Saturday 21.09.13
OKTOBERFEST WAS OPENING TODAY
If I remember correctly the entire campsite was awake by 6am and people had already left to go to Oktoberfest grounds. Everywhere I looked, all I could see where Lederhausens and Dirndls, socks pulled up and over people knees and unfortunately some drunk guys bare ass.
This was definitely going to be a day to remember. Once Kev and I were wearing our proper attire we headed over to the Topdeck breakfast tent, it literally was just a giant tent. I met a guy who worked for Topdeck who was pretty cool and it turned out that he lived in Brisbane as well! at about 7:30am we packed as many people as possible onto the buses and we were off to drink beer!
Oktoberfest is basically like Ekka, only bigger, brighter and better. Plus you know.. theres more beer involved. The first thing I saw was the massive rollarcoaster at the end with the olympic rings as loops for the track. I would NOT be going on that. We all basically ran to the first beer hall we could find.. Löwenbräu. I hadn't tried this beer yet but I was super keen.
The halls don't actually open to let people in until about 9am.. so we stood in the cold until the doors finally opened.
I wasn't prepared for what happened next. We thought that seeing as we were relatively close to the entrance it would be super easy to find a table and get a good seat. WRONG. By 9:23am, Löwenbräu was full. Roughly 4000 people in this one hall. It was so loud. At the last second Kev found a table, with room for two more. Me and Canadian Tom. And now the wait was on.
On opening day of Oktoberfest, the beer doesn't start flowing until the first keg is cracked by the mayor at 12pm. The waitresses were taking all their tables orders at about 11:30 so that when the time came, no one would have to wait very long for their drink. I have never experienced anything like that in my life, everyone was just so happy and you could get along with anyone.
Like I said before, you really have to tip your waitress at Oktoberfest, otherwise she won't be coming back to you in a hurry. We tipped ours and she seemed really pleased, so hopefully we would be seeing a lot of her during the day. Unfortunately for us, a couple on the end of our table ordered food through her, and were expecting it to be in front of them in, five minutes after ordering. When that didn't happen they kicked up a massive stink and were seriously rude to this poor woman. I don't think they realised that 2000 other people wanted food at the same time and to be patient. Anyway thanks to them we didn't get any service for the next hour.
By time 4pm had rolled around, Kev was well and truly drunk, he had major drunk eyes going on, as did Canadian Tom. The first bus that would take us back to Thalkirchen was at 6pm, so I had another drink while I waited.
Around 5:30pm I got up to go, urging Canadian Tom to come with me. He really looked bad. He kept denying it and wouldn't come with me, but as soon as I had cleared the tables and was headed for the door, he was there, holding onto my arm for what felt like dear life.
I managed to get both of us onto the bus and we were off to the campsite. The great thing about Topdeck is that they give you a wrist band with your tent number on it, so I found Canadian Tom's and made sure he got into his bed alright, then threw a bottle of water in after him. Zipped up his tent and left to find mine. Didn't know it then but thats the last time I saw him. Wish I had gotten his email, he was a pretty interesting guy.
Even though it was so early in the night I was so exhausted. So wrapping up in thermals, pyjamas, my sleeping bag with my coat on top I went to sleep. Never heard Kev come in.
