“Prost” is German for “Cheers”, and I have said it more than a few times today, as I achieved Goal Number 8, by attending the Oktoberfest in Munich.
I arrived in Munich shortly after lunchtime, and soon found my way to my hotel, which was only a couple of minutes walk from the station. I was a bit too early to check-in, but could wait in the lobby, where I checked my email, and waited to meet Christophe, from the German magazine Ebay! and his photographer, Marcus.
When they arrived we talked for a while, and eventually I managed to check-in and left my bags in my room, (which seemed reasonably cheap when booked on the internet, but turned out to be somewhere in the bowels of the hotel near the carpark!)
We set off for the Oktoberfest, and it was good to have a couple of local guides, although I did take note of the route we took, as I suspected I may be coming back on my own, and perhaps a bit less sober!
They took pictures, lots of them, for their magazine article, and eventually Christophe had to leave. Marcus and I wandered about a bit more, and had a beer – after all, that’s what this goal is all about – and eventually he had to go too.
I wandered around a bit more, had a few more beers, and met quite a few very friendly, very pissed, people from all over Europe. I visited quite a few of the beer tents, but they were nothing like I had imagined. I thought they would be pretty basic, perhaps with a bar at one end, and a few tables. They were HUGE! Each tent was immaculately presented, with a well organised system of tables and reservations. In fact, it was pretty difficult to find anywhere to sit, and if you weren’t sat, it was pretty difficult to order a beer!
However, once I got to grips with the system I was quite at home, and enjoyed myself to the full.
I came out of one beer tent, after chatting to several German guys for a while, and discovered that it had started to rain, and weaved my way back to my basement room, after stopping for a quick bite to eat.
Goal number 8 completed in fine style, and I still have several more days here yet!