2003-10-09
Prost!

1:38 p.m.

So, anyway, to finish my story of Oktoberfest...

There were five of us, Nick, Will, me, Kelly, and Ollie, who decided to go to Oktoberfest on what turned out to be the busiest day EVER. It was a bit rainy that day, but not too bad until later in the evening.

In my first entry on the subject, I left off with us in the beer tent, pretty well gone at that point, the Austrian who had been talking to us was kicked out, and Nick was out wandering around. As the day wore on and as people around us become further inebriated and more rowdy, they started standing up on the benches and singing and swaying along to the music. We joined in enthusiastically, although we had not a clue what the words were. Minor details! There was one song that we did learn somewhat, which basically was singing the word "Prost!" (cheers) several times, after which you took a drink. That song was played a lot, about every other song or so.

Once, while Ollie was standing up on the bench next to me, some people at the table behind us decided to find out the answer to the age-old question of what really IS underneath a Scotsman's kilt. Since I was sitting down, I noticed what they were doing and grabbed Ollie's kilt out of their hands, but not before they had a good look, I'm sure. Ollie says he's used to it and just brushed it off.

Finally, it was time for us to meet Nick outside. We grabbed all of our stuff, made sure we had everything, and they headed outside (or so I thought) while I ran to the restroom. I came out, went outside, and found Nick, but he said that no-one else was out there. He wanted me to go back in and find them, but I wouldn't because I didn't think that they would let me in! So, he went in and found them and they all came out and we started hback. Ollie, Kelly, Will, and I were all holding hands mostly so that we don't lose each other, and partially for direction and support. It was raining pretty well now and we're really wet. Nick was so ready to get out of there. The rest of us found this, as well as everything else, extremely funny and giggled nonstop. (That was one nice thing to discover - we are all happy drunks.) Before we left, however, I was determined to find myself a real beer stein. Which I did, and I am very happy with it. I told Nick that I was going to have to trust his judgement in this situation as at that point, I didn't trust mine. He did very well.

At one point, we lost each other. Nick was walking in front of us, and we weren't holding onto him, so we lost him. Oops. We stopped at a beer hall and I checked my phone. He had paged me, fortunately, so I went off to find him and brought him back to the rest of us where he had to convince them all over again that we should probably leave (it was around 9 or so). Apparently, according to Nick, I am also not only a happy drunk, but a very chatty one. Considering how much I babble on naturally, that's saying something.

No more mishaps until near the end when we were at the tram station to head back to the car and realized that Will's camera was missing. He was really upset about it and took off running back towards the festival. I ran after him to help (and so he wouldn't be by himself, and without a phone), but never caught up. There's nothing like worrying about a camera while trying to dodge masses of people, cars, and mud, to sober you up pretty quickly.

I finally made it back to the tent, went inside, found a waiter who spoke some English, and between his little English and my (extremely) broken German, managed to convey that I had lost a camera. Like magic, he pulled the camera out of the little cubby that they used for Lost and Found. I was so happy, I almost kissed the guy (he was rather attractive, anyway) and I swear he must have thought I was going to, as well. But, I didn't. I figured maybe Will just hadn't made it back yet, so I hung around outside, paged Nick, who told me to head back to the car, which I did. That was another adventure, as I got lost trying to get back to the car! I got off a couple tram stops too early and couldn't figure out where I was. But before y'all start shaking your heads and muttering, "No surprise!" it wasn't very long before I did figure it out. Not too bad, considering that it was very dark, I was in a strange town, in a country where I barely spoke a few words of the language, and still not quite completely sober. I finally found my way back to the car, and we headed off.

Apparently, Will had been to the tent before me, but he'd gone to the table and hadn't thought to ask the waiters/waitresses, which is what I did. Go me! ;)

I'm not quite done yet! There's still the car ride home. Will, Kelly, and I were in the back seat and slept most of the way. Nick drove. He loved it. One of his goals coming over here was to drive on the Autobahn. As it was, he ended up not only driving on the Autobahn, but driving a British car as well. Will pretty much slept the whole way, but Kelly and I woke up occasionally to hear Ollie and Nick arguing about where to go. We got lost in Karlsruhe, about 100 km out of Strasbourg. It's never good to wake up at 1:30 AM and hear your driver say, "I don't know where the h*** we are. Are these signs the names of cities or of exotic fruits?". We finally made it back to Strasbourg around 3 AM and I was in bed about 3:30 AM. The next day, Will and I met to work on our orbital mechanics homework. Back to reality.

As if this entry wasn't already long enough, here are my pictures from Bremen. It should help putting some names to faces.

Will, from Boston (Harvard!), on the train to Bremen. He's a fellow GSFC Academy member, class of 2002.

Beth and Ruey (pronounced Ray) from Canada (left). Munir from Spain (top) and William from US.

The gang at two of the (many!) stops that we made on our way to Bremen.

From left, Doug (Scotland), Nick, David (Florida), Mark (Canada). Nick is showing off his favorite German cuisine.

The cathedral in Bremen and the square in front of the cathedral. From left, Kelly (Canada), Benois (France), Beth, Mark.

Brooke (California) going out the window of our hotel room.

If you'll excuse me now, I'm going to go home and eat some fresh bread with stinky cheese. Yum!

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