The background:
Nearly two years ago my older sister mentioned attending Oktoberfest in 2013. Since that time the idea of heading to Oktoberfest changed and evolved on a weekly basis starting about 10 months ago even though my older sister didn't end up coming. The final trip was a blast that was well worth the months of planning and figuring out the logistics of a 10 person, 3 week trip.
Part of the reason I quit my job in the spring was to travel, and the jewel on the crown of my plans was to take a prolonged trip to Europe in the fall. It was something I had wanted to do for years but with all the other trips and events I normally do each year finding two weeks worth of leave to go to Europe would have been hard. But once I quit I had the time so I figured why not spend a few weeks in Europe.
"I've always wanted to spend a year in Prague teaching English. Slacking off a bit, but really getting to know myself."
-Stewie Griffin, Family Guy
The Cast*:
Brian aka "The Autocrat"
Paul aka "The American German" aka "The Margins"
Carly, Kara, Suz and David aka "The Seattle Sizzlers"
Craig aka "The Wildcard"
Laura aka "The Attaché"
Dave aka "Crazy Legs"
Mark and Val aka "The French Connection"
*It should be noted that I just made all of these up and we never actually used any of these names except maybe The Wildcard.
The Setting:
Copenhagen, Munich, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris and London.
The Flights:
The problem with going to Europe when you don't have a job is that it's really expensive. So being a smart traveler you have to find ways to cut costs. The best way is by getting cheap airfare. Luckily ol' Crazy Legs' mom works for Delta, so Dave was able to get me a Buddy Passes for about half the cost of normal tickets. The other benefit being that it was a business class ticket. The downside being that it was also a standby ticket.
It made it a little difficult for me to plan the trip since I wasn't sure what day I would be flying or even what city I would be flying into. But it actually worked out quite alright and I had no problem getting on the flights that I wanted. I gotta say that flying business class on an overseas flight it pretty awesome. I really should have slept on my flights but there was no way I was going to miss out on all the goodies and booze that you get in first class. On the way back the guy in the seat next to me (next is a loose term, it was about 3 feet away) asked me what I did that I could afford to fly business class to Oktoberfest. I told him I was unemployed and got a very quizzical look from him.
"I can put you into Salt Lake City by 4:00"
-Tommy Boy
Paris Part 1:
I flew into Paris because I could get a cheap flight from Paris to Copenhagen which is where I was meeting up with most of the group. I landed in Paris at 8:30am and it was about 10am until I got into the city. I couldn't check in, but I was able to drop my bags off and wander around the city despite being very exhausted. I walked a few miles down to Notre Dame and back taking in Paris by doing the usual things, eating a bagette, writing post cards, visiting McDonalds to use the Wi-Fi, sitting on a bench doing nothing. I napped almost the whole afternoon which was probably a bad thing to do for my jet-lag. That night I went out and had a few beers at the cafe and did some reading. The next morning I went back to the airport after my one night in France knowing I could see more when I returned.
Copenhagen:
The reason that most of the group met in Copenhagen is that Carly had studied abroad there when she was in school and was still very close to her host family. We stayed with her host family for free and spent two days exploring Denmark. The first day we played Cornhole and had some beverages and then dinner. I had taught the Danes Cornhole when they were out at Carly's brother's wedding in the spring.
The next day we went up to the Hamlet Castle. We rode the train up there and checked out the castle during the day. The nice thing about Denmark is that you can drink everywhere, so we drank pretty much everywhere. We then bought groceries for our host family and cooked them tacos. That night we went out in Copenhagen and had a really good time. Copenhagen has really good nightlife, pretty girls and late night hot-dogs.
The next day we all got on a flight to Munich. Luckily we all sat in the same row, and held hands six-wide during take-off and landing.
Munich:
We met Paul at the airport and he rode the train with us into Munich. We found the hotel and then met up with Dave, Mark and Val who were already a liter or so deep. We went over to the festival and went to the Armbrustschützen tent that Craig said he was going to be at, but finding someone in a tent with 10,000 people is as hard as it sounds. So we gave up and ate in the beer garden before heading inside to party.
At Oktoberfest all the beers are served in 1 liter Maß, and the beer is about 6% alcohol. So after drinking 2 you're feeling pretty good, and after 4 you're sufficiently hammered. 4 Maß's is the equivalent of about 17 bud lights. At which time I like to get up and stand on the benches to sing "walking on sunshine" with the band.
Night one was a great success and the next day we spent most of the afternoon walking around Munich taking in the city. We walked down Marienplatz and saw the new city hall (built in the 1870s). Paul knew of a horse butcher, so of course we stopped in to get some cured - but raw - horse sausage. It wasn't too bad actually until you realized that you remembered that you were eating horse. On top of one of the tallest churches in Munich David and Suz got engaged which made for a joyous occasion.
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| The group minus Craig |
After that it was back to Oktoberfest for more fun and festivities. We went to the Lowenbrau tent and sat outside in the sun. We played some drinking games and I ate some sausage (not a euphemism). After another liter we wandered through a few tents trying to find room and eventually settled in a beer garden where we smoked some cigars and had some more beer. Eventually we moved into the tent and which at that point was pretty chaotic. It ended up being a kind of crazy night. Having 10 people was perfect because that is the exact number you need to fill up a table.
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| Sausage, Beer and Pretzels |
The next day most everyone left leaving just Paul, Dave, Laura and I. We headed out to BMW World and walked around the Olympic Park. That night we went back out to a few of the tents that we hadn't been in but settled back at Armbrustschützen. Later that night the men folk went to the table dance because we had to check it out before we left.
Even though we stayed in the same hotel as Craig and were there with him for 3 days, I never actually saw Craig. He had his own Oktoberfest adventure which only he can share. That's why we call him The Wildcard. When Paul and I heard Craig's story we were like:
Berlin:
We took the train to Berlin, which was really nice because you can drink and eat on the train along with getting up to go to the bathroom. Nothing like drinking some German beer while playing Life on an iPad. We met back up with the Seattle Sizzlers in Berlin. The first night we went to a nice Italian dinner although it was a little formal for my tastes.
The next day we did a free walking tour of Berlin that was pretty cool. We saw all the Berlin wall stuff and the Brandenburg Gate and some WWII memorials and bunkers. It was a good tour of the city. In the afternoon we went to the Jewish History Museum. We got dinner at an american bar, and drank a bit that night even though we were all pretty tired.
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| Practicing our moves |
Our last full day in Berlin was spent almost entirely at the German Historical Museum. It was really interesting given the 4 thousand year history of Germany. I only got to 1840 by lunch time and when they kicked us out at 6pm I was only up to 1939. After a bunch of walking we ended up grabbing some dinner at a Thai restaurant. Craig met up with us at the Thai restaurant after taking the train in from Copenhagen that day. That night we went out to a "soviet bar" which was really weird and dark and the bar stamp said CCCP on it. But it was kinda cool. We then went back to the american bar from the night before for some late night drinks.
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| Laura drinking at lunch in the museum. |
Stockholm:
Just Dave and I went up to Stockholm while Laura and the Seattle Crew went back up to Copenhagen to fly home. Paul went back to his town in Germany and Craig stayed in Berlin for another night. Dave and I hadn't really planned on visiting Stockholm but we found the cheapest flight from Berlin to Paris involved an overnight layover in the Swedish capitol.
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| Dave and Dave in Stockholm |
We found a pretty cool hotel on what used to be a cruise ship, and while small provided pretty much all we needed - bunk beds. We went out for dinner in Old Town Stockholm and I had a few drinks while catching up on the Internet on the ship/hotel. The next morning we took a boat tour of Stockholm before we had to head for the airport in the afternoon.
I really liked Stockholm. It was probably my favorite city we went to. It was super clean with super cool buildings in a really neat environment with all the water and islands. It was the most modern and well put together city that I visited but still had lots of narrow cobblestone streets with little shops and restaurants.
Paris part 2:
In Paris we met back up with Craig. We went out for dinner and to watch some football since it was Sunday night. We looked up some bars and settled on one called The Great Canadian on the Left Bank near the Latin Quarter. We watched football and drank their cheapest beer (it's expensive in Paris) which were buckets of Corona. After that place died down a bit we decided to try another bar which would prove to be rewarding. We walked a few blocks down to a Scottish place called The Highlander. There can be only one.
We wandered in to a pretty small bar with about 5 tables and an equal amount of bar stools. We settled down for a drink and before long we were chatting with a crew of an private jet that was in town for Paris Fashion Week. They said we should come back the next night for music trivia. Eventually we decided to go back to the first bar and finished another bucket of Coronas before taking a cab back to the hotel.
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| The Paris Opera House |
The next day we did the tourist stuff. Notre Dame, Pompidou Center, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Opera House, The Louvre, Avenue des Champs-Élysées. All that jazz. It was a pretty busy day but we saw a whole bunch and took some great pictures.
That night we ate a big dinner at a Parisian Cafe and then decided to head back to The Highlander for Music Trivia. We ended up being pretty bad, but we did win the award for best team name which was Pixelated something. I can't remember what exactly the something was, but I'm sure it was dirty. I actually can remember. Luckily for us, winning best team name meant we all got free shots from the bar which is like a $30 savings cause it's so expensive. We wanted to get their signature shot - The Highlander - but they lacked the ingredients. So instead we got the second best shot: Blow Job shots. Here is a picture.
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| Just a couple of dude doing manly shots |
After that we had a few more pints and then headed for home pretty buzzed. The next morning Dave realized that he had to take a train to Amsterdam in order to get a flight home. Such is life when you travel stand-by. That left Craig and I to explore the city, which we did for about an hour before eating McDonalds and then going back to the hotel to nap. The naps were quite refreshing, and we found a really cool pizza place for dinner before we went on a quite romantic evening boat cruise. After the boat cruise there was really only one place to go: The Highlander.
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| The Highlander |
By now we were pretty much regulars. We walked into the bar to find 4 patrons and 1 bartender who all turned to watch us walk in. I immediately garnered some respect by ordering a couple of Highlander Shots. We were expecting it would be a combination of scotch whiskey and donkey piss, but were a little disappointing when the signature shot at a Scottish bar was a shot with blue curacao and grenadine.
We talked a little bit with a few English guys who were in the bar but we only stayed for another beer because it was pretty dead in there. We walked back up the street and found another bar. It turns out the English guys also had the same idea and showed up as well. We talking a bit more with them and they were pretty good dudes. After about 25 minutes they revealed that they were actually detectives for Scotland Yard, which was pretty cool.
That bar closed and the bartender told us about another bar that was open past two. So we all went there for even more pints. At this point I was drunk and I don't really remember the last bar too well. We said goodbye to the Brits, grabbed a cab and Craig passed out on the ride home.
The next morning we had pretty massive hangovers but managed to pull ourselves together and get to the train station for our train ride to London. We didn't make it fast enough though and missed our train. Luckily we were able to sweet talk the ticket agent into issuing us tickets for the next train without charging us. What a relief. We then went though security for the train and ended up seeing the two detectives from the night before in plain-clothes hanging out around the security. They came up and chatted with us a bit and wished us luck on our travels. They looked much less hung over than we did.
London:
We watched Project X on the train and then napped before arriving in London. Once there we dropped our bags off, internetted our faces off and then left to walk around the city. We did a pretty long walk all the way down the Thames to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. We ate Steak and Ale pies in a Pub and then set off to find a bar that the British guys from Paris told us about. The pub was called 10 Bells and it was on the East End and best known as a place where Jack the Ripper would pick up his women. It was a pretty cool place with a really old bar and a bunch of young people. I had a hand pumped bitter that was served in the English style - warm and flat.
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| Craig and I liked taking pictures together |
Our second day we found a free walking tour and did most of the touristy stuff. We had fish and chips for lunch and I had another warm, flat beer. In the afternoon we took naps again and then got ready to go out for our last night in Europe. We went to Camden as we heard it was an area with good bars and nightlife. The first bar we went into ended up being the starting point for a pub crawl that anyone could join. We were on the fence about it for a bit, but then decided 'why not' and joined. So we did some bar hopping and got a free shot at every bar and some discounts here and there. It was a pretty international group and it ended up being lots of fun. By about 1am we were both pretty drunk, which I was trying to avoid since I had to get up at 6 to fly back the next day. I'm not very good about stopping drinking once I've started but we eventually said good bye to everyone and made our way back.
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| On a pub crawl |
I barely slept because I didn't want to miss my flight. I got up at 6, took the hour tube ride to the airport and got on the plane with the intention of sleeping during the flight. But since I again was in first class I couldn't sleep and miss out on all the amenities. So instead I stayed awake and watched the 30 for 30 on Terry Fox and just cried for most of the flight home. Eventually we landed and my dad picked me up at the airport and I went back and slept at my parents house for 12 hours before I woke up and drove up to Ann Arbor for the Michigan game.
Wrap-up:
It ended up being a great trip and nothing really went wrong. It really was a fantastic time and I got to cross Oktoberfest off the great list of things. I still want to go to Amsterdam and Prague so maybe another trip to Oktoberfest is in order some future year. We had a lot of fun, learned a bit, and saw some cool stuff. We met interesting people, made memories and took lots of pictures. It's one of those trips that I think I'll remember even without writing it all down here.
