Oktoberfest: Last Reflections

Alright, so I do admittedly think that if you've never been to Oktoberfest, you should go at least once (and hopefully only once), because it is, after all, world-famous, quite the event, good opportunity if you're around, blah blah etc. But just for the record, a single 1-liter beer there costs €8.30 (that's $12.14. Typically, you can get that much for about €3-5 in restaurants/bars, and €1-2 in supermarkets). To even get a seat in one of the 8 Biergarten tents, if you're even lucky enough to shove in or made a reservation, is about €65 (that's about $95.00).

From personal experience, I had to wash my pants immediately upon arrival home tonight because of aforementioned vomit flecks, and general Oktoberfest nastiness -- which includes, but is not limited to: the scum from trash thrown on the ground, unavoidable fogs of cigarette ash, spilled beer, splashed bits of beer and sausage vomit, plus the germs from the other 28370572375025 people you bumped, shoved, squeezed past, and nearly got trampled by on your way in, plus the germs from the other 240723753027527302 people you bumped, shoved, squeezed past, and nearly go trampled by on your way out.

Oh god.... if you're the Oktoberfest-going kind of person, fine. By all means, go hit three birds with one stone: your Time, your Money, and your Dignity enjoy yourself. If you happen to dislike the larger crowds and noise like myself, follow these simple steps:

1) Go to Oktoberfest if you have not been.
2) Walk in.
3) Look around. Only 5 minutes are necessary for overall effect.
4) Leave and explore München instead.
4a) Leave and explore München and visit the beautiful church close by like I did instead.

Uach, I missed dinner, too.... I need to go find something light to eat this late.

Will post pictures up when I don't have to wake up early the next morning, so keep on the lookout later.

Oktoberfest: Alternate Recommendations

Now I really don't like to be negative, and I know that I'm in a minority here who happen to dislike loud partying events and making a dumb sh*t of yourself drinking beer.

But here's the thing. If you want Oktoberfest without all the overwhelming DUMB, go to local/regional beer festivals, such as Herbstdult/Dultfest in Regensburg, or Gillamoos Fest in Abensberg. These are smaller-scale beerfests with all the beer, all the rides, all the food, all the souvenirs, all for cheaper, cleaner atmosphere, less stressful, and with much less of the feeling that you're a salmon fighting your way upstream with a million other salmon who have all likewise lost their mind and are blindly following some primitive instinct to get to the goal, spew things from their innards, and FLOP OVER LIKE A STUPID, BRAINLESS FISH.

Oktoberfest in München: Negative Reports First

Today, we had an excursion to München (Munich), as mentioned previously. To sum some things up, by the time I finally got on the train back to Regensburg, I was overall tired, not amused, cold, and had yellow flecks of vomit on the back of my pant legs.

Thanks, Oktoberfest.

I'll start out earlier in the day. We met at the Bahnhof (train station) early this morning, and got to München at around 10:30. The morning was saved for a small tour of the Deutsches Museum, which is famous for being the largest technical museum in the world. Very high quality stuff. The museum really is huge. The tour lasted about two hours, but though the guide was very knowledgeable, it still somehow felt rushed, despite that we'd probably only covered about 1/8th of the museum. Once the tour was over, we were allowed all the free time we wanted until we felt like taking the train back. I was so excited to now be able to explore the rest of the museum on my own, and I set out immediately with a new target exhibit in mind.

But then my "group" called. We have to travel together under one "Bayernticket." It's a much cheaper ticket (€27 as opposed to €18 singles) that covers 5 people, and you can use it for the subway, train, anything, etc. for a whole day for those 5 people. A nice and recommended deal, but also comes with some inflexibility when it comes to situations like this. At any rate, we all have to stick together to get anywhere, and the ticket is held only under one name (which, today, was mine).

We had all this time to hit up awesome exhibits in a top-notch museum, and where did everyone else want to go? Bloody Oktober-freaking-fest. Yes, somehow that smelly, loud, crowded, cramped, beer-sloshing, vomit-hurling Stew of Disgusting was the far more attractive prospect.

You have to understand this about me. First, I am no fan of alcohol in any form. Oktoberfest is infamously fueled by beer in the thousands of liters. Secondly, I hate crowds. The more pressing, loud and clustered the crowd, the more I will hate it. Thus, Oktoberfest faced no obstacle in earning a place on my distaste list.

Oh, and last of all, don't ever give me the, "But drunk people are funny!" counter-argument. I will not be pleased with you. I enjoy watching drunk people to the same degree that I enjoy watching a group of schoolboys surrounding a frog and slowly killing it with sharp sticks just for the hell of it and giggling like morons about it. That is to say, I don't. I don't like watching someone ingesting poison by the liter-full and destroying mind and body for it while others watch and laugh. If we took that sentence out of context, would you enjoy it, too?