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| 21st September (Oktoberfest 1) |
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| The tent test run. |
| Me about to launch into outerspace. |
| Judging by the amount of looks we later got people must have thought we were from another planet, I just wanted to explain to them that we were Australians. Before we could leave the apartment to embark on our journey Lou had to do her standard Spanish Inquisition (Have you got the phone? Who�s got the keys? Have you got all the water? What about the sunscreen?). I tried to explain to Lou that we would be gone for less than 24 hours and after some further persuasion we were finally out the door. We headed out through the suburbs of Augsburg and were soon riding through the forests, crossing little rivers over old, roofed bridges with detailed woodwork on the entrances. After a couple of hours of winding along the edges of thick forests and passing through paddocks we ended up in a little village |
| You're probably wondering why the hell we left for the Oktoberfest so early. The reason was that every single local I spoke to about the Oktoberfest had the same single piece of advice, get there very early if you want to have any hope of getting a seat. We ended up getting there at about 8:30am and by 9am the beer tent we were in was almost completely full. We had to wait out the first 3 hours beerless because it didn't start flowing until the Mayor officially opened the day by tapping the first keg at 12pm. Once the beer started flowing and the band started knocking out some traditional Bavarian tunes, the party was in full swing. Kai taught us the words to a few of the songs (including LaLaLaLa, I kid you not, that was the chrorus for one of the songs). I was holding out to hear the chicken dance song but, alas, it wasn't played. Because everyone is so crammed in it doesn't take long before you've made good friends with your neighbours and I think after an hour we had knew everyone around us, including some party animal, 40 year old mum's on an adjacent table who I boogied with for a couple of songs (they knew how to move their booties!). Schultzy took 'knowing your neighbour' to a new level after he was spotted snogging a girl on an adjacent table shortly after finishing a conversation with us. By about 7pm I had reached my beer quota (I have to admit, I couldn't actually finish my last 1 litre stein of beer) and Lou and I jumped on a train and headed back to Augsburg. I was paying the price heavily for the previous day's festivities when I woke up this morning and I have only just been able to muster enough strength to type this up at 1pm. This isn't the end of Lou and my Oktoberfest festivities, in fact yesterday was more of a research day for the big day next week when we go on an AIESEC trainee reception weekend in Munich. There are going to be trainees from all different parts of the world who are currently working in Germany under AIESEC traineeships so we should meet some interesting people. AIESEC has organised a whole weekend of events including a tour of Munich next Sunday so there will be plenty more photos going up on this web site in about 9 days. Keep coming back and be sure to sign the guestbook while you are here. Press the 'Back' button to go back to the main page to access the guestbook. Ned & Lou. |
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| Schultzy getting to know the neighbours |
| Ned. 21/9/03 I know what you're thinking, it's still only September, but the Oktoberfest has started! Lou and I made the short trip to Munich first thing yesterday morning, along with my work mate Kai and his friend Marcus, so that we could enjoy the opening day events. We had already organised to go with a large AIESEC group next weekend but decided to also go yesterday so that we could catch up with Schultzy (one of my old university friends now living and working in England for those that don't know him). Schultzy came along with one of his mates Paul, also from Adelaide, and we were later joined by another two more Adeladians, one of whom I happened to know from Uni (reconfirming that Adelaide is a small town). The day started at 7:20am when Lou and I met up with Kai and Marcus at the train station in Augsburg. I hadn't actually made plans to meet up with Schultzy because I didn't think we would be there on the same weekend so I was planning on trying my luck at finding him in the beer tent most popular with the Aussies, the Hofbraeu Festhalle. It was a bit risky considering up to 1 million people usually attend the first day of the Oktoberfest, and the Hoifbraeu Festhalle fits 6,500 people, but as it happened I simply bumped into him while buying some playing cards from a stall outside our beer tent. I heard this really suprised "Ned!" and looked around to see him and Paul walking along, unbelievable luck. |