Oktoberfest: We Came, We Saw, We Drank

Our trip to Germany consisted of five nights in four different beds. We planned our trip to Germany with some of our friends here, Dan and Susana and their daughter Sophia. Dan is the man with a plan, so we were happy to tag along when he said he had a place to stay in Munich. This story is full of family ties, so I'll do my best to explain. Dan's wife Susana has a sister, Sandra, who lives in Stuttgart with her husband Michael. Susana, Sophia and Sandra were in Portugal their home town and were flying back to Stuttgart on Thursday. So we left Mons with Dan and on Wednesday right after work for Stuttgart. With me so far? Hopefully most of the confusing stuff is out of the way :) Five hours later we pulled into Stuttgart and met Michael, our friend's wife's sister's husband! We crashed at their place for the night.

On Thursday we took turns ducking our head in the shower; Michael, Sandra and their one year Lucas live in a truly European apartment with really cool funky space right out of an IKEA catalog. They have done an amazing job maximizing the little space they have. After a German breakfast of breads and pastries from a local shop we headed out to see Stuttgart. First we headed by the Porsche factory, awesome! They have a skyway crossing the road from one building to the next that actually has the Porsche bodies rolling across it! Michael, a native German, took us to a local beer store and loaded us up with a crate full of different German beers. Really cool experience, nothing we would have been able to do if we weren't traveling with Dan and his family. We then made it to the festival in Stuttgart, not technically Oktoberfest, but basically the same idea. Huge beer tents and major festival activities. I clearly had no appreciation for how huge these festivals are and what a production. I had no idea how many major rides they have. This is no state fair with a ferris wheel and some bumper cars. This is full size roller coasters, a full size log flume, things right out of Kings Dominion (or better). We hung out in a tent for lunch and some German drinking songs, then strolled through the grounds of the fest. The guys went to pick the girls up from the airport while we checked in to a local hotel. We all met back up for dinner then Keith and I took a stroll into the city center of Stuttgart. The city is amazingly green, you would have no idea that it is somewhat of an industrial city, so cool in that it twists and turns through the hill sides.

On Friday morning, Dan, Michael, Keith and I packed up the car again for the two hour drive down to Munich. Dan knew a guy who lives in Munich who was going to be out of town and said we could use his place. Despite the five flights of stairs and TOTAL cigarette saturation it was worth it, his place was five minutes from the festival and free! We dropped off our stuff and made it over to the festival. As warned it was packed and we couldn't get into a tent, but the food was yummy! We found some benches under some outdoor heaters and just took our seats for the day/evening. We all said we wish we could have a tape of the night to playback at high speed, to watch all the folks who came went around us. We had a fantastic time meeting all sorts of wonderful characters. Of course I befriended the Irish at the table next to us with my trademark "For fucks sake, it's feckin' grand". We did finally go into a tent at the very end of the evening, amazing to see about 90% of people dressed in authentic Bavarian dress. The term tent really doesn't do it justice. These "tents" makes tents at weddings look like you are going camping. They are huge! I've already been asked how it compared to Mardi Gras, and I guess I would say that it was significantly less sleazy and less sexual than Mardi Gras. The drinking was about the same though. A major difference is that the tents close around 12:00, so it's really meant to be a day time festival, not something that starts at night.

As we strolled back to our nicotine patch apartment, mild manner Michael suddenly burst with excitement over a Japanese restaurant/bar, so we strolled in at midnight. What better way to end an evening at Oktoberfest in Munich than at a Japanese bar? We hung out for a good two hours, had a great time and made friends with the folks working there.

Surprisingly we weren't too hung over on Saturday.... I guess when you space the drinking out over a full day it's not too bad. Michael served as a tour guide of down town Munich, unfortunately the rain and cold really put a damper on things. We did get to walk through their amazing market, saw the Glockenspiel, the major church, and the Hoffbrau House. We wanted to go in, but the mass of people standing outside (lines are clearly an American thing) just wasn't worth fighting. They were being let in like they were at a cattle call. "I have a group of six, four, three" then had to fight your way through. Keith and I are hoping to make another trip to the Bavarian area during a non-Oktoberfest time so I am hoping we can try again.

On our way back to Stuttgart we stopped at a place on the side of the highway advertising Marklin train stuff. For those of you who don't know, Keith is really into model trains, and owns several Marklin engines. Michael, our amazing host, found out about this place and we made it just in time to see their incredible displays. Really awesome setups with loads of detail. Back in Stuttgart we checked in to our hotel and took it easy for the rest of the night, hanging out with Sandra, Susana and the kids. The journey back on Sunday was uneventful, we were pretty ready to sleep in our own bed after all our travels.