oktoberfest

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sunshine

you get the picture.

hot day here in München, it is Saturday. The hotel concierge told me they don't let people into the beer tents after 1 or 2, so I got over there quickly.

lots of lots of people. drunk people. drunk germans, drunk italians. some people bring their children. many men wear leather lederhosen, and women wear those german dress things -- by choice! A lot of them look totally ridiculous, a precious few look good.

I managed to squeeze into a beer-only line, and get a beer. The tall Germans and Italians are a force to be reckoned with. I managed to get a beer-- it must've been a liter. I talked to one german guy, he said he was confused that you could take it away, normally you have to drink it there. I wasn't the only one confused. I ran into some folks from Georgia, they were also having a hard time getting through the line. Finally, I got the beer, then got a hot dog, and sat down. These 3 young kids next to me had driven down from Frankfurt and spent the night in their car. One of them, a young guy, said he's not fond of big festivals with people walking around drunk and all that. He also wants to learn Chinese, he thinks that's the language to learn. He already knows French and English in addition to german. cool kid.

I drank about 3/4 of my beer. Being solo, I have to be able to make it home. It is really quite sunny and beautiful--meaning hot. I still haven't peed yet, so I have to make this one short so I have time to walk back to my hotel. It's like, quite a number of blocks, I can't count that high right now.

Drunk people walking around in the sun at noon. Lots of them. Lots of amusement park rides, lots of kids. I got a banana strawberry smoothie (it was tepid, it wasn't cold, but it tasted good), and I had to drink it there. Germans are really good about recycling, they have 4 different kinds of garbage/recycling here. There was some broken glass on the ground, and this was only at 1pm. I left about 2, after buying some souvenirs.

Walking is difficult. Besides being a little bitty tipsy, the amount of people means you are constantly playing Frogger to get anywhere, which can be intellectually taxing.

Germans have amazing endurance. They can drink beer in the middle of the day, drink lots of it, wear leather lederhosen or multiple layers of fabric in their dresses, be out in the hot sun, and still have a good time. When I arrived in town, there were already groups of men singing in the train station. I decided early on that I would leave before it got dark. Even though there is hardly any crime in Germany and it is very safe to walk around, drunk people are still drunk, and I am travelling solo.

I'm dripping with sweat, it is so hot, and the beer, uh, well, it warms up the soul too. I will see Neuschwannstein, that big castle that Disney copied, tomorrow, it's most of the day. I may walk back to Oktoberfest, or I may walk somewhere else, who knows.

There are some tshirts that say "I survived Oktoberfest". I see what they mean. Very fun, I think it would be way more fun with a small group of folks that included Jeremy and Janna and Brent and Alyssa, even though she's not a big beer fan. No, I did not see any wine at Oktoberfest. Tequila, shnapps, yes. It would be fun to come as a group. You have to get your butt over to the tents early, or somehow magically make a reservation, otherwise it's total chaos to try and get into a place to sit down.