This will be my last post about our glorious trip to Europe. I just wanted to get it all on here so I could look back and remember it all. Seriously though, we've been back for 6 months and I think it's time to move on lol. I figure I'll leave out the last week that Carey and I spent in Spain because lounging the sun by the pool while reading the Hunger Games Trilogy because that doesn't make for the best story. Also sad to say I won't go into detail about our time in Northern Germany and Amsterdam but I will say it was just as grand as everything was before and I won't forget it. What I will tell you about was our two days in Munich at Okoberfest..
We got to our campsite just outside of Munich at about 4pm. We had a few plans for the evening. Firstly to get into the downtown area so we could get the lay of the land. Also we had decided it was completely necessary to track down lederhosen and dirndl so we would fit in with all the real Germans (sorry Carey, you hardly qualify). We set up camp.. by that I mean we parked our rig, and headed out to grab the bus. The bus took us to the train and from there we just followed the crowd. We arrived by the time it was just getting dark. We cruised around and took in the sights and a couple brats (obviously!). We ended up getting seats in an outdoor beer garden which worked out just wonderfully for us. Drank enough glasses (litres) of beer to be feeling pretty great and enjoyed some salty pretzels. We still made it back to our campsite in one piece at a fairly reasonable hour, we had a big day ahead of us.
Our big day at Oktoberfest started pretty early. We were up and ready by around 9am. We were dressed to impress and looking forward to a glorious day. On top of it all it was Brett's birthday so we had plans to make this one count. Today we all blended in pretty well in our new outfits, except people were not impressed by our footwear. Apparently regardless of the heat your supposed to wear big ass boots and wool socks with your lederhosen. I don't think we had any regrets with our sandals once we got into the hot and sweaty tents.
We looked around until we found a tent that had tables. Well they all had available tables at that point, it was 10am. Most of them are reserved at 3pm and you get the boot when the reservations (which are sold out months in advance) show up. We ended up in the Ochsenbraterei Tent which turned out to be a great choice. We were allowed to stay as long as we pleased, so we sat down knowing this would be our spot for the day. We knew we had a looong day of drinking ahead of us so we did the logical thing and ordered some breaky with our first steins of beer. I knew the food would be good but it was actually better than I imagined. You know when you eat something SO delish that you actually want to puke after just so you could potentially eat it all over again? That's how we felt all day long.
As the day carried on things just kept getting better and better. Our beer maid was around enough to keep our beers filled, the only issue is drinking them fast enough so they don't get warm. We were fighting the heat in there and those beers take awhile to consume. We made some German friends and did about 1000 prosts. A little later after several litres Carey went a little hard on his glass hitting and smashed his stein. Honestly I have no idea how because those things are like an inch thick.
Carey's uncle (well sort of, more of a great cousin lol) Hans joined us for a few hours of drinking. I don't know if it's a German thing of if it's just Carey's distant relatives but everyone we met up with over there was SO nice. Hans bought us a round of beer and some more food for our bellies. He we probably just concerned about how drunk we already were by 2pm, but it's the thought that counts. Hans left before we really started getting embarrassing, from what I recall at least?
Like any normal North Americans we made the drinking portion into a bit of a competition and kept track of how many litres we were putting back. Which is not easy when you've been drinking litres of beer all day long but the final tally was 8 litres for Brett and Carey and 6 litres for Kristy and I. That's about 3 beer cans per litre, you do the math. This was accompanied by many trips to the washroom and at least 1 litre of water from what I remember. The water was actually just as much money as the beer so it hardly seemed worth it.
Around 7pm people start getting pretty rowdy, for obvious reasons. Everyone stood up on the benches and the music got a little louder. This is what I imagined for Okoberfest! Of course we've been drinking since well before noon while sitting on our asses. Getting up and standing for long periods of time made us realize we had in fact drank close to 20 beer each. By about 9pm Kristy and I were starting to fade. Well I don't know is fade is the right word or not, we could barely stand or keep our eyes open. We staggered out for some energy, a couple foot long hot dogs and potato pancakes. Here's Kristy in fine form enjoy her dog:
& here's a group shot of the dream team early in the day:
Kristy and I made a few wrong turns on the way back, the train system wasn't as easy as it was on day one. We made it back without any real problems though. Carey and Brett weren't quite as lucky. They were only about an hour behind us (but probably didn't think to have some brain food before heading to the train... foot long dog always makes the difference). From what we've heard Carey was sitting on the train barking orders at Brett to get them home, I can't remember why but for some reason this was solely Brett's job. Brett of course can't see a THING because he's blind as a bat and has downed a flat of beer to himself. Carey refuses to help him read the train schedule which is on the train ceiling above the door. At some point Brett decides he should jump off at the next stop and get a quick look at the bigger map outside the train. Carey continues to sit there and yell at Brett. Brett is not as fast and limber as he thought and he doesn't get back on the train in time. Now he is stuck in the middle of nowhere (they were going the wrong way already) alone and blind. Carey finally gets up and looks at the map notices he is going the wrong way, gets off the train and hops on the next one back. He make it back to the campsite without issue. Brett on the other hand ends up at a stop that isn't very popular and has to wait 30 mins for the next train. I honestly don't think we'll ever know what happens after that. We always put one of the campsite cards in Brett's wallet for times likes these and after a few hours he also made it back. At that point we were all fast asleep caring very little about his well being.
Overall this was the BEST trip of my life. It still seems surreal that it's came and went. I hope to get back to Europe at some point when I'm older and rich but unless those lotto numbers pull through it will be awhile. To anyone that's thinking about doing a trip like this stop being a wussy and GO. It's worth the thousands of dollars of debt... and I love money so take that seriously. I'm lucky to have such a good posse to travel with. Even though I know I've threatened each of their lives at some point along the way I wouldn't have done it with anyone else.
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