OKTOBERFEST

Wow, what can I say about Oktoberfest? 24 September 2005

Oktoberfest is a festival that everyone should go to, but once is enough. It's a very big tourist spot, but it's not like it wasn't worth it.
As it was the first major festival I went to, it was really amazing when you compare it to America. The entire concept of drinking here is vastly different from in America - especially at colleges. They had enormous tents that they built, only to deconstruct them three weeks later for next year. There were people everywhere. We heard stories that if you leave Stuttgart for Munich after 6AM (getting there around 10:30 or 11:00), you won't get a seat. We didn't believe them, but we definatley should have. We looked for about two hours for a place to seat four people. Once we sat down we got a horrible waittress. After she gave us our first liters, she asked us if we preferred English or German. We said English. To that, she replied, "Tip is not a town in China." Wow. Anyway, three liters later I decided to meet up with some Finnish friends across Oktoberfest. I met with them, went back to the first table, got lost, my phone battery died, and I looked for about 30 minutes but couldn't find anybody. I already had three liters in about an hour and a half, and I didn't feel like drinking more alone in this huge beer festival. I took the S-Bahn (understreet train) back to the main train station, but of course somebody told me it was going the right direction, when it wasn't. So I finally got to the train station around 8 or 9pm, ready to go back to Stuttgart. Finally I find a train where Stuttgart is on the way to its final destination. Of course I missed the stop, and I got off the train at one station removed. Only then do I realize that it was like midnight, and it was the last train for the night. What to do... alone, in a city I haven't heard of waiting for a bus that's coming in 6 hours.. There was an underground passage from one side of the tracks to the other. I sat there for 6 hours unable to sleep, and not wanting to sleep for that matter. Awful.
The next morning at 6 AM I was at the station waiting for the bus to come. Then this German guy comes up and starts talking to me. He was telling me he was going to a party in Stuttgart... 6am.. ok you're strange. Then he was asking me how tall I was and how much I weighed.. At first I thought he was insane, but he told me he used to be a trainer and body builder kinda guy.. He thought I didn't believe him I guess, so while he was smoking his (hopefully) first cigarette of the day, he did pull ups on the train ticket machine and puffing away. Then he started yelling at the hills to hear his echo. I can't explain how happy I was when the first train came. Finally back in Stuttgart, I slept the entire next day.

It was pretty insane.