a Hexalitre of beer at Oktoberfest!

First, I will write that I did not attend Oktoberfest. I know, I know, it's a tragedy that we planned our honeymoon at the end of September and timed our visit to Munich so that we could go to Oktoberfest, and I didn't get to go. I guess I'm not a hardcore drinker because I had a cold (yes, I caught a cold after my tonsilitis!) and I really didn't want to stand outside a tent in the cold rainy weather waiting to get inside along with 1000s of other people....but at least J got to go!!!

In Munich, we visit our friends C and S. Unfortunately...or fortunately?...C also had a cold, so we decided to be booger-best-friends and spend the day together blowing our noses, eating noodles, and watching TV. J and S met near the main train station and made their way to Theresienweise, the location of Oktoberfest in Munich.

(before I go on, please youtube 'Killertitten Das Supertalent' and you'll get a glimpse of what C and I saw on TV at one point during the day)

From what J told me (or rather, slurred to me) 11 hours later, this place is full of these huge open air tents. There's one per brand of beer, and unless you get there super-early, you have a bit to wait until you can get into one. In the tent, you have the lovely ladies dressed up in Dirndl carrying 3 litres of beer in each hand.

Girls that attend Oktoberfest usually wear dirndls, and boys wear lederhosen. As J didn't have access to any lederhosen, he wore the typical shirt that most men wear with their lederhosen. It's a small checked shirt in either blue, purple, red or green. He chose blue and C and S bought it for him ahead of time. Also, girls have a way of tying something on their dresses that says whether they are single or not, so it's almost like a huge single's mixer. Fun!

J told me (slurred to me) that there were people from all over the world there. However, being so focussed on the consumption of beer, he only met one guy from Switzerland. Otherwise, he spent the day with S and his cousins. 6 litres of beer, one half chicken, a pretzel, singing and dancing later, J and S (and his cousins) were stumbling home at 11pm. You see, Oktoberfest ends relatively early so that they can set up for the next day of festivites.

So that's all I can really say about Oktoberfest as I haven't been there myself. We plan to go back to Europe next year with the little one and perhaps we will plan our trip for September so that C and I can go while the boys babysit. I sure would like to have my own stories to tell instead of J's slurred ones...