Once we settled on the perfect lederhosen Troy and Mindy changed back into their jeans for the walk back to the hostel. Denton and I were a bit giddy and kept the lederhosen on. Denton had no problem paying and leaving, but mine had a security tag thing in the back calf. When I paid the lady had me sit on the register in front of 8 people in line to get the security tag off. It was embarrassing and awesome at the same time. I think Troy has a picture of the event.
We got back to the hostel, dropped our stuff off, and headed for the fair grounds. The place is like the State Fair of Texas except focused on beer and not small plastic cups of beer, but full liters of beer. Each liter cost about 8-9 euros ~$11-12, but remember a liter is around 3.5 cans of beer. Intense.
We settled into a fairly rowdy tent, I don't remember which one right now, but it was very lively for 12 pm on a weekday. The tables are open seating until 5 PM. After that time, reservations have been booked for around a year in advance. The tables were a lot of fun. We met a lot of high school kids skipping class and the on the other side retired German couples. Needless to say we made a lot of friends. Here is a video of some of the events inside the tents. Notice the guy that gets on the table and chugs the entire liter. That video is of the third time he did that in a 3 hour period. Insane. It was funny because a lot of people would try to chug their liters on the table and if they hesitated or slowed down for a second everyone in the entire tent starts booing them.
We headed back to the hostel around 6 PM and hung out before taking a much needed nap. We woke up at around 11 PM, got a slice of pizza and then went back to sleep to prepare for the 2nd day of Oktoberfest. We got up early the next day and had to switch to a hotel because the hostel had no room for us. After checking in we walked to the fairgrounds. We decided to take on the rides before having a beer. They had some crazy fun rides there. Our stomachs were completely messed up by the time we sat down at the first tent to have a beer. Here are some videos of the rides. It is long so only watch if you are a big fan of rollercoasters:
We walked around to many different tents and each one is very different with a different vibe and crowd.
I could go on and on about all of the interesting people we met and crazy things we saw, but I need to leave some stories to tell when I get back. Troy and I were the first to get back to the hotel at 9:30. I will say that Mindy and Denton were the last to come back because of a crazy story they can tell better than me. It involved a taxi driving over Mindy's foot. They took tons of pictures all along the way. The German ER doctors have a splendid sense of humor from what we were told the next morning. Mindy enjoyed the low-cost to free medical services in Germany and Britain.
The next morning we headed to the train station and I had to part ways with the guys. It was very sad.
My next destination was Budapest, Hungary. I was beyond exhausted at this point. I was right at the 2 month mark and the guys really pushed to see and do everything possible with little sleep. I don't blame them and would do the same if I was traveling for 10 days, but pacing is important. Anyway, I got to Budapest by nightfall, had a quick meal, and went to bed.
(Love Locker: When you are in love with someone you put a lock on this.)
The next day I got up early and went on the free walking tour. I learned a great deal about Hungary and their poor decisions in both the First and Second World Wars. Along the Danube the scenery is beautiful. The tour was very informative and you can see the country is still recovering from communism.
(scary)
After the tour I went to the train station to try to get an overnight train for the next day to Copenhagen. Everything was booked for the next two days so I had to buy a plane ticket from Budapest to Copenhagen. It didn't turn out to be too bad because I would have needed to travel 48 hours. After the ticket fiasco I went to one of Budapest's famous baths. The place was huge:
The natural mineral water was really warm and great. After walking so many miles a day and carrying a backpack everywhere I also treated myself to a 30 minute massage. It cost around $20, not too bad. The bath is surrounded by a massive park. Walking around the park I felt like I was back in Oak Cliff where I grew up until the age of 6. The residential part of Budapest looked like Dallas in 1985. The clothes, buildings, everything.
Here's a quick Budapest video:
I'll have to leave it there. Thanks for reading! I'm in Sweden now. Copenhagen and Stockholm coming soon!
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