"Hey Derek, sprechen sie dick?" -Step Brothers

OKTOBERFEST. Considering the above quote is about all I know in German (that and danke), I was curious to see how the language barrier would affect me when I was in Munich. It's a joke that I ever even worried about a language barrier because after you drink a stein, or two, or three talking to anyone, no matter what language they speak or understand, comes quite easily. Also, everyone there just kinda yells random things anyway.

So the game plan of the weekend was to fly in with Kevin, meet Katherine there, spend all our time at Oktoberfest and then sleep at Kev's family friends house. The flights there and back were full of American college students. While waiting to board the plane I managed to stand in between the most obnoxious girls. The ones behind me we're saying things such as, "Well I mean I don't even like beer, we should like just bring vodka or something" "I can so out drink the guys. I can hold my own, I can drink a lot and they just can't really."  1) Bitch, why the hell are you going to Oktoberfest if you don't like beer? 2) You're about 5 ft tall and bite-size, add that to how girls break down alcohol differently than guys, there is no way you can out drink them. But you can just keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. Their conversation continued down that path so I tuned out and then heard what the girls in front me were saying . .  "so I then I posted on her wall that I loooved her old roomies who are abroad with me, just cause I knew it would get under her skin. And then she message me and was all like 'don't trust them they're bitches', it was like so funny and so typical." . . . . .Uh what? After 10 not fun minutes of trying to tune them all out, we finally boarded the plane.

Katherine's flight got in two hours before our flight, but she really didn't mind waiting once she realized that there was a Starbucks in the airport. Since there are none in Italy she almost started crying when she saw it. I'm surprised I didn't hear her scream out of happiness when I was on the plane. When we got to the airport and walked into the arrival area, the first thing I saw was a guy in lederhosen chugging a MONSTER of a beer. There had to be six normal beers in this one glass. It enforced my previous notion that it was going to be a great experience. Kevin's good family friend, Gerhart, was picking us up at the airport and all three of us were staying with him for the weekend. Yes, he is name is Gerhart which is epically German. Although he didn't pick us up wearing a lederhosen like others did at the airport, he was in embroidered shorts and high socks, so I won't complain too much. Once we found Gerhart and his girlfriend, we hopped in the car and we were on our way to Oktoberfest. When we got there Gerhart brought us to his favorite tent where he proceeded to order us all beers and pretzels and teach us the drinking songs and cheers.

After a stein Kev and Gerhart started reminiscing about past family visits and whatnot, so they told Katherine and I to go explore. We were both feeling our first stein, which is about 3 beers, so we started tipsly wandering Oktoberfest. I was so not expecting Oktoberfest to be kid friendly. I mean, all I had heard or seen had to do with drinking in tents in lederhosen and folk dresses, the whole fact that it is a national cultural event kinda escaped my mind when I pictured Oktoberfest. There are rides and haunted houses and random carnival stuff everywhere. And adorable children in lederhosen. It took all my willpower not to steal one. 

I wanted to do that swing ride so badly.
but then we drank too much and forgot to. 

It spins in every way imaginable.
Imagine being on it completely wasted.
I feel dizzy just thinking about it. 

Juxtaposition of the monument next to the Beer Tent.
My kind of place. 

One of the many tents

After wandering all of the grounds Katherine and I made contact with O'Libro, Vito, Aaron and Nick. A drunk O'Libro told us he was in one tent, but when we went there they were no where to be found because he said the wrong tent name. And see that picture above? Yeah that's just one of the many tents, so finding people was near impossible. But randomly running into people happened fairly often. While wandering the tent they weren't in we ran into some USD kids. We said our hellos and then left to go to the tent the boys were actually in. On our way out a group of guys standing on a table pointed at us and started chanting "FROM THE STATES. FROM THE STATES." Yup. Glad I look that American. When we finally found the boys they had managed to get a table by befriending some Italian guys who were about our age. Everyone at the table, including O’Libro and crew, were absolutely shitfaced. It was one of the more entertaining tables I’ve sat at.

Post failed cheers attempt. 

making some EYE-talian friends

A leeetle sleepy. . . 

. . .andd goodnight. 

See the really cute picture of Katherine and Chris up there? See how they're covered in beer? Yeah that happened when O'Libro tried to cheers with Aaron when Aaron was standing on the table. They hit glasses, the beer went up out of the glass and then proceeded to fall over the both of them. It hilarious, especially because it didn't happen to me. After about 30 min in that tent the reservation switched over and then we were kicked outta the table we had been at. So then we started wandering the grounds again, with the three drunk boys with us. It had been four, but before we left the tent Aaron went off by himself, and we only later found out where he had gone. Turns out that he attempted to take the metro back to their hotel by himself, only he got on the wrong one. Once he realized he was on the wrong one he proceeded to get off and hop on another two metros that were going a different directions, only he didn't stop to see whether they would get him to where he needed to go. By time he checked his phone to where he was he was a three hour walk to the hotel, out in the middle of the suburbs of Munich. He finally figured out how to get back, went down to the right metro, and proceeded to pass out against a pole while he waited for the metro. Smooooth. 

As Aaron was being an idiot, we were walking around and getting food. Upon seeing all of the rotisserie chickens at one stand that had chicken plates Chris asks if he could buy one. A whole one. When told no he said "But you have so many!!" Katherine found a sticker that described Chris's current state perfectly, we watched some Germans celebrate a birthday, and in general just had a great time. 

"take a picture of us and some random german girls"

normal. 

the sticker. 

It started to get late so the boys headed back to their hotel and we went to go meet back up with Kevin and Gerhart. The only issue was that when we got to the tent that we were meeting them in they wouldn't let anyone in. But Katherine had her phone and Kev had his so no worries, we just texted him. He said they'd be right out and meet us outside. We waited. and waited. for over an hour. Multiple calls and texts later with no response (Kevin's phone had died), we had no idea what to do. Then we figured we should probably head to the car to see if maybe they had gone to it, but we couldn't find the random structure we had parked in. Then we just decided to wait outside the gates of Oktoberfest, and so we did. We ended up waiting for four hours. 

the view while waited

Finally we got in contact with them and headed out to Gerhart's house in the suburbs of Munich. The house was adorable and the suburb was exactly how you would picture a German suburb: sharply slanted and shingled roofs, white houses, and tons of window boxes with flowers. In the morning Gerhart had croissants and coffee waiting for us and both were delicious. After breakfast we caught the train to head back to Oktoberfest and start Day 2. 

Katherine and I ended up getting a hotel room for that night in the hotel that Chris, Vito, Nick and Aaron were staying in because we knew that we were going to drink quite a bit and didn't trust ourselves in the slightest to figure out how to get back to Gerhart's house while not sober. After checking in to our hotel we met up with those boys at Oktoberfest. It was great because they were already in line to get into one of the tents so we just hopped in line with them. Sneaky, very very sneaky. We drank a stein in line and when we finally got to the front, about 45 min later, they stopped letting people in for a while right after Vito and Aaron walked in and right before Chris, Nick, Kev, Katherine and I did. While we continued to wait Vito and Aaron went to find a table. We had been waiting for about 10 minutes when I decided to ask the security guard to say Happy Birthday for video that I was making for Jordan's birthday (if you haven't seen it then shame on you). He started laughing and obliged, and then wanted to watch it. I played it back for him and he said he looked terrible and wanted me to delete it. So I "deleted" it while we continued to joke with him. Five minuted later he let us in. Making friends in high places. 

Homeboy hooked it up.

We went in and found Vito and Aaron who had found a table. They had done so by going up to groups of girls and then asking if they were from California. When the girls said that they were not from Cali, the girls would then in turn ask the boys if they were indeed from Cali. And the boys would say yes, and then they would start talking to them and sit down. Worked like a charm. Europeans just love them their Californians. And then we ALL had three steins. I emphasize 'we ALL' to make the point that Katherine and I had the same amount as the boys. . . yup.

lederhosen

so sober

Yeah Vito! you show that beer whose boss

Beer Here!

Dancing up a storm

We started to get hungry so we left the tent and went to get some Brats. Before leaving we went to the bathroom where Katherine found a hat that someone had left behind. She then wore it all day. I mean, it is an awesome hat. The food at Oktoberfest was so good. I think I might have eaten my body weight in pretzels and brats with sauerkraut that weekend. SO YUMMY.
After we stopped and got food, things get a little fuzzy for me. I do recall getting a brat from one stand, getting upset when they didn't have sauerkraut and mustard, eating anyway, and then going to a different stand and getting another one with sauerkraut and mustard immediately after the first. No regrets.  Katherine and I bought some shirts for gifts at one point and we just kept running around looking at stuff. It was also during this time that Katherine got her phone . .stolen and she was not a happy camper. We then headed back to the hotel before dinner to recuperate and so Katherine could contact her Mom and tell her about her phone.

O'Libro struggles. 

Diva behind the camera.
also, THE HAT. 

lederhosen babay, HOW CUTE?

Vito, O'Libro Katherine and I then went to dinner at german place that the hotel recommended to O'Libro. I don't know when he'll ever learn the hotel recommended = expensive. I didn't get much to eat because I was still full off of beer and brats. Through the course of dinner Katherine and I slowly progressed from drunk to hungover. It sucks to be awake through that progression. By the end of the meal Katherine had her head on the table and wanted to die. As we were walking home we passed by these huge lion statues so Vito and I did the only logical thing to do when presented with an opportunity like that.

The next day I had early flight so I didn't really do much on Sunday.

I had so much fun and absolutely loved the city of Munich,  I want to go back and actually see the city at some point when it and I are not overrun by Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest truly is the happiest place on earth.