A Virgin's First Experience

At Oktoberfest, that is .

With that said, my first experience was in 1987 as part of a business trip to Augsburg. One boring September eve, we were sitting in the bar at the hotel. It was around 21:00, and someone said, "Hey, why don't we go to Munich, it's Oktoberfest you know". I looked at Tom (last name to remain a mystery) and said, "Why not, when's the next train". We checked with the bartender, and the next train was at 21:30; plenty of time. Ok, but when can we get back? A good sounding time was 01:00, and there was a train at 01:12ish, so off we went. Ran to the Hauptbahnhof and made the train. Upon arrival in Munich, we headed directly to the Wiesn. Boy what a sight. Just imagine a huge state fair with large circus tents full of drunks.

Not knowing any better, we headed to the first tent (in retrospect I think it was the Hippodrom). This was a Friday night, and not knowing any better, we tried to get a seat and order a beer. Good luck you neophytes ! ! But after e few minutes, we were successful. That's because it was so late the place was beginning to close. So we quickly ordered our first Mas, had it delivered, and enjoyed the brew. Unfortunately, either because of the time, or our slow drinking (I'm sure it wasn't the latter) we couldn't get another beer. So we headed out, fought the crowds, and tried to find a taxi. Tom said, "Hey it's still early and the train isn't until 01:12, should we have a beer"? But of course, so we jumped in a taxi and headed to the Hofbrauhaus.

Just our luck, got there just in time to have one Mas. What's with this country, the land of beer, and everything closes so early? So we had our brew, and headed back out to find another fine establishment. This didn't take long, we just wandered a few blocks from the Hofbrauhaus and found a great bar, lot's of people, and asked "How late you open"? We got the response we wanted... "All night" ! ! ! Yeee Ha! Let's get drinking.

We sat at the bar drinking and playing Deckles (a topic for another post), until about 02:00, when we said "Oops, guess we missed the train. When's the next one?" The train was at 04:00, so we had plenty of time for a few more. Which we proceeded to do. Well, guess what, we missed the 04:00 train, and had to settle for the 05:30 train. Finally got back to the hotel in Augsburg around 06:45.

As we were entering the hotel, Tom and I noticed our other business associates coming down for breakfast. Looking at our watches, and trying not to look too guilty, we asked "Why's everyone having breakfast so early on a Saturday?". The answer.... after we left, they decided as a group to get up early and head to Munich to experience Oktoberfest. After looking at each other, we said, "Give us a few minutes to shower and change, and we'll be right with you". So.....

Saturday was then spent tent hopping and doing other things with hops We were actually able to get seats, and enjoy the bands and atmosphere (more on that in another post as well). The table, at the Hacker-Pschorr tent was obtained by our German host, Gerhard Borgenheimer ! ! ! What a great German name.

Here's two wonderful pictures from that very first trip..