I had a very late flight to Munich Friday night, and when I arrived, Christian was there to pick me up from the airport. From there, we went to the Landshut train station to pick up the guys who are studying in Zurich.
When we got to Christian's, just about everyone was already asleep, as we had to be ready to go by 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. I took a shower that night so I could sleep in at least a little on Saturday, and then it was off to bed.
We woke up around 6:30, and somehow, we were all ready to go at 6:55. We all learned from our Finance professor, Rudi, just how important punctuality is to Germans, and Christian was impressed that 13 of us were actually in the cars and on our way to the train station by 7. We got to the train station about 10 minutes later, and each got something to eat and drink. The train ride from Landshut to Munich is about 45 minutes, and the train was packed. I'd never seen so many authentic German outfits before, but it was really great to see. Melissa and Christian were both dressed up, and they looked fantastic.
We got to Munich and took a quick metro ride to the Oktoberfest park. We arrived around 8:30 so we could wait in line in hopes of getting into a beer tent when they opened at 9:00. We split our group into two, and each group waited at a separate entrance. Melissa, Celina, Tim, Josh and I were waiting at one of the entrances, and though none of us actually spoke German, we heard someone say that the door on the right was for people with reservations, and the door on the left was for anyone. Therefore, our strategy was the "European way" of waiting near the front of a line but to the left. (A little explanation on the "European way": Those of us who've done a lot of plane travel during our time in Europe have learned that no matter how the waiting area is organized, most people here just push and shove their way to the front as soon as people are allowed through the gates.) We thought our idea was going to work, but as soon as the doors to the beer tent opened, we found out that the door on the left was for people to exit from inside. At that point, we were screwed, as you can't get served beer unless you're sitting at a table.
About 2 minutes after the doors opened, we saw some people quietly moving around to the other side of the building, and Melissa followed them. She didn't come back, and when we finally got inside, we saw Melissa standing on a bench, with the other half of our group sitting at a table. VICTORY!!!! It was going to be a good day. Now we just had to wait 3 hours until they started serving beer at noon.
We played Uno for a while, and then Melissa and Elias and I decided to walk around the rest of the area. There were a lot of food vendors around with pretzels, roasted nuts, sausages, and all sorts of other German treats. I ended up getting a crepe, which isn't German, but tasted delicious anyway. We also walked through several other beer tents, and they all looked about the same. Ridiculously crowded with thousands of people anticipating a crazy day of beer.
We went back to our beer tent and waited some more. Finally around 11:45, the band made its way into our tent, and at 12, the Mayor of Munich came in to tap the first keg/barrel. That's when the fun really began. For the first round, about half of us wanted Radler, which is half beer + half lemonade. However, when our server showed up with 13 steins of beer, we decided we'd be waiting quite a bit longer if we really wanted the Radler, so we just took the beer... and it was fantastic! This is me, Elias and our server... she was awesome.
The band had moved to it's stage and was playing all sorts of great German music, and it was just a very happy place. I don't know how the servers carry so much beer at once, but it just kept coming, and everyone just kept drinking and having a great time. We also got our Radler eventually, and it tasted just as good as I remember it from the first time I went to Munich.
We changed seats with one another every hour or so in order to talk to everyone at some point. It was great to catch up with everyone, since most of us hadn't seen each other in several months. With the exception of Melissa and Christian, everyone else is studying somewhere in Europe for fall quarter, so it was also really interesting to hear about all the different places I need to travel. Not sure what the order is, but I definitely need to figure out a way to make it to Milan, Copenhagen and Zurich.
We took the train back to Munich, and most of us crashed as soon as we got home. It was a long day, but more fun than I've had in a very long time.
Melissa and Christian came by on Sunday morning with a huge basket full of pretzels and bread, plus meats, cheeses and jams. It was an incredible spread, and we definitely all needed it. People left at various points after that. My flight from Munich took off around 5, and I got into Paris at 6:30. Had to wait at the airport for about 2 and a half hours before my train came, but then it was back home to Nantes. Unfortunately, we had a few delays at some of the train stops, so the train didn't get into Nantes until after 12:30 a.m. Apparently the tram in Nantes stops running at 12:30, so I had to walk back to my apartment from the train station. It's less than a mile I think, but with a big backpack, it wasn't the most enjoyable walk. The fun of the weekend more than made up for it though!
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