Another mildly difficult day, but better than yesterday. It was our first real taste of Oktoberfest.
We got up, met Wayne, Kim, and Clare (Sunni arrived slightly afterwards), and made our way down to Oktoberfest. We headed for the Schottenhamel tent, where we’d heard the first keg is tapped. No one could get into the main body of the tent (by the way, tent is a misnomer, this is a huge building, more like a barn) without a reservation (which had a minimum of 10 people, plus a lot of money for something like 2 chickens and 20 beers), so we took a seat outside at the non-reservation tables, under the heater. We saw (mostly heard, lots of people) the opening parade come by, part of which twisted in and entered the Schottenhamel tent. Shortly afterwards, around noon, judging by the cheering and fireworks, they tapped the first keg of Oktoberfest. Cool to be as close to that event as we could be.
Shortly afterwards they started serving giant steins of Spaten beer, which was very good. Unfortunately Andrea could only watch, but she was a very good sport about it. We didn’t get any beer wenches, just a guy with leather, fingerless gloves, sunglasses, and a good sense of humor. As the beer kept flowing, everybody became more social and we got into conversations with the people around us. The guys next to us were from Israel, and we had a long conversation about all things American. One jokingly decided I work for the devil (Microsoft). But he’s a student, so he doesn’t work at all.
After we’d had our fill (and were getting hungry), Andrea and I headed back for the hotel. We got horribly turned around, and a traffic cop helpfully pointed us in the wrong direction to get to the train station. Fortunately we were able to call Kim, and she and Sunni were able to use a map and guide us back. Wayne and Clare were not so lucky (also horribly lost), so we headed out to find them and then make our way to dinner at Hofbrauhaus.
Hofbrauhaus is an enormous tavern that can house 5,000 drinkers. It was also one of the most significant launching points for the Nazi party, and the site of Hitler’s February 24, 1920 25-point manifesto, presented to 2,000 supporters. Andrea had a simple beef broth soup, and I had 5 kinds of wurst with sauerkraut. It was very good. We left a little early so Andrea could get back and get to sleep.
matt & andrea 