Oktoberfest 2009

Once a year Bavarians and beer lovers alike gather in Munich, Germany to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. OK, ok, to drink copious amounts of German beer while wearing dirndls and lederhosen. Having a liter of beer at Oktoberfest was one of my life-travel goals. It’s right up there with drinking a mint julep at the Kentucky Derby or celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Southie, Boston. The night before October 1st, over 100 foreign exchange students boarded the party train from Vienna, Austria to Munich, Germany. The train consisted of sleeper compartment cars and one party train. A party train is a train car which is completely empty except for a DJ booth and a bar. Part of the cost of the trip to Oktoberfest was all you can drink train rides there and back. The Buddynetwork, which put on this whole shindig, had gone to Hungary to buy cheap alcohol. For the rest of the night, they served use off brand hard liquor, beer, and whatever mixers they had left in tiny plastic cups. All you can drink the night BEFORE Oktoberfest. Once the train pulled away from the Vienna station, I had my first warm beer placed in my hand. As the night wore on people coupled up, the mixers dwindled, and the bathroom became saturated with vomit. The main problem with drinking on a train is not the fact that you spill your drink often (did I mention how sticky the floor got?); it’s the fact that you cannot drink the water on the train. It’s non potable. We have 100 plus drunk kids and NO water. I cleverly managed to swipe a bottle earlier in the night in an attempt to wake up sans hangover.
Munich is a town I am proud to have been hung-over in. Being hung-over seems like a German national pastime. I walk into Munich and lose the entire group. I am not even hung-over yet, I am still drunk. While walking the streets of Munich I manage to find some representatives of her Majesty’s empire (England, Scotland, and Australia) and I breakfast with them. And by breakfast, I mean all I can stomach is a cup of coffee. After breakfast, it is off to my main goal of this semester: to buy a dirndl.
Once in my dirndl, I follow some gentleman wearing lederhosen to the Schottenhamel tent at the Oktoberfest fair grounds. By 12:30 I have a liter of beer in my hands and 5 suave looking German gentlemen around me.
Oktoberfest is a Carnival of Beer. Over 6 million people attend Oktoberfest. In addition to having several “tents” serving different German beers, there is also a huge fair ground. There are tons of kiosks selling silly hats, pretzel necklaces, candy apples, steins, and anything else Bavarian.
Scattered across the fairground are what the Germans refer to as “beer corpses.” If you have ever taken a liter, or 5, of beer to the face, you will understand the feeling. After spending the afternoon drinking beer, carousing with VUEW buddies, taking pictures, dancing with Germans, singing drinking songs, and eating Hendl (chicken), I decide to take a walk around the fair grounds.

So, I am walking, eating a candy apple, and I see a pair of shiny white shoes on a hillside. There is only one person in Europe I know who would wear such a pair of shoes: Ethan. I haven’t seen either of my Bentley companions for awhile, and I was getting slightly concerned. On this hillside there are several beer corpses. But as I get closer I see my two friends sleeping in the most uncomfortable positions possible. I wake them up, and after a lot of drunken confusion, we end up having one last liter of beer and making the all you can drink train home to Vienna. Oktoberfest: the best festival in the world.