On September 17th, 60 Miami students embarked on what should have been a 7 hour bus ride to Munich. 10 hours and 1 speeding ticket later, and we were finally at the opening day of the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest. We got in line for the tents at 8:00 AM, and finally were able to grab a table at 9:00. We had to wait until 12 for the first keg to be tapped. Our tent, Augustiner-Brau Muchen, alone held about 8,000 people. It was absolutely crazy. We all decided to order some food, and you can see my giant pretzel below. Some people also ordered chicken, and were literally served a whole chicken. Everything was delicious! When it was finally time for the kegs to be tapped and the beer to flow people went nuts. It was the best thing I've ever been a part of. Everyone is cheersing, saying "Prost!" and people from all over the world all mingling. A few hours and steins later, and we decided to walk around and find a bathroom. That proved to be the most difficult task of the day. The lines were so long! Later that night we decided to have one more pint before we left, and settled into the Löwenbräu for a drink.
It was such a fun day, and truly a bonding experience for us all. I walked away with a sore arm (those steins are heavy) and some great memories. But wait, the biggest drama of the night was about to happen. We were told that the bus was going to leave at 12, and when it pulled away at 11:45 we realized to late someone got left behind. The simple solution would be to call his cell phone. Except that was sitting in my pocket. So the bus driver took us back to the train station (where he was last seen) and we started running through the train station. No one could help us and we ended up admitting defeat. The one left behind eventually made it home, after sleeping in the train station for 3 hours and buying a 90 Euro train ticket.
So there was some drama, but it was an unbelievable night! I will definitely be making a trip back in future!
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