Going Deutsch: Prost!

Everyone kept telling me the entire weekend that it was a must to experience the real Oktoberfest once in my life and live to tell about it. Well I am happy to report that I have returned in once piece and could not have been luckier with my company or my experiences.

With Sandra being sick the last couple of weeks things have been more complicated around the house, and that explains why, in the end, I headed to Munich on Friday morning with the only two members of the family that don’t speak a word of English: the grandparents. My German must be improving because we made the six hour journey without any major problems, all the while making light conversation. My hotel room was wonderful, had a great kitchen, and was just big enough for my two friends from the States to be able to squeeze onto the floor to sleep. My old roommate Aubrey Anne and her friend Ellis are traveling around Europe until December and were also advised to experience the Oktoberfest, so I met them after I arrived that afternoon just long enough to let them in my room. I was glad to have some English speaking guests!

Christof and Sandra’s extended family and friends were all getting together to party for the weekend, so Friday night I went with the grandparents to eat at an old Bavarian restaurant with the large group. I have never been to a louder restaurant in my life and everyone was laughing and yelling and toasting up a storm. After many loud, German recommendations from real Bavarians, I ordered the german version of prime rib and it was, of course, delicious. The Bavarians speak a very difficult dialect of German with many added S’s and new words all together for things, so any hopes of participating in dinner conversation were quickly squashed. After, I conquered the Munich subway system and met Aubrey Anne and Ellis at the fair grounds where everything was starting to shut down. I was a little confused why it was closing at 10:30pm, but then I remembered there had been constant drinking happening at this place from daybreak until dark, everyday, for 3 weeks. We settled for candied almonds and getting a good night’s sleep to prepare us for the day ahead.

I have no idea why we are so lucky, but in Sandra’s and Christof’s absence extra seats were available on Saturday at tables in a beer tent. After meeting up with the group if 30 family members and friends dressed in liederhosen and the corseted dresses, we followed Jürge, the boss man, as he spun his wife's scarf above his head to guide us. We wove in a long, single file line through the subway system, up the escalator, through the crowd (who drunkenly, without shame, would run smack into you), past all the unsafe rides, and through more crowds to the beer tent. Not just to any beer tent, to Hacker-Pschorr, one of the oldest and best. And not just any seats, seats at tables that needed to be reserved TWO YEARS in advance because of the quality and view. We sat in awe in our fantastic balcony seats from 1:30 to 5:30 and watched the dancing, passing out, music, fights, throwing up, kissing, and drinking that was happening below with the almost 7000 other visitors to this particular beer tent. And we also were very impressed at the partying that was happening at our own table.

So much of this extra alcoholic beer was drunken by our table that I am certain I have never had so much to drink in my life. And my friends and I were put to shame by our seasoned elders. Aubrey Anne, Ellis, and I separated from the group when our reservation was up and ended up touring the rest of the city on the backs of bicycles driven by locals until midnight. On the car ride home Sunday morning, we looked like soldiers returning from battle. I went home with bruises on the back of my legs from uncomfortable backseats of bikes and a headache that I still currently have while I’m writing this. The grandpa went home with two black eyes and a scraped up, broken nose from an event later on that night at Oktoberfest that he can still not pin point, and the grandma went home with a bill for his ambulance ride.

When I got back to the house, Christof took me to the small Oktoberfest in Wiedenbrück and it was really nice! We rode the ferris wheel and took in the views of Germany, and it was a really nice end to a crazy weekend. I read today in the German newspaper that a record 7 million liters of beer was sold at this year’s festival. Oktoberfest 2010; one for the record books.