Oktoberfest 20th - 25th Sept

It was awesome to be Short and sweet and straight to the point

Drinking and eating and sleeping and drinking was about all we did the whole time we were there…..it was wonderful.

Ok so you might want a bit more detail than that for the few days I was there. I will keep it short. It may come across like I’m an alcoholic but you are there to drink remember. Also it’s the greatest skill I have picked up on my travels so far.

Greg and Craig (mates form home) flew in from Aus on the Monday and we left on the ..

Thursday
We met up with Lloydy (see Europe tour) at a pub near the tube stop that we had to meet the buses. Decided to have some lunch and kick things off with a few pints before getting on the bus. At the pub we met some other ppl on our tour, interestingly the girl we met new another girl from a tour we had been on Europe with, they were from the same town in SA.

We went onto our bus and got our seats. The good thing about this trip was that we could drink on the bus. The day before I went and got a heap of beers for the bus froze some water bottles and chilled the beers. Was a perfect idea for the bus and our cool bag worked gr8. First hour in and the toilet was full. So they had to dump it on the road when the road was clear. Don’t worry it was only number 1’s. Strange thing to say but looking at wee spray down a highway is an interesting sight.

We were all so happy we could drink on the bus so much so that we drank most of it on the way over. Getting drunk helps u sleep and for an 18hr ride, we needed that help!

When we made it to the ferry from England to France. We had a drinking comp against the other bus. Bus 3 vs bus 4 in what the tour leaders called a boat race. Yes I was part of the game as we had to skull. Some how I was the anchor…. Check out the video for the result (quicktime, 34.7mb 2 min)

We drove through the night. Finished drinking and fell asleep around 3am, its really hard to sleep on a stupid bus with small seats when ur 6 foot 4.

Friday
Woke up (still on the bus) and we were in Germany on our way to Dachau Concentration camp. Was interesting to see the camp, did not get nearly enough time there. For me though I did not get that moved feeling that people talk about. I guess it just doesn’t hit everyone.

That night went to our hostel….. very nice it was the best hostel I have every stayed in. When we rocked up and went to our room some chick was filming us. Strange but normal I guess. We thought she was someone on the tour, turns out she was some German chick just filming us for something for UNI we thought. She didn’t understand why we wanted to know what she was doing. After she left we had showers and Lloydy, Greg and I headed out to go to the hopfbrau house for a few drinks. Greg and I met up with a girl we went to high school with that I knew was going to be there. After 5 years it was good to catch up and catch up over German beers to. The night ended late cos the beers were sooo good.

Saturday
Opening day. Got up at 8 and headed into the festival area at 8:30am where we waited outside the beer tent. Till 9 am, they opened the doors and we all flooded in people storming for a table as quick as they could. With out a table/seat you could not order beers. We were unfortunately not close enough and didn’t get a table. We ran up to a place where there were tables. They turned out to be reserved. Made our way back down for a wander around. I ran into some mates from London and previous tours. I was set to order drinks. The keg was cracked at12pm(see some crazy Keg tapping action- quicktime, 35.3mb video)……the party had officially begun.

Met back up with the boys and found the rest of our tour had some tables. We could only get 2 beers at a time through a table as the waitress bringing them over could only carry so many. I talked to the guys I knew and they could order beers for me. We were sorted, got the drinks an hour after the drinking had started. The rest of the day/night is a merriment of drinking and food and drinking. Some how making our way back to the hostel.

Sunday
Got up nice and early at 8am again. No hangover or bad feeling at all. Was feeling quite chipper actually. Today we headed to a Monastery for lunch and some more drinking where they brewed their own. Then it was back into Munich and more drinking, although I spent 1 hr walking around the streets looking for credit for my phone and some AA batteries for my camera only got the credit so photos are limited from this point on (or not mine) More drinking and then back to the hostel at some time can’t remember.

Monday
Today was our day to Munich. It was an early day drinking met up with Cassie (girl from school) and had some breakfast beers (as you do when in Munich) and more drinking. Met up with the other people off the tour and some other mates for more, more, more drinking. We had to watch the time today as we had to be back on the bus to go home at 5:30pm.

We left the show ground at 5 to go home still drunk as was good. Getting on the bus we were good for a few hrs while we were still drunk. When we sobered up there was only pain ohh the pain. No room to sit, nothing to ease the pain all we could do was ride out the 18hrs trying not to think about it.

Tuesday

Today we got back at lunch time, said our good byes. Made our way home did a whole lot of washing and had some more beers for dinner then crashed. It was a great beer fest weekend. Just wish I had noted down how many steins I had drunk. Here’s cheers for next year. If you want to come let me know I will be there again