And I went there! (I even went in October as well!)
Having spent a great few days with Jack and Alice in Belgium, which included CouchSurfing with some really cool people, fare-dodging the Brussels transport system every single time we used it, and eating a heart-cloggingly tasty Belgian snack that involves sausages and chips in a baguette, I spent the entire 30th of September on six different trains that eventually took me from Brussels to Munich.
I met up with Steph Gough and Lauren Anderson, two school friends, and Bec, a girl from Victoria who did a placement with Steph before they went travelling together.
We spent three nights in our own apartment - I managed to find a nice CouchSurfing host for us, but after letting us into her place, she had to go to some other city for work for a few days, and allowed us to stay in her place by ourselves!
Thursday the 1st began with a walking tour of Munich, then we headed to the Theresienwiese, the site of the Oktoberfest festival. After finding space in a beer garden next to a giant beer tent, we spent the next several hours with some more loud Australians - Madi, another friend from Steph's placement, was there with her Dad and her older brother, and a few more friends of her older brother. They were already tanked.
The Oktoberfest beer is a special beer that's only brewed for the festival, and comes in one-litre glasses at around 8.60€ a litre (like $15?) which is massively expensive of course. After my first glass, I was hesitant to buy more, because I'm trying not to splash out money right now, but I was shouted more by the others who were in no such financial trouble and hated to see a guy sitting at Oktoberfest without a beer!
After just two and a half glasses (I think), I was surprisingly drunk and having a good time. All of us were. We had some loud conversations and took some funny photos and videos until 11pm came and it was time to close.
Before closing time, I'd gone for a walk, and I'd found a beer glass from the famous Hofbräuhaus beer tent, outside on the ground. This is rare - many of these one-litre glasses used to be stolen from the festival until they introduced security and bag checks in 2008 and recovered 220,000 attempted thieveries! This year there is a 50€ fine if you're caught sneaking off with a glass, and a security guy at every beer tent door. So finding one outside the security zone made me happy. I picked it up and hid it between some trees, hoping nobody would find it as I went back to join the others.
When closing time came, I told the three girls I'd meet them at the main entrance. I drunkenly walked back to my hiding spot and retrieved the beer glass, then hiding it under my jumper, walked around to the main entrance. I don't remember my thought process then, but something made me decide to take the glass out and just hold it behind my back. I accidentally dropped it in doing so, and it shattered on the ground, and I quickly rushed away before anybody tried to fine me for breaking a glass.
But, by that time, I had got it into my head that I'd be going home with a beer glass, and breaking one wasn't going to stop me if I could help it. I was drunk and had a mission. I walked quickly back to the Hofbräuhaus tent, went into the beer garden area, found a glass that the waiters hadn't picked up yet, put it under my jumper and walked quickly back out past the security guard. The security guard reached out and put his hand in front of me, trying to stop me so he could check me, but i just kept walking quickly, straight ahead, straight ahead, hoping I wasn't being followed, hardly able to believe I'd just done what I'd done, and even less able to believe I'd got away with it.
I then went back to the main entrance, found the girls, and we walked to the underground station. I was still scared that one of the security guys herding people through the station would stop me, but the glass wasn't very visible. Once we were back at the apartment, I was finally able to breathe a sigh of celebratory relief. Although the relief was somehow lessened by me being sick.
I was still feeling rubbish the next morning and it didn't look like we were going to the festival anytime soon. The girls went to a concentration camp while I got on the internet and organised my life for the next week or so. I'd already been to a concentration camp near Berlin and one is enough for a while.
We made it to Oktoberfest later, but weren't able to find the others again. We didn't get drunk this time, just walked around the entire place looking at some of the rides and stuff. I bought souvenirs for myself and for my mother and brother, who have birthdays coming up. When closing time came, this time it was Lauren who found a glass - on the ground in the festival site, with some beer still in it. Rather than look suspicious by hiding it, she decided to just carry it in front of her as normal. If security stopped her, she was just going to say she didn't know she wasn't allowed to take it with her and innocently hand it over to them. We made it out the front entrance and after a longer-than-was-necessary walk, found an underground station and made it home with Lauren's glass safe and sound. We did some cooking and washing up before heading to bed.
I got just over 3 hours of sleep before getting up again. I had to get everything sorted and pack my bag then catch an organised ride share at 6am after saying goodbye to the girls. For 20€, the driver took me from Munich to Dresden. In Dresden, I dropped my guitar off with my friend Ria and am hopefully about to get in a train that takes me to Altenburg, where an airport is...
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