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Bob later posted this picture on
Facebook with the comment “Jake’s 3 food groups”. |
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I work my way back over to the keg
farm that the German guy showed me for a picture. |
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Blaze and I may have tackled
Ireland on St. Patrick’s day. But Oktoberfest is gonna need
backup…. Aaron arrives. |
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Blaze cracks a bottle of water open
to celebrate. At Oktoberfest you
celebrate with water. |
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Here is Aaron’s first shot on his camera
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Aaron is not here to mess
around. As it turns out he also knows
some baseline German. |
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We stop and fuel up on some German
grub, and meet yet another friend.
Aaron sharpens his German by filling in the English blanks… we
understand this man’s brother had drank too much beer and had gone to
bed. We then discuss automobiles at
length. |
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We have the man take our picture
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Unfazed by the story of the man’s brother
we head back to the Oktoberfest. On
the street which leads from the fairgrounds to the hotel, a fitting landmark
to get you home. This comes in handy. |
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Just moments before the above photo was taken, Aaron, the new
arrival, interviews me about my confidence level for returning to the
Oktoberfest: MOVIE: 100 PERCENT
CONFIDENT |
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We’re going to take this place
down. Notice in the background, things
have deteriorated. Most are now
standing on benches and the band is now really cranking. We’re back in the Augustiner tent. |
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Blaze is burying steins. |
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Blaze takes in the sites and sounds
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And the band is now playing both
German folk songs mixed with crowd pleasers like John Denver’s “West
Virginia”. This turns out to be a
particularly popular song.
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Bob is so happy about receiving a
new stein, he and Aaron pose with our waitress. |
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It’s a full on shit show of
lederhosen, dirndls, smoke, and Augustiner at this point. |
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And we keep rolling. |
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Even the Germans can’t believe
we’re still rolling.
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And we’re kind of still rolling…
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And when we’re finally done in the
Augustiner tent… we need a taste of America.
Guns!!!
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Aaron and Bob later claim they were
“screwed” in this game as they hit all intended targets but ended up with
crappiest prizes. |
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See what happens on day 2 by
clicking on these jokers:
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