Big Adventures, Little World

I don’t think there was any ever question of us not coming back to Oktoberfest after going in 2010. We both had so much fun the year before, and Elese again the year before that, that we just HAD to go again. We decided against the train this time, but instead went by bus, which took even longer than before. Somehow though it was actually more comfortable and it was easier to get some sleep on the bus rather than the train. We left London about midday on Thursday and headed of to Dover to catch the ferry across the channel to Calais, France where we would head on to Munich, Germany. We went with PPTravel, the same company as we went to Pamplona with and we had a nice little group going in Dung, Greg, Kate, Cliff, Elese and myself. Once we got across the channel and into France the drinks came out and we got quite a bit drunk in what was a little warmup in the Oktoberfest itself. Well, the boys did anyway, before finally having enough and falling asleep to get some rest before getting into Munich in the early hours of the morning.

Crossing the English Channel into France

We arrived at the campsite (which happened to be the same campsite I had stayed at during my Topdeck trip) earlier than expected and it was still dark. We were shown to our tents where we managed to get a few cheeky hours of sleep before getting up, having some  breakfast, then heading into Munich to check out some of the traditional dress being leiderhosen for the guys and drindl’s for the girls. We’d got some advice from one of the PPTravel guides as to where to go and we found a nice little shop selling some of the better quality ones for decent prices. Elese and I had decided long before that we wanted to get ourselves some, so it was just a matter of finding some that we liked and weren’t too expensive. Being in the shop I think made the others want to get some as well, and although Cliff and Greg didn’t get leiderhosen, all the girls did get themselves a drindl. So we all got dressed into our new clothes and took our old ones back to the campsite before heading back into the Oktoberfest grounds for a good solid day of drinking beer.

Dung and Elese wearing their Drindl's

We got into the Lowenbrau tent and managed to get a table with some Italian guys and then the beers started flowing. After that, it just gets a bit crazy, or hazy. People came and went to and from our table and somehow we ended up with a huge bunch of roses on the table which some old Italian guy with too much money (so much so that he was rolling up 20 Euro notes and trying to smoke them) had bought. We gave roses out to people who walked past, and even managed to feed them to one very drunk person who had joined us at our table. I don’t know why, but whenever someone put a rose into his face he would just lean forward and take a big bite of it. Crazy, but was good fun for us!

Later in the afternoon we had to leave the table as it had been reserved for someone so we made our way out into the Oktoberfest grounds to see what else it had to offer. Now I’m not too sure but I think we spent a couple of hours wandering the sites, eating food, talking to the owner of PPTravel (whose name is Bomber) and even going on some rides. Somehow after that we found our way back to the bus and headed back to the campsite for some much needed sleep in our cold, cold tents.