Ah, where to begin... When we left off your fearless travelers had completed the first night at Weisen and had done a tour around Dachau. After that very hung over and solemn day, we couldn't muster the strength to head back to the Fest and therefor, instead enjoyed a large pizza dinner and couple of beers with Jason, Max and Katrin. A solid night of sleep left us well rested and we headed off to Tegernsee; see separate Tegernsee Blog entry.
That night we did head back to the Fest for a "quiet one" and to meet with our buddy Jeremy Rachesky and his group of misfits. Not sure the idea of "quiet one" exists when drinking Weisen masses, at 6% and 1 liter in size... Only takes 2 to turn your well intentioned "quiet one" into a f-ing rager. Continuing with our theme of punishing our Weisen antics with Nazi centric cultural experiences, the next morning we took the 3 hour "3rd Reich Walking tour". Led by our knowledgeable (and very British) guide Juilliette, we toured the sites and heard the stories of Hitler's rise to power which, in large part, took place right here in Munich. Very informative and interesting. That night we attempted another "quiet one", this time with a bit more success...steering clear of the Fest altogether, but drinking masses nonetheless at the Paulaner Bräuhaus which is directly beneath Jess and Jason's pad with the crew: Jeremy, Jonnie, Tyrone, Jason, Jess and Jason's buddy from home, Neema.
In the morning we rented bikes and headed out for a ride through the English Garden. Our first, and only, pitstop was at the lakeside beer garden where we were joined by a large crew. Sunshine and good times, and giant pretzels and roasted pork something for lunch. Good session. Gina was forced to tear herself away as another table awaited her at the old faithful Hippodrom tent. Adrian stuck around then helped lead a mad dash back through the city which culminated in Jeremy and co. just barely making their afternoon train to Prague. Cheers boys! Good to see ya out this way!
Meanwhile, at the Hippodrom the weekend was upon us which really only means 10x the crowd of the previous days. The tent was quite literally hot as hell, but after one mass it became a bit more tolerable. It was at this time when Jason mentioned that where we were sitting was called "champagne lane". "Why is that?" I ask. "Well, because there is a massive champagne bar right there." he answers.
I was aghast to learn that I had been choking down massive quantities of heavy German, beer when there is light, cool, crisp, refreshing champagne a mere 40 meters from where I was singing and jovially dancing. It took approximately 2.2 seconds for Jess and I to cut through the throngs of ass-grabbing men to get to the very front of that bar. We must have taken down 2, maybe 3 glasses of bubbly before wrapping up our Hippodrom session, but certainly not before singing and dancing along to my new favorite Weisen song; a little tune I like to call the "swimming song".
We met up with Adrian and all made our way over to the Hacker Pschor Beer Hall and ended the night as we end so many here in Munich... RIDES!!!
Finally Sunday is upon us. We woke up bright and early, around 8:30 a.m at Max's house. It was a quick, shower and coffee and off we went. We had a 9:30 a.m. breakfast planned at Max's friend's place. Breakfast consisted of Weissewurst, pretzels, and beer for Adrian and simply pretzels and beer for Gina.
Time almost got away from us and before we knew it we were running through Munich's U-Bahn subway system and into the Weissen as we were getting close to missing our 11am reservation at the Schottenhammel tent. Fear not, a little smooth talking from Marco, the 2nd slickest lawyer in Munich behind Max, of course, and we were in...and the masses were flowing. See, Sunday is supposed to be the last day of the Fest, therefore, it's supposed to be the Best and a BIG, BIG day/night for the locals and we lucky tourists who were rolling with locals...however, as Monday was a holiday (German Reunification Day) it gave the Germans an even larger reason to go LARGE. And, so they did. About 7 hours and 4 or 5 masses later, we pried ourselves away from the table to meet with Jess, Jason and Neema to do the biggest, gnarliest ride at the Fest. The ride boasts that it gets you moving at speeds of up to 100kph and provides up to 6 G's of force. I can vouch for the fact that the ride did deliver significant enough of both speed and force to hurl Gina's cellphone from the security of her dirndl pocket through the air, landing in a violent crunch atop a carny's trailer. Luckily, Jason was able to sneak in and climb the conveniently placed ladder to the roof to retrieve it...it's never really worked very well anyway, so what a great way to go out. That night we had a deliciously non Bavarian dinner of Indian food with Jason and Jess' crew before heading back to Max's for a much needed slumber. Max did not come home that night and apparently finished the session after 3am at a "cheesy" club in town..capping off a SOLID 18 hour Weisen performance. Atta boy!
Next morning we met J, J and Neema at the Marienplatz train station and headed south to do the walk to the Andechs monastery. It was a beautiful, if crowded walk up, and apron arrival we were horrified to discover that, due to the Holiday, it was "family day" and thus the place was swarmed with tons of people, clowns, bubbles, face paint, balloons, etc. Hellish.
We managed to wrestle up a little table for a refreshment, (the Monks are famous for brewing a particularly potent Doppel Bock ) which was next to a large family of heavy drinking and heavy eating Russians. We watched them order (and consume) at least 50 shots of Schnapps in the time we had a single drink; not to mention the copious amounts of beer and food they ordered. As we readied for departure the ring leader came over and forcefully offered us a shot. This was not the type of guy you say "No" to, in any manner...but certainly not when it comes to taking a shot he is offering you, so...we obliged, lest we ended up swimming with the fishes for insulting him.
We made it back to Munich that evening and took the night very easy as we were headed back to the Alps the next day with Max and Katrin.
And, that concludes the Oktoberfest story. Trust me when I say that it was at least 1000x more exhausting for us to live it, then it was for you to read our long winded account of it. Off to Prague for a little detox session...although, they say the Czech's know how to brew a descent pilsner. Wish us luck...