This past weekend was one of the craziest weekends of my life. Sure you hear about Oktoberfest being a huge beer drinking fest where Germans dress up in there ridiculous outfits and drink beer uncontrollably. But what I encountered was so much different than I ever expected. I will start from the beginning...
The trip to Munich, Germany was through bus2alps which is a big student studying abroad company where they do most of the planning for you. Our trip to Oktoberfest was scheduled to leave from Termini which is the biggest train station in Rome @ 8:00 p.m. My buddy Ty and I brought our bags and stuff to Italian class which ended at six so that we wouldn't have to go all the way and all the way back because Rome is such a huge city and it takes time to get places especially at rush hour. We had some time to kill so we randomly picked a restaurant and sat down for a nice dinner before the dreadful 12 hour bus ride through the ALPS. I had thick spicy pasta and water while Ty had veil and potatoes with a beer on the side. Somehow our dinner turned out to be 20 Euro each, but that is besides the point. It is nice to sit down and have a good meal every once and awhile. Next, we made our way towards termini where we stopped into the grocery store to buy some snacks. Ty also bought a new pair of Nike shoes and sweatpants which will be talked about later in this blog. Anyways, time passed and we got on the bus. Everyone was partying but I was trying to get some rest because I wanted to feel 100% for the weekend. I did not really sleep that well but after several stops along the way we arrived in Munich at our campsite that was called "Stoke Camping" It was run by a bunch of middle aged Australian kids who partied just as hard as we did all weekend. We paid 15 Euro at the entrance to the site for unlimited all you can eat (breakfast) and drink (all day). It was actually quite a steal. The tents were two a tent or three if you wanted the extra body heat, but being boys we didn't figure we would need that. Well we were wrong the tents were absolutely freezing and all six of us ended up in the same one by the end of the night for one reason or another.
We got into our campsite at around 9:15 a.m. on Friday morning and after we all checked in we had a little breakfast which was pretty good for a campsite quick breakfast and we found out that our shuttle was not running to Oktoberfest. So they gave us a little piece of paper with public transportation directions, in German of course. We found our way to the bus then to the train and when everyone go off the train we were told to follow the crowds. So we did and it led us to heaven on earth as they call it in Germany. The tent we went to that day was called the HB tent, it was one of the many beer tents at this festival. The tents hold anywhere between 2 and 10 thousand people. The beer is served in 1 liter huge awesome mugs and cost 8 Euro and some change. But everyone pays ten! The drinking festivities continued all day with people taking naps on the lawn. We got there too late on Friday to get a good table but we walked around and mingled all day. Tyler and I left the tent and went on some carnival rides, we also both won little plastic whistles at the balloon popping game. Everyone lost everyone. After a long day of partying with the Germans and Americans we went home relatively early around 9:00 pm and passed out for the night. We all set our alarms for 5:00 am only to be woken up at 4:30 am by the crazy Australians who ran our camp ground feeding us beer through the zippers of our tents. We all got up as well as about 100 other people and got on the bus, dead tired might I add, and heading out to the fest. No one showered or changed clothes because there was simply no time in the day for this. This was the festival of a lifetime and we wanted to be first in line to experience it!
It was a sad site to see when Jimmy wasn't with the crew all weekend, but it just so happened that his whole college booked Oktoberfest back in May at a Holiday Inn with a pool, while we all slept in dirty old sleeping bags in 40 degree weather. But camping might have been the just as fun as the festival.
We made it to the festival on Saturday morning no later than 7 a.m. and the tents did not open until nine but we wanted to make sure to get a table in the middle where it would have been the most fun near the band. Of course something went wrong. One of the security guards knowingly told us the wrong entrance so we waited two hours in the cold at the wrong entrance when some of our friends got there at 8:30 and got a prime table. Luckily those friends were Jimmy and his Santa Clara crew. So a group of us got a table on the side and then just ran up and hung out with our other friends all day! The day went by pretty quickly, eating huge pretzels and whole chickens all day. Towards the end of the night Jeff, Caroline, Stephanie, and I went on some rides (roller coaster, swings, and log rides) which was definitely a highlight of the festival. Then Jeff and I snuck back into the HB tent somehow but could once again not find anyone. Somehow we made our way back to the campground later that night. As we arrived we found that Ryan and Tyler's tent burnt down because supposedly someone flicked a cigarette on it. Luckily no one was in it or hurt. We partied at the campground until 4 a.m. We were once again woken up around 8 am and made our way to the festival again, this time visiting Hippodrome. A more relaxed and low key tent. The girls ate some German food and some of the boys had beers. Before we knew it we had to rush back to the campground to catch of 12:30 p.m. bus home. The bus ride was long and boring but ended up being an amazing ride because we passed through the ALPS which are just a huge amazing range of mountains. We stopped at a local truck stop to get dinner around 8 p.m. and I had a terrible dinner. It was super super expensive but I was starving so we all ate a bunch of stuff. Finally after 12 hours of hell on a bus that smelt terrible since no one showered all weekend. We got dropped off at the Trestevere train station and of course we were all out of money so we walked home and did not cab it.
There are so many crazy stories from this past weekend that I wasn't able to put into words. I will explain to you all in person when I get home!
Oktoberfest 2010 will never be forgotten. I am so happy with the friends I have made here in Rome and I am sure there will be plenty more to come. I definitely wish some of my family and friends from the states were with me this weekend. One day we will all go back together. I also got a little homesick recently, but realized before I know it I will be in the States back with everyone missing my tiny apartment in the center of ROMA.
Be safe, arrividirchi.
Kev
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