Septemberfest Oktoberfest

A bit overdue...

Endless mugs of beer, shameless singing and dancing, cleavage baring waitresses. These are a few of my favorite things. Which is why my trip to celebrate Oktoberfest in Munich will be remembered (albeit vaguely) as one of my best weekend jaunts to date. Amazing weather and great company also didn't hurt. And did I mention the beer?

In an uncharacteristic and short-lived money saving campaign, I found myself on a 5:00am bus to the evil Stanstead airport (previous experience chronicled here) on Saturday morning to easyJet my way into Munich for two days of celebration, Bavarian style. We launched our drinking efforts at the Theresienwiese at around 3pm, where we were welcomed by a plethora of beer tents, bratwurst stands, and a host of what I now recognize as "bierleichen" - translated quite literally as "drunk corpses". (Although we felt like late arrivals at the time, I can now look back to our 3pm tee time as nothing short of a godsend. No one passed out all weekend, and only one of us puked. Um, in the hotel lobby. In her defense, my co-hort insisted on a riding a roller coaster prior to calling it a night and she wound up paying the price.) Our two days consisted mainly of life's necessities - eating and drinking - in a festive atmosphere. I devoured no less than 5-6 brats and 3 full chickens (so good), not to mention the beers, which will remain undocumented for the faint of heart.

Anyway, a few highlights from the trip:

-Meeting Randoms. I can't be the only one who could spend hours meeting random foreigners, right? We wound up toasting hometown Germans, friendly Portuguese, ubiquitous Aussies, and a fair number of obnoxious Americans and Brazilians. Or maybe that was just my friends. By the time we got to the airport Monday, we were already reminiscing about the "lap sitter" (who, as the name suggests, insisted on sitting only on the laps of willing dudes, and after further review, shared my exact same birthday - year and all), the "fat cousin" of the lap sitter (he was not impressed with her antics at all), the "hot chick with the piercing" (fat cousin was equally unimpressed with our flirtation with the H.C.W.T.P.), and a brother and sister tandem that seemed to have some Flowers in the Attic isht going on.

-Leading Revelers in Song and Dance. After a few liters of brew, I found myself really getting into the "raise your mug and sing songs thing". Aside from German songs I didn't understand, we discovered that the crowd loves them some Country Roads, Summer of 69, etc. Hilarious.

-"Borrowing" Souvenirs. Despite a crackdown on the practice, I was able to orchestrate the ultimate beer mug heist with a little help from a friend. The mug served as my water jug that night, and now sits on my kitchen table waiting to be called to duty. I see myself getting a lot of use out of this thing.

Drinking aside (for a second), Munich itself is also a very interesting city. Its streets share a unique assortment of traditional buildings and uber-modern architecture due to damage from the second World War, and there has been an obvious emphasis on renovation of surviving landmarks. They've made most of the city centre pedestrian only, which makes for a lot of sidewalk cafes and general foot traffic. A worthwhile weekend, indeed.

And again, did I mention the beer?