Woke up in the AM quite broke, so called home and eventually got ahold of someone, and to make a long(like really long) story short got my dad to wire me some $$ though Moneygram which happened to be across the street from the Munich Central Train Station and that worked out rather well though it resulted in my getting to Oktoberfest alittle late.
This was going to be my drinking day, but by noon all 30-50K seats were full in basically all the tents with lines forming outside the tents, so I checked out every single tent and outside of like 3 inches of space at the ends of benches, I was not getting a seat and I didnt want to have to squeeze into a bench just to get a damn beer. So I wondered around the tents and whatnot after about 2 hours, I came across a beer garden attached to a tent which had stand up tables, and as long as you could get one hand on the table they'd serve you even if you werent sitting down, only place at Oktoberfest that will allow that. But it was a Paulaner tent, serving Paulaner, which was a decent enough beer, though just not as spectacular as the Stuttgart beer, and when you think about it, they consume 8 million Liters of beer at Oktoberfest every year with only like 5 breweries supplying it, that's alot of beer and corners have to be cut somewhere, but it was good and strong I guess, better than 99% of the beer in the US but not worth all the trouble it was to get it, so to get out of the hassle and save a few bucks I left the beer tents and did some more riding.
I rode a fair selection of random amusement devices, including but not limited to a Breakdance, rerides on Eurostar and Olympia Looping, rode the Starword Spinning Coaster which actually spun me way way to fast, though the huge fireball at the end suprised and impressed me, though I barely saw it, car was still spinning like a top so in all didnt really enjoy that, rode a Top Scan called Skater which I think has the lamest theme of all the Euro Top Scans but it's always at Oktoberfest, rode High Energy a Zierer Star Shape which rode rather akward though held my interest, did Imagination which ended up being nothing more than optical illusions framed and hanging on the walls with instructions in German, so that was a bad call. Lets see, they also had dueling, racing Wild Mice, being 2 BHS wild mice that were mirror image and set up next to eachother and it was a really neat effect, I know I rode a Schwarzkopf Monster 3 in there somewhere (identical to East River Crawler at SFGAm), rerode Flying Circus again, rode the ferris wheel and took all sorts of pics, also I did some other stuff there nothing else really to remarkable, oh and a Tagada which took the cake for most fun as it's a round disc with seats on the inside around the edge facing inwards, well actually a bench, no restraints at all, so what happens is the disc starts to spin and the whole disc is on an arm that bounces up and down, which gives doses of suprisingly strong airtime which will toss you up in the air and generally you land on the seat, though depending on how drunk you are it can land you on the floor or on the people next to you, also you are allowed to stand and mingle with others during the ride if you think you can, but the best part were these 2 hot girls, like really hot, and mid ride one gets up and straddles the other and they ride eachother and make out for about half the ride, so that was alot more fun than it should have been, and I also rode Power Tower 2 a 230 foot tall freefall ride similar to Tower of Terror at Disney at least in it's actions.
Other stuff there that I didnt ride was 2 Top Spins, a Frisbee (it was right by the beer tents and most people in line seemed way to drunk to be riding anything, much less an intense spinning ride and I didnt have a poncho, so I stayed well enough away)
also there was a load of flat rides all over the place basically the equivelnt of common american rides, like Paratrooper, a Twist/Sizzler(none of these being made by American Companies as there are no US made rides that can pass Euro Safety standards), and a few others.
By this time it was pretty late and close to closing so I walked though the beer tents again to see if I could snag a beer by any chance and finally I cam across the Augustiner Tent and it had some open tables in their beer garden, so I popped in for a quick Liter of Augustiner which was pretty good but had a harsh taste as it was quite strong and it was served out of an Oak Barrel(Keg) which lent alot of flavor to it. All the beers at Oktobefest have to come out of an Oak Keg, but for Augustiner you could really taste it, wasnt bad though at least I liked it but again nothing to write home about unlike the beer in stuttgart.
Now, onto other stuff at Oktoberfest and why I came away really not liking it....
First off, there is Puke Everywhere, after like 4pm, you have to watch where you step cause chances are you're about to step in something you dont want to (also the landord parade that involves about 50 horses delivering the beer every day really doesn't help things either), next it seemed like it was at least 75% foreigners and pretty much all those foreigners were getting way to drunk to the point where fights can break out at the drop of a hat, it felt totally unsafe for me to get drunk alone at this place cause I could have if I really tried, but it just had a really uncool vibe to the whole thing, saw people passed out all over the place and one girl that appeared to be dead in an alleyway behind a tent between the tent and the bathrooms (also not cool on the bathroom front), she was being loaded into a bodybag, also when people get to drunk, that paramedics throw them on a stretcher and they take them to this huge patch of grass on a hill by a giant statue and they just dump them onto the lawn to sober up and sleep it off, and by the end of the night that hill is so nasty you wouldnt believe it, there are rivers of barf running down it, it was so nasty. Also people riding most all the rides are drunk, though misbehavior didnt really seem to be an issue I'm sorta paranoid of barf on rides (anywhere, not just there) and I spent half of every ride getting ready to dodge nasty things (which never happened but still), I can honestly say while the rides there kicked ass, I did not really Enjoy Oktoberfest, that doesnt mean I probably wont go back, but if I do it will be for alot less time and with a larger group so I can party properly and probably not be bothered as much by this stuff, though still, these 3 days just felt like a waste, cause even the midway outside of the major coasters really was nothing impressive (by Euro Standards), I though all the rest of the midways I came across were better though lacking major coaters. But I guess in the end I can say I've been to Oktoberfest and I've had some beer there, but when I tell anyone about that I'll be quick to add on I've also been to Canstatter Volksfest a truely awesome beer festival
After the fest I got crammed like a sardine into the subway again and went to the main train station where I caught a once again less crowded train out to Harr and I hoofed it back to the hotel, though as I was going up the stairs of the train station in Harr someone not to far in front of me unzipped and started taking a leak, which is common in Europe, but really takes some getting used to
After dodging that walked the mile or so back to the hotel showered up, backed up my pics, took in some CNN and hit the sack
I guess that's all I have to say for this one, got one more Oktoberfest report to go then flight home and a wrap up
Next up Day 16 Oktoberfest and preparations for leaving Europe
i want pix
