Oktoberfest

Monday, October 3rd was going to be an interesting day for me. Vroni’s dad had invited us to eat lunch at his apartment and when Vroni asked me if that was OK I naturally said yes. Why not right? Well, as Monday came nearer and nearer her consternation seemed to grow. She didn’t want to go and certainly wasn’t looking forward to it. Apparently her dad is somewhat gruff and on top of that, he was planning on inviting his girlfriend and all her kids to what was turning from a simple lunch to a considerable spectacle. To make things interesting, he doesn’t speak English. I’m usually OK speaking German but it becomes somewhat intimidating for me when I know for a fact someone doesn’t speak any English. That means there’s absolutely nothing to fall back on if my German fails me. Good times.

Monday came and we got ready for the lunch and it was a pretty good time. We met Kathi (Veronika’s sister) and her boyfriend Florian on the way up to the apartment and soon met Brigitte’s (spelling?) kids. They were all nice and Vroni’s dad, for all her worrying, was a cool dude too. He was pretty quiet actually but when he did speak, he spoke with a THICK Bavarian accent. My ability to speak German I would rate as passable but my ability to understand the language is pretty good. I mention that because I didn’t understand a damn thing Vroni’s dad said. There were a couple of instances where he spoke directly to me and I was able to understand and respond but when he was chatting with his kids or his girlfriend’s kids I was hopelessly lost. I was reassured by Florian later though – apparently he doesn’t understand Vroni’s and Kathi’s dad either, and HE’S GERMAN. The rest of the people in the room that day were Bavarians but Flo’s from Stuttgart and he had as much difficulty as my lost American ass. That made me feel a little bit better about things. And I should mention that the meal her pop made was quite tasty and delicious. Schweinebraten with Knödel and Salat. Nice

Later that day, we finally made it to Oktoberfest and got into the beer tent. We sat down at a table with some guy that had an AWESOME mullet and mustache combination going. Oktoberfest was off to a GREAT start! We made our beer orders, ordered a few giant pretzels and Vroni ordered a half chicken for dinner. Honestly there isn’t too much to report from the Wies’n. It is exactly like you would expect it to be: giant beers and good times. They pack 10,000+ people into a tent, stick a band in the center and everybody just drinks and parties. With that many drunks in one place, you would expect some drunken shenanigans but the few (4 times?) I’ve been in an Oktoberfest tent, I have never seen any instances of beer balls or violence. The band plays and everybody sings along, clinking beers together and pouring them into their gullets. Even people that don’t really know the words to the songs somehow know enough to sing along. It’s an environment I’ve never seen matched anywhere. It lives up to the hype and then some.

Tuesday was a pretty relaxing day. The only thing on the agenda was to head over to the FC Bayern München headquarters and pick up some souvenirs for myself. I got lucky the last time I was in Munich and found a couple of autographed Roque Santa Cruz jerseys but all I found this time was Andreas Görlitz jerseys. Ehhh… no thanks. I settled for a team yearbook and miniball. We left there to meet with some of Vroni’s friends for dinner. Her friends Bea and Rocky were leaving to Ireland and that was there going away party. Again, no too much to report except good food, good beer, good people and good times. The end of the evening was highlighted by my discovery of a bus/van that was barely bigger than me! I’ll have to put a picture up later. We ended the night with an adventure filled drive home with Nicole who was nice enough to offer us a ride back to the apartment. Thanks Nicole!

(note on the pic: That’s Florian and Kathi. Great people to hang out with. Flo saved my bacon during my last visit to Munich when Vroni and Kathi went to some reunion for a dance studio that they both used to attend. If it wasn’t for him I probably would have eaten my own head. We had a great time again at the Wies’n.)