MUNICH, GERMANY
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| This pic isn't blurry...it's just taken through beer goggles. |
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First
thing’s first- Oktobferfest began in 1810 as a royal wedding celebration. To this day, German women braid their hair
and prance around in their flattering (and classy!) Bavarian dresses while the
men successfully look masculine in their lederhosens and wool socks! Over 5 million people pack inside the
enormous fairgrounds to enjoy the plethora of carnival rides, games, food and,
of course beer. There are 14 massive
beer tents within the 103 acres of fairgrounds that people can enter…and
stumble out of…freely. There are roughly
7million liters of beer served each year….and the beer must be brewed within
the city limits of Munich in order to be served at Oktoberfest. The festivities begin in September….NOT
October. It’s a common misconception so
absorb this and be the smartest amongst your friends. Oktoberfest begins in September and rolls its
way into the first week of Oktober. The
total celebration is between 16-18 days depending on the year. The crowd is made up of 72% Bavarians, 15%
foreign visitors and 13% ‘Other’. I don’t
know what ‘other’ is. Animals, aliens?
Ok, now
that the scene is set, I can rave about the party atmosphere. I’m a self-proclaimed controlled
partier. I love having a good time but
I’m not an idiot. I have been lucky
enough to attend some of the best parties in the world during 2011- Mardi Gras
in New Orleans, Stampede in Calgary and Oktoberfest in Munich. Most people assume the worst in debauchery
amongst these scenes but that’s not the case.
There is a reason why these events are so successful. And that reason is: commitment. Everyone who attends these parties is committed
to having a good time! They tune out
their responsibilities and are given a few days of total freedom. That doesn’t mean they all transform into
Jekyls. It means their focus is on
fun…and not their blackberries. They’re
not interested in what the rest of their network has posted on facebook, they
don’t care what TV show their missing- they don’t prefer to be anywhere else
than where they are. And that’s an
incredible feeling. Most of you have been
at a wedding and said, ‘When are they gonna cut the freakin’ cake so we can get
out of here’. That doesn’t happen at
these organized celebrations. There is so
much infectious merriment going around that I never saw any fighting. That’s pretty impressive when you think of
the amount of people plus the amount of beer present. It should also be noted that any event that
requires dressing up in costumes shows more commitment amongst its attendees
and is destined to be a good time.
On with
the story already! Ok. I met up with 2 of my hosts named Thomas and
Erik amongst the beer gardens and they were already two sheets to the
wind. They were SO friendly and
welcoming! I ordered my first
Oktoberfest stein and learned my first (and most important) German word-
PROST!! That is the German phrase for
‘Cheers’ so I got very good at saying it!
We walked into the surrounding beer tent and I was immersed in the
energy. Everyone was standing on their picnic table benches singing and dancing
to the standard German drinking songs (as well as modern rock) being played by
the band on stage. The typical 2am bar
sing-along you’ve seen in most places can be seen at any time of the day in
Munich at Oktoberfest! I was surprised
to find the crowd poured their hearts out for ‘I’m Loving Angels Instead.’ I wish someone had told me to beware of the
flimsy picnic table benches- it didn’t take long before Erik sent beers and
bodies flying when he knocked us all over!
My first night in Munich was a ton of fun!
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| Let Oktoberfest begin! |
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| Erik gets grabbed by the ear for knocking over the tables |
I made
the most out of my days by planning small excursions outside of Munich. I took the train 2 hours outside of the city
to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Castle.
Even Walt Disney couldn’t resist its charm- it served as his inspiration
for the design of Sleeping Beauty’s castle in Disneyland. Awwww!
King Ludwig II of Bavaria used his personal fortune to build this
magnificent retreat and homage to composer Richard Wagner in 1869. Strangely enough, the country opened it as a
museum only weeks after his mysterious death at the young age of 32. I think a CSI team should head to the
Bavarian mountains- there are far too many questions left unanswered.
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| Model of the castle |
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| I would gladly be locked in one of those towers |
That
evening, my hosts were too tired for another night of Oktoberfest so I went out
alone. It didn’t go so well. The merriment was overshadowed by lots of
drunken men acting inappropriately. I met
too many creepos. After kindly telling
some 20 year old punks I wasn’t interested, they threw food at me so I got in
their face and let them know that American women don’t stand for that. I met a group later that was ok but really
wished I had my own crew that night. I
must have been in a protective masculine bubble the night before without even
realizing it.
I had a
sobering experience at the Daschau concentration camp the following
morning. It was a very thorough museum
and memorial but SO sad and terrible.
Surprisingly, I didn’t see anyone crying besides myself. I can’t believe human beings are capable of
treating other human beings like that.
And I don’t know how they were able to persuade so many people to
follow. It only reaffirmed that fear can make people do terrible things. How could this have ever happened in a
mainstream, civilized area of Germany in the 20th century. Absolutely mind-blowing. I spoke to many Germans about WW2 and commend
the new generations for confronting their horrific 20th century
history instead of sweeping it under the rug.
I
enjoyed the third night of Oktoberfest with a bunch of Aussies I met at the Neuschwanstein
Castle. I’m glad it only cost me two
steins to have a loosey goosey time in the beer tents. At 10 euros per stein, the men dug deeper in
their pockets. Finally a female perk! We bear children, receive less compensation
by our employers and can’t go out alone without being harassed…but at least we
don’t have to spend so much on beer. Can
I get a ‘Hell yeah’?!
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| Aussie, Clancy, arrives with steins |
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| Can you find the four Aussies in this picture? |
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| Sad, drunk and tired sing-along... |
I found myself on my own for the
fourth and final night and am thrilled to report that it was AWESOME! I visited the tent with the ‘Devil’s Wheel’, which
is a disk that people sit and desperately hold on while it spins in different
directions at various speeds until everyone is thrown off. They need this tent at the Topsfield Fair! They choose different groups each time by
announcing ‘All men in Leiderhosens’ or ‘All women without Bavarian dresses’
and people race towards the middle of the disk. I won a hulahoop competition amongst 6 German
girls while the disk was spinning. Then
each girl had to climb on top of a guy and we all held on for dear life. Here’s how that one ended:
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| Hula hooping! |
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| "All men with lederhosens" |
Then I crashed an older guy’s
bachelor party, which was really cool. The
older men were running out of steam after 3 days at the festival so I gave them
a small revival. They were so impressed
with my traveling but also so worried that I was doing it all on my own. When I left them, I asked some guy to use his
phone and it turned out he graduated from BC in 2010. He had lost all of his friends so we went to
grab a beer. We met a whole group of
great people who invited us up on their table and benches for the late night
sing-along. The BCer had to leave but I
stayed with this exceptional group for the rest of the night! Tabea, Nicole and Kristina were SO cool. I wish these girls lived in the USA!
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| PROST! |
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| Kristina and Nicole |
Since I began my travels in March,
I have to admit that I love Germans more than any other travelers that I’ve come
across! My experience with my couch
surfing hosts in Munich pretty much epitomizes Germans. I stayed with 5 guys who were studying different
types of engineering (since everyone in Germany is an engineer)! They were smart, funny, open-minded and
always looking for fun. One day we walked around the city and Erik found an
abandoned kids’ size scooter so he rode it around for the day and ended up
riding it through the fountains in the main square. And then they had the idea of just trying to
trade it with strangers for other things and see how far we could get with bartering.
Just for fun. And then they made one of
the walls in their apartment a guestbook so all friends and couchsurfers wrote
messages and quotes on it with a Sharpie. I left this one by John Lennon that I
heard the other day: When I was 5 years
old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went
to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down
‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they
didn’t understand life.”
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| Sightseeing in Munich on that kiddie scooter |
I liked
that. And then they had a diary by the toilet that people could write in…just
to express yourself while you’re taking care of business. And they had a cleaning schedule on which
they divided up the tasks bi-monthly and if the tasks weren’t done by Tuesday
evening they had to buy a case of beer for the house. Oh and they were so communal! They just shared everything that they had with
me (and each other) and it was such a good feeling. I just really felt like they lived in such a
healthy bubble of life. It was
surprising to see 5 guys work so well together.
They recycled everything (as all Germans do) and even kept compost! I don’t think I know 5 other 25 year-olds
that even know what compost is. It was just really cool to be around people
like that.
OKTOBERFEST
WAS GOOD TO ME! Thanks, Munich! Everyone should visit Oktoberfest at least ten
times in their life. Oh wait, is that NOT the saying?
