Sorry for the delay in actually writing something of substance...most of life is just so quiet here that I think "Not much to report, I'll do it later" and then I never do! Shame on me.
Monday and Tuesday were, however, just that quiet. And Wednesday was even more quiet, because we worked too late and decided it was silly to go out at that hour in a city that closes so early.
Thursday managed to be a bit more exciting - we went swing dancing!! :D Who would have guessed we'd have found a bar with a once a week swing party here? They even had a live band, and the place was packed. The Germans really love their swing dancing, apparently. Some were quite good (and one was delightfully, spectacularly bad)...I couldn't stop staring. I miss it!!
I felt a bit icky on Fri, so I stayed in and sent Jon for a boys' night out (although really just a boy's night out, I suppose!). I caught up on reading and job hunting, and hopefully he caught up on enjoying bachelorhood. :)
Saturday was the big day...the start of Oktoberfest!! So far, I have mixed feelings about it, but I'm sure that at the end I'll remember it all fondly (if I remember anything about it at all, that is...if you remember your time at Oktoberfest, you probably didn't celebrate properly!). The event is completely insane...how does this city put up with it for two straight weeks?! We got a bit of a late start - work and trips to the post office come before revelry! - but headed to the park where it's held as soon as we could. The place is an insane asylum with flashing lights. So many people that you can't move without brushing up against someone else. Lederhosen and dirndls as far as the eye can see (particularly funny because the girls, of course, try to skank up their outfits as much as possible!). The food seems truly amazing: crepes, sausage, giant pretzels, chocolate covered fruit. And of course, there is the beer - giant, one litre mugs of it.
We started out first experience of Oktoberfest by grabbing lunch, which ended up being a sandwich with some kind of fish in it. A lot of the sandwiches looked quite good, but unfortunately this particular fish turned out to be a little too fishy. We abandoned it a short while later, heading instead to the dessert booth that had, of course, caught my eye. :) It was absolute heaven (and not at all fishy!). I'm fairly certain that I will end up enjoying Oktoberfest more for the food than for the drinking! Oranges, bananas, and strawberries on sticks, covered in all different kinds of chocolate. Candy apples in a rainbow of colors, and apples dipped in chocolate as well. Assorted fruits smothered in some kind of thick, sweet glaze. *sigh* I think I'm gaining weight just writing about it! We settled on the strawberries, and then began exploring.
We wandered around the various tents and carnival rides before choosing Lowenbrau, which I took a fancy to because their tent is decorated with a large mechanical lion drinking a beer. :) Turned out not to be such a good idea...we waited in line for two hours, and still didn't make it inside! We did meet a few cool Australians, though, and one or two that were terribly obnoxious. After getting too fed up (and extremely touch phobic...I had no idea that still bothered me so much!), we left the line and settled for standing outside. I thought I was going to be miserable all night, but it turns out that one litre beers improve morale considerably. We proceeded to hang out with a girl from Ohio and her boyfriend (who writes about cars, so of course we started talking about racing!). I popped into the bathroom quickly, and returned to find Jon talking to two very drunk Italian sisters. One in particular kept tipping over backwards, even though she was just standing! She was obsessed with San Francisco and the " 'ippy life!" :) After we left them, we wandered around the park and bought delicious roasted nuts and a caipirinha (they make you leave a deposit for the glass, in case you don't bring it back!). We called it a night shortly after that...after all, this is Oktoberfest and neither of us were sick - quit while you're ahead!! ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment