We began our journey from our home base, Kaiserslautern, and then switched up at Heidelberg en route to Munich. The total length of the train trip was about 4.5 hours or so. It would have been about 5 hours to drive. Unfortunately, the lady who booked our tickets made a grievous error on our seat reservations when she booked the Heidelberg to Munich portion (about 3.5 hour duration) of the trip. She put us in the damn smoking car.
I have to stress that the smoking car was absolutely ridiculous. When we opened the door it looked as if they were trying to film the re-make of the movie "The Fog" or "Backdraft", (only replace the principal actors with leather-faced old folks and groups of racous, chain-smoking fun boys) and we had stumbled onto the set. Gwen and I actually contemplated enduring the 3.5 hour train ride by sitting between cars, near the bathrooms, so as not to have to endure the awful smoke.
After 10 minutes or so of being jostled by constant foot traffic (and after a rude encounter with one of the train attendants, in which we showed him the ticket and asked why our supposed non-smoking ticket was in the wrong car, he looked Gwen straight in the eye with a stolidness only a true German can muster, then pointed to the ticket and said "Racher". (Raucher = smoking; our ticket should have read "Nichtraucher".) Then he looked away and walked off without a hint of empathy. In retrospect, this was really funny.) Gwen and I made our way reluctantly into the smoking car and sat in our reserved seats, booting two freeloading smokers in the process.
That part of the trip wasn't fun. I kept waking up from my nap with dry irritated eyes and mild coughs. I suppose we got used to it after a while. After a while...
When we finally arrived in Munich, it was about 10:30 pm and the large Hauptbahnhoff (Central Train Station) was teeming with drunken, post-fest people just staggering everywhere. Within minutes of walking off the train, we heard bottles break, saw people passed out on benches, saw piles of vomit near trash cans, and generally witness drunk activity like loud yelling, singing, and all sorts of stumbling. It was pretty classic - and definitely conjured up visions of a Euro-style Mardi Gras.
We made our way to our hotel (The Hotel Regent - within walking distance to the train station) and got ourselves checked in. In our hotel (which had the smallest elevators (which were also uncomfortably mirrored) I've ever been in), we got settled and then went out quickly for a drink with my friend Jamie. The other 3 members of his posse had already succumbed to a full day at Oktoberfest, and were quietly passed out back in their hotel room.
It was good to see big Jamie (standing at 6'6" or so). We had a lot of good times in medical school, especially after tests. He is the originator, in my world, of the beloved battleship beer pong. He's doing an ortho residency at Stanford, in year 4 currently. When we met up with him that Friday night, it was clear he'd had his share of bier that day, and he was a little stumbly and loud, but overall happy. We made our way to the main strip of Munich and had a drink or two before calling it a night. All three of us were pretty tired - Jamie from his day at the fest and Gwen and I from inhaling the equivalent of 200 cigarettes after a full night of travel.
The next morning, Gwen and I enjoyed the Hotel's Continental Breakfast in the company of multiple groups of hungover funboys. After that, we met up with Jamie and the rest of his posse (wife Laurie, friend Chris, and Chris's girlfriend Suzanne) and started the day at about noon by taking a walk into the center of Munich. We cruised around a bit, and caught up, and just sort of enjoyed the sites.
At about 3 pm or so, we decided to head over to the actual 'Fest itself. The Fest is situated in one of Munich's fair grounds. It's sort of a large carnival thing - roughly half of it is dedicated to amusement park style stuff, like rides, booths, and games. The other half, of course, is composed predominantly of beer tents.
From Lonely Planet Germany:
"In October 1810 Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig I married the Saxon-Hildburghausen Princess Therese and an enormous party was held in front of the city gates. That was the beginning of what is now the largest beer festival in the world, Oktoberfest. A 15-day extravaganza that attracts over seven million people a year, it is Munich's largest and most economically important tourist attraction.
During the event, the Theresienwiese fairgrounds are transformed into a city of beer tents, amusements, rides - just what beer drinkers need after several frothy ones - and kiosks selling snacks and sweets. The action kicks off with the Brewer's Parade at 11 am on the first day of hte festival. The parade begins at Sonnesnstrasse and winds its way to the fairgrounds via Schwanthalerstrasse. At noon, the lord mayors tands before the thirsty crowds at Theresienwiese and with due pomp, slams a wooden tap into a cask of beer. As the beer gushes out, the mayor exclaims, Ozapft ist's! (IT's tapped!). "
Here's a coule of pics of the general mayhem of that Saturday Day at the fest:
Peeps a' plenty
This guy's probably been drinking since 9 am...
After spending some time shoving through the crowds, and gawking at hordes upon hordes of funboys (oh my were there some funboys at this thing), we made the group decision to shove our way toward a beer tent and try to get in. We chose the "Lowenbrau" tent, for no real good reason (though personally I was fired up at the sweet 1960's style animatronic Lion guzzling a stein on top of the tent - see pic). We had to wait in line outside the tent for about a half hour to get in (amongst others pushing and shoving to get in). Gwen and I shared a giant pretzel about a foot wide while we did this. Once we got in the tent, we were greeted by sheer madness. Each of these tents holds about 6 or 7 thousand people. It was loud, racous, a little warm, and pretty smoky (though not as bad as the train car). There are tons of tables everywhere, but they were almost all filled. So it became a waiting game of perusing the scene, seeing who was potentially about to get up, and then sending in our women-folk to reserve spots. It took about 45 minutes, but we eventually found a nice seat for all six of us (amazingly) and settled in and got down to the business of ordering beer.
(At one point, while searching for a table, I was bumped into pretty hard. I turned around to see who just knocked into me (and who I was basically about to have to light the fuck up), and I saw some guy basically bent over at the waist. A second later, he wretched and subsequently puked his guts out all over the floor of one of the main thoroughfares. We all cleared a ring around him and everyone in the nearby area (a good several hundred people) made a collective "OhhhhhH!" noise. Immediately after that came thunderous applause as he continued stumbling off, toward the bathroom, I suppose. Ah, Oktoberfest...)
This Lion wasn't cowardly - he had LIQUID COURAGE!
Jamie signaling to us from the spot of our eventual table
We quickly realized we were surrounded by funboys...
Smiling chicks with big beer steins - why is this thing so popular again?
Continued next Post...
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