Unfortunately, things didn't quite go as smoothly as we had all hoped; in fact, everything kind of went to hell right before we were supposed to leave for Munich.
Lydia and I were having apartment troubles when we first arrived, and so until mid-september, we were still looking for a place to live. Finally, after MUCH searching, we were finally able to land the perfect place, thanks to a young couple who LOOOOOOVES Canadians and went out of their way to find us a place (both for Bonn, and for our time in Munich). Lydia and I moved into our new place the day that Verity and her new boyfriend Jason (who was a last minute, but very welcome add on to the trip) arrived in Bonn. Unfortunately, Lydia and I were still, at that time, running around like chickens with our heads cut off, because the house was a complete mess when we first moved into it (we were just temporarily taking the house from a couple of girls who were off traveling for a couple of months, and they definitely did not clean the house before they left) and because Lydia and I still hadn't had the chance to get to any of our laundry since our long European travels, meaning we were running out of socks and underwear! Minutes before Verity and Jason arrived, Lydia and I decided to test our new washing machine that was in the house. Let's just say that this is no ordinary washing machine, and that all of the controls are in german, and using it requires attaching one hose to the living room sink (yes, I said living room sink.....next to the living room shower) and another hose to drain god knows where (I'll get to describing our new apartment in a new chapter, with pictures of course). We decided to also place the drainage hose in the sink, and hold it in place with a towel. We fired up the machine to what we thought was the right option, and just then, our door bell rang, and Verity and Jason had arrived.
Lydia and I run down our entrance stairs to excitedly greet our new guests, and take them to their room to drop off their bags. We get to talking for a few minutes, and then I think...."Oh #*$@, the washing machine!" I run down the hall, into the living room, and see that the towel that was holding the drainage hose in place has fallen into the sink, blocking the drain, and the floor was under about a centimeter of water! One thing that our new apartment was lacking at the time was towels (I believe we only had two towels between the two of us), so getting rid of this water was going to be a bit of a challenge, and by challenge, I mean that it was impossible, and it took like 3 days for our floor to dry!
Things calm down for a bit, and we have a nice visit with Verity and Jason, who decide to go on a day trip to Cologne while Lydia and I are at work the next day. Unfortunately, that day, Lydia starts to feel a bit ill, and by the time night comes along, she is burning with fever (the night before we are supposed to head off to Munich to start some heavy drinking)! Lydia went to bed right away, hoping to get some rest so that she could feel better the next day, but that too did not go as planned.
The next morning came (Friday), and Lydia's health was still questionable (at best), but I had to got to work for a half-day, so I told her to give me a call with an update on her health at around noon, before we had to go to catch at the train. I (thought I) set the alarm for her, to wake up so that she could call me well before I had to leave work to catch the train (and hopefully meet her there), but I managed to not turn one of the dials correctly, so she didn't wake up until the last minute. No more than 5 minutes before I was to leave work to meet up with Lydia, Verity, and Jason at the train station, I got a call from a very sick Lydia, who was in no means well enough for a binge drinking weekend. This was not a good situation at all! I didn't want to leave my sick girlfriend alone, and at the same time, I have a couple of friends who traveled all the way from Canada, just to go to a festival with us! I had to do some quick thinking, and I managed to get Benjamin to help me out by having him check in with Lydia and give her a cell phone so that she wouldn't be left stranded, and I decided that I was just going to go for the day, as opposed to the weekend, so that I could get back to Lydia to feed her some soup.
I then sped to the train station to meet with Verity and Jason, and Oktoberfest had finally commenced (already down one person).
Our departure was far from ideal (see the above story), but we were off to Munich for Oktoberfest. Jason (on my left) was the newest addition to the travel party. This was my first chance to meet him, and he quickly won my heart with the purchase of the first (of many) beer on the train.
This is Verity (on my right of course). She's been one of my nearest and dearest friends since grade 10! Ver is always down for an adventure, so the opportunity to go to Oktoberfest was too hard to pass up. She even decided to take up beer drinking just for this event!
I can't say too much about the city of Munich itself, seeing as how I was only there for one day, and I spent that entire day drinking myself silly, but from what I saw, it looked to be a very nice city. This statue, just outside of the festival grounds, blew me away. It was truly massive in size (just look at its scale compared with the people below it)! I had never even heard of this statue before, and yet, I doubt it's much smaller (if at all) than the Statue of Liberty! Very beautiful!!!
The grounds of Oktoberfest were crazy! There were beer tents everywhere (and when I say tent, I don't mean one that sleeps 4, I mean hundreds, if not thousands of people cram into these tents, with their massive tables, and throw back literally millions of liters of beer), as well as carnival rides, and various food and merchandise shops. This guy above is the Löwenbräu spokesperson. He's a big animatronic Lion, who takes big gulps of beer, burps and growls every once in a while on top of the Löwenbräu beer tent.
Before the festivities get going, there is a big parade that marches through the gardens, with various traditional German bands, and horse carriages carrying people who throw flowers out the sides. The parade ends at 12:00pm, when the Mayor of Munich taps the first Keg, and then everyone can start drinking. Until that time, no beer is served (although many people around town are seen in their traditional German dresses and lederhosen chugging back a beer bottle or two, getting an early start to the morning on the way to the fair grounds).
The one man lederhosen parade!
It's crazy that they're able to have this parade, because it's smack dab in the middle of the fair grounds, which is already packed with thousands of people (who are eager to start drinking). The police find a way however, with big horses and rope barriers. It is incredibly crowded though!
A video of the parade:)
After the parade ended, it was time to start some serious drinking. Believe it or not, but it can actually be very difficult to get a beer at Oktoberfest (if you haven't come prepared). You aren't able to be served a beer unless you are sitting at a table in one of the beer tents or beer gardens. These tables get reserved in months (if not years) in advance, so people (such as us) who just show up, expecting to have a seat and a beer can often be sadly mistaken. Luckily, Jason had a friend of a friend at one of the beer gardens, who was able to squeeze a few spots at her table for Verity, Jason, and I. that meant..........
BEER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You might be thinking, "That is a damn big beer!" and you would be correct. The beer at Oktoberfest are served in the liter-a-beer fashion inside massive beer steins. This was my first experience with a beer of such stature, so my first attempt of taking one from the waitress ended up in me dropping the beer on the table and spilling beer all over our new friends who made room for us to sit down....ooops. Luckily, I was able to salvage most of that beer, and continue on without any more spillage incidences. The massive pretzels (seen below the massive beer) are also a nice addition to a day of drinking!
From right to left, it's Verity, Jason, and Jenny (who was Jason's friend of a friend who got us the seats at her table). This picture was taken during the initial "Prost!" (which is the German cheers).
This is simply incredible... You've already heard my story of feebly dropping my first 'heavy' beer. This is a video of an Oktoberfest waitress. These women are amazing! They are nothing like the stick-thin, young waitresses we know of back at home. These are built, middle-age to senior women, who could easily take me down in a fist fight, who carry 10-20 of these mugs of beer at at time!!!!!!! These beer easily weigh 5-10 pounds each, and these women carry 10-20 of them at a time.....and on top of this, these women work like 10-14 hours a day during the festival, and have to plow through crowds upon crowds of drunken idiots, shouting and pushing their way through!!!!....freaking hell, I'm thinking they should earn a spot on the X-men team!!!! Apparently, according to my German drinking colleagues at the festival, that these women will make their years salary just in the month of the festival, which sounds crazy, but these women definitely earn it!
Needless to say....the drinking went on....
After a few hours of drinking, Verity and Jason disappeared into the crowd (by disappeared, I mean stumbled to a washroom, and lost me until the end of the night), so I ended up hanging around with Jenny and her work friends for a couple of hours. Then I disappeared (I stumbled to a washroom, never to see those people again), and found myself alone, in the middle of Oktoberfest. I stumbled around for a couple of hours, bought Lydia an enormous heart-shaped cookie that had German writing on it stating something to the effect of "I'm madly in love with you", which I wore around my neck as a necklace until the end of the night, and took in the festivities for another little while. I made some friends, had a couple of beer, then tried to find my way home for the night (which was at the house of the person who found Lydia and I an apartment in Bonn). Unfortunately, when I arrived at the house, to my surprise, Verity and Jason were nowhere to be found! Luckily, after a couple of hours, they did in fact, make it back to the house safe and sound, which was a relief to me, considering I was supposed to leave early the next morning, and I wasn't sure if they even knew how to get back to the house and get their stuff!
The next morning came along, and it was time to say goodbye to Verity and Jason. The three of us had a great time at Oktoberfest, and I was glad that they came all the way from Toronto just to share in the experience. Verity and Jason traveled around Munich for a couple more days, then headed back to Canada. I hitched a ride with some people who were heading to Bonn from the house we were staying at, and managed to get my first Autobahn experience (220kmph in a Mercedes!!!!). I got back home relatively early the next day, and Lydia was still in bed (which she hadn't really left since I was gone). We then managed to get her back on her feet after a day or two, and it was back to work for the two of us.
