Oktoberfest 2013: Munich, October 2nd
It was my first time at the real Bavarian Oktoberfest. I was
naive, innocent, and completely unaware of what was in store. No party or
festival or celebration of any kind compares to the WILDness that is
Oktoberfest.
My dear old friend from Regensburg invited me to come and
visit for a few days with the promise of a trip to the fest (known as Wies’n by
all Bavarians). I immediately said yes and took a 6 hour train ride south back
to Bayern, where I studied and therefore feel completely at ease. The night
before our scheduled adventure it came to my friend’s mind that I had no dirndl
to wear (traditional dress worn by women in Bavaria). Her mother was so kind as
to lend me hers! It was too big and too long, but I didn’t care because I got
to dress up like everyone else. To try and remedy the size problem I wore two
bras, but my boobs still weren’t big enough.
Carrying minimal equipment apart from money, ID, and a
camera, we headed to the station. People had been drinking since 10 or 11 in
the morning already, but early afternoon drunkenness and debauchery are no
foreigners at Oktoberfest. We had about an hour to kill before meeting up with
my friends friends, so we decided to walk around and check things out. We
wanted to see the old Oktoberfest, which is gated off and you can’t just walk
freely in like in the more modern part, but rather must wait for the number
inside to die down. Unfortanely, as we learned over mega-phone, there was an
hour and a half wait to get in, so we decided to ride the giant swing ride
instead. It is probably one of the least concerning rides at any fair and thus
our reasoning. Before getting on the ride a sign reads “no drunken visitors may
ride” and for good reason. I almost vommed and I was completely sober. It was a
pretty funny site: there are all the nice polite Germans on the swing, chatting
and sitting quietly, and there is Lucy… “HOLY SHIT! MOTHERFUCKER! JESUS CHRIST
SUPERSTAR! SWEET MOTHER! AHHHHHHHH!” Needless to say the German man in front of
me thought it was quite funny and felt it necessary to say “It’s not so bad”. Getting off the ride I was
completely dizzy and had to hold on to my friend for support. I am not one for
such forms of entertainment, but it was still a blast.
We finally met with the three other girls also clad in
dirndls and went in search of a beer tent to set of camp. Luckily, my friend
has connections and was able to get us some seats on a couple benches at a
table in the Augustiner (famous Bavarian brewery) tent, which would definitely
have been impossible otherwise. The funny part of this whole escapade was that
the people we sat with were all over sixty. The two of us sat between two old
men who were very friendly, but completely wasted. One of them kept trying to
talk to me, but the fact that he was speaking Bayerisch (the dialect in
Bavaria), was slurring his speech, and that the noise level in the tent was so
high made communication utterly impossible. That was okay though, we were all
just laughing, enjoying the company, and drinking our giant liters of beer
anyway.
It was a spectacular night. I have never drunk so much in my
life, nor will I hopefully ever again. I laughed, I sang, and I celebrated beer
and community with some wonderful Germans. Although it was definitely in the
top best experiences of my life thus far, I can easily say that I will only
ever do it once. You can have too much of a good thing.
