Oktoberfest — A Night to be Remembered

No really. What happened? Dana and I headed up to Munich excited for our first Oktoberfest. Our plan was to head to Oktoberfest Friday night, and then to spend Saturday and Sunday exploring the city. If we had time, we’d head back to the Oktoberfest for more fun.

We arrived at our first—and as it turns out, only—tent Friday at about 5 pm. Since it was late in the day, we had to sit outside, and we’re lucky to find a table. After about 30 minutes, we were able to order our first beers, and were all smiles.

Oktoberfest … das good!

My original plan was to have a liter of beer and then either head to another tent or into the city for some exploration. Well… one beer turned into two; two turned into more; and before you know it, I’m translating for our newly found Russian friend. He spoke only Russian and I only speak English and Italian, but that didn’t matter. We toasted in Russian, I translated his flirtations to the English speaking women. I have to admit, I was probably a bit more forward and vulgar than he was considering he kept showing me pictures of his girlfriend.

As the night progressed, we continued to drink and drink. We made more and more friends. In fact, at a certain point, everyone is your friend. Our German friends, Flo and Max, offered tons of tips on sites to see. I remembered absolutely zero of the tips.

Our new German friends: Flo and Max

Our Ohioan mates were always incognito with their sunglasses in photos.

Christian and the Ohioans

And my personal favorite of the lot: Man who claims to have sex with his wife every night.

Man who claims to have sex every night, Dana, Christian, and Natale

Last call was made at about 11:30, so Dana and I decided it was time to head back to the hotel as we wanted to get an early start on Saturday. We headed out, and upon seeing the Metro stop packed with people, I instructed Dana, “C’mon. Let’s keep walking. There’s another stop further that way.” Now, it is important to note that:

This was my first time in Munich
I had ridden this particular metro 1 time in my life
I had well over 2 liters of beer in my system

I really have no idea how long we walked—it didn’t seem long—or what time we arrived back at the hotel. All I do know is that I found a metro, got us on it, and got us “home”. I even realized that we were on the wrong train (it bi-passed our stop), changed trains, and managed to navigate our way to the correct stop. And I did all this without dropping Dana once—although I did have to prop her up against a wall every now and then. Once we were at our final stop, I knew that riding a bus was probably a bad idea, so I encourage Dana to walk the 20 minutes back to the hotel. Dana did request to be allowed to sleep outside despite several times in route to the hotel.

I woke on Saturday at 7 am sharp starving. I made my way to breakfast—€21—and asked if I could please have a couple pieces of toast instead of paying for the full breakfast. The waiter took one look at me, laughed, and nodded yes. Once back in the room, I ate half a piece of toast, crawled back in bed, and proceeded to sleep until noon. So much for an early start.

Needless to say, Dana and I were not feeling tip top. We each had at least 2.5 liters of beer, which, by my calculations, is the equivalent of 10-12 normal beers in terms of alcohol content. Needless to say, a bit more than we’re used to drinking. Saturday was pretty much a wasted day. We were both incredibly hungover, but we forced ourselves out for a few hours.

Sunday started much better with both of us feeling 100%. We were ready to attack the city.

Feeling Great Today!

We headed into the English garden that had numerous interesting sites. The first was a river that you can surf on.

Surfing on a river??!!

Also within the English Garden is a Chinese tower.

The Chinese Tower in the English Garden

However, the most interesting site within the English Garden was seen a few minutes after this photo was taken. Dana says, “Look that guy’s wearing a loin cloth. We must be near the nudist field.” Well, he actually wasn’t wearing a loin cloth and we weren’t near the nudist field. He was very hairy and we were at the nudist field. EWE…

After washing our eyes with soap, we headed to the Residence. This was our last stop for the trip, so I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite photos.