My first experience at
Oktoberfest in 2011 was a great one. Most of us were there for the first time, everything went very smoothly, we got seats pretty easily (thanks to Chen's uncanny seat-finding ability), and even the fact that the airline lost my suitcase turned out to be a blessing in disguise: they paid for the clothes I needed...which was my lederhosen.
The decision to return in 2012 was made easier after I met Stefan, a couchsurfer who stayed with me in Warsaw. Stefan lives about 20 minutes from the Oktoberfest tents in Munich, and he had several air mattresses that were free for the opening weekend (otherwise hotels were 300+ Euros/night). So, of course, I went.
Jen and Jeff also planned to be there, with a couple other friends I knew from Seattle. Last year, my friend Ryan also wanted to come, but wasn't able to. So this year, we made it happen. He was able to visit me in Warsaw, spend a day in Krakow and Auschwitz, then join me in Munich for 3 days. This was a great visit just after the visit from my old NYC roommate, Geoff (he spent a week with me in Poland and it was great fun).
So, anyway, back to "last year was so great and everything went according to plan".
This year, it wasn't exactly like that.
Welcome to Oktoberfest!
We planned to meet up with Jen and Jeff at 9:30 on Saturday, opening
day, at the Lowenbrau tent. The beer didn't start getting served until
noon on opening day, so we thought this would be plenty of time to get a
seat. Nope. At about 7:30 that morning, I got a message from Melissa,
another friend who was there last year with us, saying "we're already
in line, where are you?" At that moment I was just opening my eyes
trying to figure out where I was (I was on the floor in Stefan's
apartment). "Just getting up, is it crowded?" "Yes, you better
hurry". Uh oh. We hurried as fast as we could but we still didn't get
there before 9. And even at that time, there were no seats! Hundreds
(or thousands) or people were already there, taking up all the
un-reserved seats. There were 8 of us still to come, so there was no way
we'd find something all together. The other problem is that it was
raining...so everyone that would normally be happy sitting outside, was
rushing into the tents looking for shelter.
So, Ryan and I
tried to think of a backup plan. Across the street from Lowenbrau was
another big tent, so we went in asking the staff if there were areas
that were unreserved. "Over by the bar" they said. So we ran over and
found a small table...small, but it would work. There were 4 tables
there, 2 big and 2 small. They told us that 2 of them were reserved, so
we assumed they were talking about the big ones. We sat at one small
one, while another group of hopefuls from Australia took the other small
one. We sat there beaming as party after party tried to sit at the big
tables, only to be told they were reserved. We had our table and we
just had to wait another 2 hours til the kegs were tapped. All was
good.
Then a worker came over and had some bad news....ALL 4
tables were booked and we were getting kicked out. Darn! We pleaded
that someone told us they were free, but of course that got us nowhere.
Luckily, a few of us had sat at the bar and near a high-top table, so we
had space there as a back-up. It wasn't ideal, but at least we had
some seats. A few people went to get some breakfast, and we just sat
and waited. Around 11am, we started looking around and noticing some
strange things. All of the tables had small glasses on them. And no
big beer mugs anywhere in sight. Instead, they had tins for champagne
bottles. And there were pictures of grapes all over the place. And
there was no beer tap behind the bar. Someone said "I heard there is
ONE wine tent at Oktoberfest, but this isn't it....... Is it? It
isn't, right? Oh shit, I think it is". I asked the bartender, and he
said "you're in the wine tent". Dammit. Who knew that "Wein" was
"wine" in German?!??!
If only we spoke German...
So we scurried out of there, hoping to find another place to sit.
Luckily, the weather was on our side. The skies were clearing up, so we
parked at some of the outdoor seating back at Lowenbrau. Perfect! 45
minutes til we get our big tasty beers. We started playing card games
to pass the time, until we noticed the skies getting a bit dark again.
Then a drop of rain. Then another. And 3 more. Then the umbrellas
came out. Every 2 minutes one of us would look off into the horizon to
say, as if predicting the direction of the wind, "Oh I think it will
pass soon". And every time we said it, the rain would come down even
harder. We were 8 people snuggled under 4 umbrellas, as the rain
started to come down in sheets. Our playing cards were growing in size
from absorbing the water, and the benches were collecting puddles near
our butts. Finally, noon hit, and the beer lady came. We contemplated
leaving since we were drenched and cold, but we didn't come all this way
to say no to beers, so we all ordered one. 10 Euros a pop. No
problem. Ryan went to buy some ponchos, and we all huddled together with
a last gasp of hope that the rain would let up. Then it started coming
at us sideways and violently, like in
Forrest Gump. Courtney and Karl went to
look for another tent, while Jeff just got up and walked away, saying
"I'm outta here". To where, we didn't know. He left his beer. And he
took my umbrella.
Finally with our beers (they regularly carry 9 liters..whoa)
Poncho time
Abandoned soldiers
Finally, we decided to join Courtney in the tent next door, most of us
just leaving our half-full beers at the table (they were mostly filled
with rain water at this point anyway). We eventually all made it into
some shelter at last, as the monsoon-like rains continued outside. We
looked around this tent, and it felt like we were in Willy Wonka world.
There were pictures of cakes and cookies all over the place, the band
sounded like
the Woggles, and
guess what they DIDN'T serve. Yup, no beer. At this point, we didn't
care, because we were all wet and grumpy, so we ordered Aperol spritzers
or something like that (some orange drink), which were a measly 17
euros each. Not exactly happy hour prices. But I enjoyed it, because
we met some new friends, like a nice local couple who were also in this
tent only "to get out of the rain...normally I wouldn't be caught dead
in here", as well as some girls who gave me the address to their pretzel
shop in Austria (which, it turns out, doesn't exist). The great thing
about a ridiculous tent like that is there were 20 built-in
ice-breakers. I even told one of the band members I liked their
singing, as we peed next to each other in the urinal. It was my only lie
of the day.
After this debacle, the sun started to come out,
so we ran back to Lowenbrau to try to get in there. Somehow, Jen and
Jeff got in, while the rest of us either gave up, or stood in line for 2
hours with no success. Ryan and I were literally 3 people from the
front of the line for about 90 minutes. Some cute girls tried to cut
us, but of course we said no and stood our ground. Ok, that's also a
lie, we let them cut. Then I turned to my left and saw Stefan! Out of
all the tents and all the doors to tents in the whole Oktoberfest, he
came to the one where I was (he came after work with a co-worker).
After a couple minutes, they left to try another place and we didn't see
him til the next morning. Apparently, later that night he got punched
in the face trying to break up a fight, so that's also a funny story,
the way he tells it ("ohh, it happens all the time, sometimes you're
just lucky and get punched in the face and in the stomach"). While we
were waiting, Jen kept texting me that she was inside and got a table
for 8, but was there by herself. I kept telling her we were at the
front of the line and we were almost in. Then she'd write that she had a
table all to herself and we should hurry, then I told her we were
waiting outside and would be there soon. The conversation repeated like
that for about 45 minutes. I guess it was boring standing in that
line. In the end, we gave up, because nobody was going in. Ryan and I
went to the old town for dinner instead. After being at the tents for
about 8 hours that day, we managed to drink only 1 beer.
The next day was much better. We lined up at 7:15am for the 9am
opening. Jeff, Ryan and I all stood at different doors, to improve our
chances of getting an unreserved table. Jeff got a tip that row 13 at
Lowenbrau had open seating and we could claim tables there for the
entire day. So, when the doors opened, they ran to row 13, while I
found a back-up table on the outer area that was free. We had no
problems finding something, since we were basically first in line, but
Jeff and Ryan's find was great; next to the stage, in the middle of
everything, but also close to the aisle so we could get out when we
needed to. Starting at 9 am, we spent the whole day making up for our
lack of beer on the previous day. Kirsten, the sister of one of my best
elementary school friends, just happened to be in Munich by herself,
wanting to check out Oktoberfest. Thanks to the magic of Facebook
stalking, she was able to see I was also there, so she joined us for a
while, which was great. It had been more than 20 years since we last
saw each other. We enjoyed several beers, roasted chicken (so good I
didn't have time to take a picture of it), pretzels, and numerous songs,
including the German classics "Heeeeee-aaaaay baby (huh. ha.), I wanna
knooooow, will you be my girl" and "I'm posing, I'm posing" (or at least
that's what it sounds like...maybe they're saying something different
in German).
Finally in the tent
Finally fell asleep!
Atmosphere shot
Me and Kirsten
On our way out, we found this awesome ride in the carnival, where the ride up to the slide is more fun that going down. There is a conveyor belt that you have to jump on which takes you up-hill. Pretty much everyone falls down on it, which is great for the audience...it's no fun when they don't fall. I didn't try, so I could take the videos, but you can see everyone trying it
here and
here.
In the end, even with the debacle of the first day, the trip turned out to be a great one. Stefan was a great host, and even though he had to work most of the day when he wasn't getting punched in the face, we still found some time to hang out. Ryan only fell asleep at the table once, which was a success for him, and we all walked away with smiles on our faces. So, the question remains...who's coming with me next year!?
