Ein prosit

In case you were unaware that 'ein prosit' means a toast... it means a toast. Yup, you guessed it: willkommen to the Oktberfest post.

Natalie and I fairly pleased to be at Oktoberfest

I apologize in advance for this being so long. If you want to skip directly to THE EVENT and not read about the journey there, scroll down to the bold letters, but you know it's all about the journey not the destination...

It is hard to know where to begin, as the weekend was one of the most ridiculous stretch of days in my life, so I guess I will go to the beginning.

Plane tickets. $320. I cannot tell you how much it hurt to press the payment confirmation button, BUT going to Oktoberfest is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, sorry to use a cliche, but it really is. Keep in mind, direct flights during Oktoberfest costs AT LEAST $500. Our tickets included an 8 hour over-night layover in Zurich, Switzerland (we planned to sleep in the airport) and a mere 4 four hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany on the way back. Trust me, I did well for the circumstances.

Of course it wouldn't be a Natalie and Shelagh trip if it had not hit the ground running, literally. As we waited for our flight to depart, we checked the gate and status of our flight... a 3 hour delay. Perfect. We settled into some uncomfortable seats in between the smoking section and the kids playground. I was about to nap when Natalie shakes me from my almost-slumber screaming "SHELAGH OUR FLIGHT IS LEAVING NOW. I JUST CHECKED THE STATUS AND IT IS THE LAST BOARDING CALL!" It turns out that Swiss Airlines thinks they can delay a flight 3 hours... then un-delay it. Long story short, we made it, met no one exciting on the plane and had some delicious free swedish chocolate before we landed.

As we left the plane, we noticed two girls who looked our age and (obviously) decided to creep. Natalie asked if they were going to Munich in the morning. No surprise- they were. Their plan, however, was to explore Zurich from the hours of 11 pm and 5 am. I liked this idea a lot. Natalie did not. After some convincing, we latched onto these girls from Texas and Chicago and made our way into Zurich with our new friends.

Our new girlfriends for the night (our
surrogate Liz and Kira, if you will)

It turns out Zurich, unlike Madrid, is not a 24-hour city. Clubs were not an option with our backpacks and travel attire so we stopped at the first bar we could find. They kicked us out at 1 am. Last call. Embarrassing. We transitioned to a sketchy place called "Big Ben Bar." How do I know it was sketchy? They were playing re-runs of WWF. It turns out, one of our new friends had a little brother, so she explained the wide world of WWF to the rest of us. Yes, WWF requires explanation. It even has a plot, supposedly. I am learning so much abroad! While watching and talking, we hear:

"Hey, are you girls speaking American?"

We knew what he meant. We were speaking English with an overtly american accent. We still mean-mugged him before answering that yes, we were speaking ENGLISH.

The guy who asked was a big brawny white guy from (where else) Texas. He was with an even bigger eyebrow-ringed black friend and another guy who was normal sized and a legitimate replica of Ben Stiller. We weren't surprised when we found out the 2 huge guys were in the marines and the smaller one a salesperson (he never mentioned being Ben Stiller's twin; I am sure he feels uncomfortable living in the shadow of his successful acting family). We figured we could trust a couple of marines, so we let them hang out with us. They made us guess how old they were which was COMPLETELY uncomfortable and they turned out to be 26 and 27. They had just spent a week in Oktoberfest and Ibiza (the biggest party island in the whole world, just southeast of Spain). Being able to relate to them made me feel really old...

At 3 am we said our good-byes and the original all-girl crew headed back to the train station and waited for it to open at 5 am. We got back to the Zurich airport after what seemed like days in the city, went through security, waited for our gate, then took a bus to our plane. The doors opened, and I saw THIS:

Yes, this was ACTUALLY our plane to go to Munich. 

I immediately jumped up and down like a crazy American. How could you NOT get excited about transportation like this? 

Natalie and I boarded this beauty and were pleasantly surprised that we were sharing a set of seats with a young guy. Before the 40 minute flight, we started singing Mexican songs, which either humored or annoyed the guy next to us. He made fun of us and we became fast friends. We found out he was Swiss-Italian. We also found out there are four national languages of Switzerland- German, French, Italian and Romansh. He could speak all of them. And English. Natalie and I get more and more pissed by the day that we were born in America. Anyway, we will call this guy 'Romano' to protect his identity. 

Romano told us he was on a man-weekend of sorts and that his friends would not be in Munich for several hours, so Natalie and I generously allowed him to hang out with us until they got there. We took the long train ride to the city center, Marrienplatz, and went to the top of The New Town Hall to see the city from above: 

The three of us walked around the city center, split a gigantic pretzel, then stopped at a biergarten for some beer and wiener schnitzel. As expected, breaded and fried veal is delicious. 

Romano's friends started to arrive, one from Canada, one from London, one from the Czech Republic. They all worked together in London. We were getting quite the international experience. After finishing a collective 8 liters of beer, we headed to Oktoberfest to do some drinking.

TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT:

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryans...
ahem, Germans we sat next to the first night

Natalie and I now basically had 4 big brothers to protect and guide us through Oktoberfest. Hello free tour guides. It was awesome. We went to the Hofbräu tent and quickly realized we would not be able to get in. Fortunately, we found outside seats, sandwiching ourselves between 3 Germans and 2 New Zealanders. When everyone is drinking beers one liter at a time, you become friends pretty quickly. The Germans were from a town I had never heard of and I quickly realized that Germans actually GO to Oktoberfest. How refreshing!

When it started to rain, I stood my ground. Sans umbrella, I sat in the rain for 15 minutes, drinking my beer and enjoying the food the other die-hards were donating to Natalie and I (hello, free dinner!). When buckets of water started to drop from the sky, we decided to seek shelter. Natalie and I got separated for a few hours which was HORRIBLE but eventually found each other again with the help of our new friends. We met at a bar near Marrienplatz where (you guessed it) we enjoyed some more beers. 

We agreed to meet the man-posse the next day at (GASP) 8am to get a seat in the tent that opened at 9am. The meeting was a success and after a bit of prodding and dodging, we got a table for the seven of us. Because this post is getting ridiculously long and you all should get back to your papers, reading, adult work, etc I will give some bulletpoints of Oktoberfest facts and then my personal Oktoberfest play-by-play.

The Facts:

This small sample is nothing. About
50% of girls where the dresses and
probably 40% of guys the lederhosun

• People actually wear lederhosen and those oh-so-classy beer maid outfits... A LOT of people
• The real Beer-maids are old, unattractive, and mean (I apologize to all the male fantasies I just killed)
• At Oktoberfest, there are 14 tents, each serving a different type of beer, with an average of 6,000 people in each one
• The beer tents look absolutely nothing like tents
• Germans actually ATTEND Oktoberfest
• ...but so do raucous, obnoxious Americans, like myself
• Fights are extremely rare at Oktoberfest, despite the number of drunk people 
• In addition to the beer tents, there is an entire carnival at Oktoberfest
• Therefore, in addition to drunk hooligans, there are many families in attendance 

I can't take credit for this picture, however
it is legit and as yo can see, the Beermaids
carry up to 8 pitchers of beer and use their
whistles to make people move/drink

• A beer cost 9 Euros in each tent and is only sold by the liter
• Each tent is also a fully functional restaurant, with the most popular menu items being chicken, potatoes, and giant pretzels
• If a Beermaid notices a table is not drinking enough beer she will yell at them to leave or buy more beer 
• If they refuse to leave, she will pick up the bench and shake it 
• If a Beermaid sees someone dozing off, she will blow her whistle at them; if they fail to respond, they will be kicked out of the tent (publicly) and everyone will cheer and sing

I still cannot believe I ran into Kellyn
 in the bathroom HOARD

Now, for my Oktoberfet events:

• We arrive at 8am to the Hofbräu tent and doors open earlier than expected at 8:30am
• We sit between a group of 17-year old Germans and a 20-something German couple
• 9am, our beermaid yells at the 17-year olds in German (we find out she says they are not allowed to be there and you have to be 18 to drink in the tents- Germans are SERIOUS)
• 9:15 am, we receive our first beers from our Beermaid, as do the 17-year olds next to us. Hmmm. Guess she forget about the aforementioned events 
• Heavy drinking ensues.
• On a trip to the bathroom, who do I see? None other than KELLYN SLOAN (my friend studying abroad with us in Madrid)!! Of all the tents and all the possible times I could have gone to the bathroom, the statistical chance of this encounter are ridiculously minute. I meet some of her friends at her table and then bring her to our table as well to see Natalie 
• The young Germans teach us a popular Oktoberfest song (Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit Der Gemütlichkeit)
• The succeeding events include drinking, eating and singing this song for 6 hours.
• We meet some 60-something Spaniards who get IRRATIONALLY excited when we tell them we are studying in Madrid. They offer Natalie and I giant pretzels. We are happy. 
• I may or may have not gotten inebriated during this period of heavy drinking

The inside of the Hofbräu tent- one of the most famous at Oktoberfest!

• At 4 pm, Natalie and I tap out. We simply cannot drink and sit in this tent anymore. 
• I realize this when:
• our Beermaid yells at our table for not drinking enough and shakes the bench on which we are seated
• I start dozing on a pile of coats and our Beermaid blows her whistle at me

The Antiquarium in the Residenz Musuem

After about a half hour of walking through the Oktoberfest carnival, we finally reach the outside world and start smelling things other than beer. We stop at a supermarket to refuel. 


I love 3 Euro dinners. The next day, we had a return flight to Madrid, so we went to the Residenz Museum, which is the former Wittelsbach residence, (royal Bavarian family) built in 1385 and expanded in 1550. Of course, both our cameras died, but it didn't really matter because almost everything original was destroyed in World War II (way to go, Hitler) and restored. The 'Antiquarium' was the best part of the palace:


Then we went to Pinakotethek museum, an art museum that had some pretty legit Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandts and (surprise!) a Da Vincia painting. Natalie and I aren't quite sure how they got their hands on that one. None of these museums were my idea, mind you. Natalie comes from a "museum family" and insisted we go to at least one while we were in Munich. Despite my painful hangover, I am glad I got one day of culture before departing. 


On the way back to the airport, we were eavesdropping on two American-male college students and started to hear familiar names and places. Then, one of the guys started to look familiar to me. Natalie told them we were eavesdropping, I asked if they knew our friend Kellyn, and it turns out they were friends from home and met up at Oktoberfest over the weekend! I had met one of them the day before at Kellyn's table! These small-world encounters always make me go crazy. Of all the seats in all the carts during all the times that we could have been on the Munich underground...


I guess it was a day of finding friends, because on our layover in Frankfurt, Natalie and I saw none other than our friend Kellyn! She had missed her flight and took a train to Frankfurt to fly back to Madrid from there. Luckily enough she was on our flight and in our row!  Ridiculous. 


All in all, Oktoberfest was everything I hoped it would be and (sorry to be really lame, but) more. I will never ever regret that $320 plane ticket.