After standing around our meeting point at the Santa Maria Novella Station we finally boarded our private charter bus and were on our way to Munich just past midnight. The first four hours were tolerable. With the help of a Melatonin, some Tylenol PM and a mug of red wine I was able to conk out for the first four-hour leg of the drive. Unfortunately there is some law in Europe that the bus drivers gets a 45-minute break every four hours so naturally everyone on the bus was up at 4am shuffling around. The next four-hour leg of the drive was nothing short of torturous. Upon arriving at a Burger King (insert scoffing noise here) outside of Munich we were informed we had 45 minutes to eat breakfast, change our clothes and do whatever we needed to get ready since we wouldn’t be able to check into our hotel rooms until 3:00. All in the Burger King public bathroom. Excellent.
Of course three busloads of students, who are 80% female, made the bathroom at our rest stop a little chaotic. Note to everyone who travels on a charter bus: If your not first you’re last. ALWAYS sit either at the very front of the bus or at the mid-point directly behind the second door. This will give you easy access to make your break to the bathroom or rest stop before everyone else gets there.
Luckily I was able to change into my beloved WSU Cougar T-shirt and I even found the time to stuff my face with some carbohydrates and down a Red Bull. Unfortunately I was forced to haphazardly apply my makeup back on the bus…needless to say the lack of sleep coupled with the dimly lit and shaky bus didn’t help my overall appearance for the day.
After dropping our bags off at the hotel we got back on the bus and headed to Oktoberfest. We were very lucky to able to score some of the few remaining seats in the Houfbrau house before they closed it off.
There are two very important things to know about drinking in the beer tents at Oktoberfest. First of all, the beer is about 6% alc./vol and it comes in enormous liter mugs, roughly equivalent to three beers. Secondly you MUST be seated at a table in order to be served, and in order to get seats you have to arrive EARLY or book a reservation months in advance. When I say early I mean 8:30am. This is puts “day drinking” on a whole new level.
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| Go Cougs! |
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| "HEEEYYYY, HEY BABY! OH! AH!" |
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| :) |
After many rounds of “Hey Baby,” a few frothy mugs of beers and one of the most delicious doughnuts I have ever had we were ready to be evicted from our seats which were reserved for another group at 3:00. I managed to get two “Go Cougs!” shout outs and I was even invited to sing the WSU fight song. If I could compare this experience to anything in my life I undoubtedly have to say it is very much like a Cougar Football Saturday only replace the football with foreigners doing soccer chants. Everyone is so happy, so lively and of course with all that liquid courage going around people are very outgoing, maybe too outgoing. The bathrooms were shockingly clean, but the lines were outrageous and I am really sick of the complete ignorance Europeans seemed to have toward single file lines, and the word ‘queue.’
After cabbing it back to our hotel we napped for a little bit then went out to eat. I don’t know if it is a German thing or just an Oktoberfest policy but the beer tents do last call at 10:30pm on the dot and they are cleared out at 11:30 sharp, Germans are extremely efficient people.
Saturday we were a little slow getting to the tent. At exactly 9:22am we were in line for the Haufbrau house but since things weren’t moving too fast and the weather was cooperating we elected to sit outside in the beer garden. I must say that the waitresses at the Haufbrau house were not exactly what I had in mind. I suppose I expected cute girls like the St. Pauly’s costumes you see at Halloween but the reality was burly beer wielding old broads complete with combat boots. Yikes! Be very polite and always tip them otherwise you can kiss your next round of beers Auf Wiedersehen.
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| She was one of the cuter ones too. |
Although the outdoor beer garden wasn’t as crazy as the inside of the tent I somehow managed to get drug up on the table, by guess who? A group of Italian men of course.
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| Okay that's enough. |
After that I was ready to try the famous Half-Hendel. The juiciest and most delicious roast chicken I have ever eaten. Think of those amazing rotisserie birds you can get at Costco or the grocery store but a million times better. Apparently some 600,000 chickens are served during Oktoberfest.
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| YUM! |
After our morning round at the Houfbra House we decided to wander the fair grounds for a little bit and check out the rides. At six euro a pop we decided that only the Ferris wheel wound be worth the price since we could get a birds-eye view of the mayhem. 16 beer tents, a couple thousand people and God only knows how much beer look like this:
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| View from the Ferris Wheel |
After a few brats, some giant ginger bread cookies and a little souvenir shopping we headed out into Munich for a little sightseeing which was short lived since we had no idea where anything was and no guidebook or map. Soon the early morning beers were taking their tolls and we headed back to our hotel for what else? A power nap.
Dinner that night turned out to be the worst decision of the whole trip, perhaps even my whole life. After taking the tram into a sub-neighborhood of Munich that was recommended by our hotel concierge we were very annoyed to only find bars and Italian restaurants. Four blocks later we finally surrender and decided to get Chinese food since none of us had had any for weeks, in my case months. Perhaps my Kung Pao chicken curry was made with a little German Shepherd meat or maybe the place we was beneath health code standards…probably both.
Whatever the reason, the result was the worst case of food poisoning I have ever had. After rolling around my mattress all night I finally starting my rounds of toilet-hugging at about 7am while my healthy and happy roommates got ready to visit the concentration camp. After being forced to checkout of the hotel at 11:00 I had no choice but to ride the bus back to Oktoberfest where I had the utterly humiliating experience of sitting alone on the damp grass for THREE HOURS! While I waited for our departure time, I was trying my absolute hardest not to toss my cookies and of course everyone looked at me like I was some stupid drunk American girl who couldn’t handle Oktoberfest. SO embarrassing.
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| Never trust a Chinese restaurant in Munich. |
After eight horrible hours on the bus our tour group finally arrived back in Florence. Even though the trip ended on a bad note I loved Oktoberfest and I would go back every year if I could, of course I would exclusively eat half-hendels, doughnuts, brats and beer... but I cam out of the 200th anniversary in one piece which is more I can say for these people...
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| Some people just cant handle Oktoberfest.... |
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