A little background before we get to Munich. Originally, Annette was supposed to train with us into Munich, and go straight to the airport to return home. BUT, thanks to some very persuasive friends and parents, she decided to extend her vacation for another week! Yay for positive peer pressure! The hotel that Javier and I had booked for Munich was the only hotel we booked ahead of time…like 9 months ahead of time. We booked for two, and let’s just say that it’s pretty much impossible to find accommodations in Munich for Oktoberfest at the last minute. So, we smuggled Annette. Javier had found a great little hotel, that for some reason I thought was going to be more like a dumpy hostel (I don’t know why I thought this) but it was really nice, and not backpacker nice, but actual vacation nice…anyway, it was clean and perfect and a 2 minute walk to Oktoberfest. I’m still in awe of how lucky we were to stay at this place. Kudos Javier.

First stop

When we arrived, our room wasn’t ready yet, so we left our baggage and headed to the tents! We started with the Spaten tent where we had one beer, although I should mention that from here on out when I mention a beer, each beer is actually a liter. We met some nice people, and our waiter, Peter from Poland, who apparently has a wife a kid living in Indonesia, sat with us and gave us the inside scoop on where to visit in Indonesia…very helpful. I should mention that we didn’t finish our second pizza on the train, and didn’t want to waste it and was therefore carrying around a box of pizza everywhere we went. It was kind of ridiculous and we received a lot of weird looks. After this we headed back to the hotel where we changed into our Oktoberfest best, and headed out for our first night of celebration!

matching

I don’t mean to brag, but we all looked pretty darn fabulous in our outfits- complete with cookie, compliments of our hotel. Baylon was staying with a friend of his and was going to meet with us the following day. He told us he didn’t want to go into the Hofbrau house, so we decided to go there for the night. All of the tents and houses are similar. They are all decorated with their  colors, which usually involve a lot of ribbon. Some are much more detailed than others with a carousel in the middle, or walls and ceilings painted with scenes and sky. They all have a live band on a raised stage that play music all night from traditional German songs, to German drinking songs, to oldies…”Sweeeeet Caroliiiiine…whomp, whomp, whomp.” The wooden tables and benches are

singing.

made for eating, sitting, standing, and jumping. At one point there were six people squished on a bench all jumping up and down. The bench would bend, but it was sturdy. We made friends with the people at our table, who as the night progressed, became interchangeable. Only a couple of beers here, and when we were kicked off the table by our old lady waitress for not ordering more beer, we took that as our sign to head home.

Locals or not

The next day we visited more tents with Baylon. It was a much longer day, and at some point, I had to go home for a nap 🙂 My asian genes can’t keep up with the rest of them. An hour later, I met up with the group. They were at the same table as promised, only much more intoxicated. I must confess that after my first beer, I rarely finished my next beers. On several occasions, Javier and Baylon would

got Schnitzel?

switch glasses with Annette and I when we were about 2/3 finished, and when they were done, we’d order another round! To keep afloat, we ate huge pretzels, chicken that tasted really good while drinking, but like chicken flavored salt when completely sober, and schnitzel. There were shenanigans of course, people became rowdy as the night progressed, I thought I lost Javier for a moment there, but all in all, it was a good time.

Now you would think that after a day of drinking say…6 liters of beer, there would be hangovers. But no, Javier felt a little questionable, but after his first beer the next day, he felt right as rain! Thank goodness for the the hair of the dog! We told ourselves we would take it easy the next day, and we did, although I think everyone still drank more than planned. We went to a few more houses, sans Baylon, and found ourselves at a most peculiar table. We joined a table with

Japanese friends.

three large Czech men and three small Japanese people. The younger Japanese girl and boy were sitting next to each other talking and the older Japanese woman was at the other end taking pictures and hanging all over the Czech guys. At first, one of the guys didn’t take to us because we are American, but after a while, he warmed up. After an hour or so, two girl showed up. They squeezed onto the bench and explained to us that they were the girlfriends of the Czech guys…one of them had been crying. Meanwhile, the Japanese lady is taking pictures with this guy,

Tradition

flirting with him, kissing him, and his girlfriend is sitting right there. Super awkward. She’s crying, her friend looks like she going to rip the Japanese woman’s head off, while spewing all kinds of hateful things to the friend’s boyfriend. Annette tried to tell the Japanese woman that the crying girl at the table was the man’s girlfriend, but 1. I don’t think she understood a word coming out of Annette’s mouth, and 2. She was waaaaaay too drunk to make any sense of anything at that point. So, I’m watching the girls across from us hoping they don’t reach across the table and destroy the Japanese woman, Javier is next to me whispering sweet Japanese nothings in my ear that he’s learning from the young Japanese girl sitting next to him. The little Japanese boy is trying to talk to me about his university experience in Paris, and Annette, after trying and failing to end the soap

The fair.

opera that is unfolding next to her, is next to me trying to now distance herself as much as possible from the debachery. At some point, we all feel bad for the girl across from us, and tell her she looks like Cameron Diaz, which he does. She smiles at us, and seems to be mildly distracted from her horrible boyfriend who is making googly eyes with the Japanese woman. After what seemed like hours, but was really more like less than an hour, the Japanese folks take off, and shortly thereafter, so do the Czechs, and our table is renewed by a group of young locals and an Aussie.

The kids

The rest of the night was full of drinking, singing, laughing, dancing, and loads of pictures. We met a young Canadian couple that we later saw at Newshwenstein, and managed to cram about 10 people at a table where 8 is tight. And this ladies and gentlemen, just about concludes our Oktoberfest experience.

To see more pictures of Oktoberfest, click HERE.