It was years ago and to be honest even if it was yesterday I am not certain I properly do credit to the sheer size of Oktoberfest. My buddy Greg thought it was a great idea to go there and tip a few. To be honest, I thought it sounded like a great idea. Greg had friends in Munich so we had someplace to crash or the night and if you are visiting from out of town that’s the trick.
We started out the day by going to the Hofbrauhaus. We had something to eat and of course a Maß of beer. A Maß is a pretty big “mug” of beer which is 1.069 liters, 2 ¼ pints or approximately 36 ounces. Little did I know at the time that this wasn’t even a warm up for the rest of the evening.
We did a little a little bit of sightseeing around Munich, not too much as Greg was quite familiar with the city and our goal was to hit a beer tent. That wasn’t much of a challenge and as we went early we ended up in a nice tent with space for all of us. It doesn’t take too many beers before you want to start singing along with the songs being sung in the tent. Not only that but you will want to stand on the benches and pretend you have rhythm.
I didn’t have all that much in the way of rhythm but by this time I was also losing the ability to stand up straight. Ok, it wasn’t the standing that was so much of a problem as the falling down on the other people. I do feel quite sorry for that elderly german couple who was sitting on the bench behind us. I don’t think they were upset the first time I well, sorta sat down on his shoulders, but they were upset by the third. But in order to continue to play with with the others and so I didn’t really fall on someone we spent more of our time sitting down.
It seemed like a great time, and I am sure it was, but all good things must come to an end. I suspect it was well past that time for me as my buddy did make some comment that I didn’t look too good. I guess that was one of the reasons that we didn’t go on any of the rides. I was too busy trying not to spill mustard on myself while eating to bother with the rides.
Despite how bad I looked it was still way too early to call it a night. So my buddy Greg took me to the best place he could think of – a local English pub. He pretty much sat me on a stool with a soft drink and told me to stay there while he had a few more. Well, I have no idea how long we were there but it must have been a quite while because eventually I got myself another beer.