Thursday morning, we took a train from Prague to Munich. It took
about 7 hours and gave us a nice view of the countryside and
surrounding hills. Once again, all of the money I had from the
previous country was useless. For some reason, I usually had
about $50-100 extra from each country we visited on this trip..
We made our way to our apartment (in Arabella Park). Our landlady
was a real bitch once she found out that there were 5 of us staying
there. Apparently something got lost in translation and she only
thought that there were going to be 4… we ended up paying about $120
more for the 5th person. That night, we went to the Hofbrau House
and enjoyed some food, singing, prositing (toasting), and talking with
people. The Hofbrau house is largely a tourist place, but since
tourists from all over the world go there, the people are very
diverse. For example, we initially talked with some guys from a
North East territory of Spain. I found out that parts of Spain
don’t really get along with other parts, to the point to not wanting to
say that they are from Spain. When I cheered Spain on their
behalf, they got all emotional and explained to me that they were from
the territory… not Spain. After a little while, we moved to a
table closer to the band and for the rest of the night talked with some
local Munich people…
Fox and I went home after the Hofbrau House closed (around
11:00pm). We had to wake up early Friday morning to head to the
airport. The other guys stayed out long into the night and proved
that German beer can get you very drunk. So… the joy of buying
a plane ticket last minute for a town that is sold out. There
were 3 seats available from Munich to London for Sunday. We got
them, but had to pay around $800 a piece for them. To top it all
off, Phil was the lucky winner of the 7:00am ticket, while Fox and I
had 12:00pm tickets back to London. So, with that out of the way,
we headed to the Hippodrome at Oktoberfest.
We got to the tent and easily found where Brad, Hann-Ah, and Phil were
sitting. They were sitting at a table talking with some guys from
New York and Washington DC. Because it was Friday morning (around
11:00am), the place wasn’t that full. We were able to talk to the
waitresses and find out some information about how Octoberfest works.
The waitresses (Eva and Babsi) were extremely nice (not to mention
cute) and explained that people without reservations are allowed
entrance to the tent only when the front doors are open in the
morning.
If you don’t have a reservation, you can stay in the tent, but if you
leave while the front doors are closed, you won’t be let back in. In
order to be let back into the tent, you have to have a bracelet. They
have bracelets for the afternoon and bracelets for the evening. The
afternoon bracelets last until 4:00pm and the evening bracelets go from
4:00pm till close (10:30-11:00). So you can reserve a table for lunch
and/or reserve a table for dinner. The hippodrome is the smallest tent
and it holds around 6,000 people, while the other tents on the grounds
hold around 12,000.
So… this is how we did our two days at Oktoberfest. We tipped when
we ordered beer… around 1-3 Euro per liter of beer. It seemed that
most people in the tent did not tip. After talking for a while, we
were able to get bracelets for $10 a piece. We paid $15, again
throwing in a tip.
After we got our bracelet, we decided to go out and see the rest of the
fest. We headed towards the Lowenbrau tent, but it was
packed. So we
only stayed for one beer. After that, we headed toward a grassy
hill
by a big statue. We ended up taking a small nap there, in hopes
of
sobering up a little. Phil, however, was a lost cause… he ended
up
just doing somersaults and annoying other people on the hill.
After
the nap, we headed back to the Hippodrome to drink away the
night. It
was harder to find room for all of us, but the ladies helped us out
once again. We danced, sang, and drank throughout the
night. I can’t count how many times we sang “Ein Prosit”… it’s
a great song where you sing about cheers-ing the people around
you. Amazingly, Phil made it through the entire night…
Saturday was much of the same. But because it was Saturday, the tents
filled up extremely early. We got to the Hippodrome around 9:30 with a
pretty healthy line outside. Once we got inside, all of the tables
were taken already. The really cool thing is that Eva and Babsi saved
us a complete table, though. So, for the second day in a row, we had a
full table to ourselves (until 4:00pm). Once again, Phil got wasted
early again… There must be something in the beer that reacts
differently with him. We ended up taking a nap again on the grassy
hill… it just works out well to take a break between drinking…
When we woke up, Hann-Ah, Fox, and myself thought it would be nice to
pickup some food for everyone else. When we got back to the hill,
everyone else was gone, though. We waited for a while, and then
thought it would be a great idea to go on rides… the first ride was
cool, but the second spun us around so much that it made me feel pretty
sick. A tasty beer helped even that out, though. I have many great
memories and will post pictures of the festivities… I hope to run
into Eva and Babsi the next time I’m in Munich! They really made our
time in Munich special.
The only downside of the fest is the Italian guys. They are relentless
with girls… They basically assault anything with tits, in hopes of
getting laid.