Beer, Brats and Braids

Movin right along! This post deals with the end of September – we’re almost caught up!

After our last guests departed to head back for the states - that hallowed land of Targets and Wal-Marts, pumpkin pie and peanut butter, and let’s not forget the reasonably priced steak dinners (sigh) – Nate and I took a deep breath and hung out around our house doing nothing for an entire weekend. September 9th marked the first weekend since the beginning of June that wasn’t booked with either entertaining guests or taking a trip of our own! That was three solid months of activity. While we were glad for the break, it was also a bittersweet moment, realizing our only summer in Dublin was coming to an end. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the weekend of relaxation!

We couldn’t keep still for long, though. Two weeks later, we hopped a flight to Munich, Germany – home of the famed Oktoberfest! A colleague of Nate’s had reserved a table for anyone who wanted to join in, and we were only too eager to throw our hats in the ring. We were also lucky to be able to share this journey with our friends Amy and Kieran.

Oktoberfest was a mostly fun and interesting experience. We didn’t know what to expect really, but it ended up being pretty much what you hear about – lots of beer, food, music and singing. The beers were gigantic, and much stronger than the brews we were accustomed to. The women who served them must have done some heavy-duty weight lifting to gear up for the event, because they would heft about six or seven of these things at a time, spreading them out onto the table in a grand fashion. If you look in the background of the pic below, you will see how intimidated I am by the sheer size of these mugs. Nate on the other hand, looks excited, while Christian, a German guy we hung out with, appears completely indifferent.















The tents were like gigantic warehouses, and there was a raised platform stage in the middle of the tent for the band to play. The band would alternate between traditional German sing-alongs to cheesy US wedding dance music (“I Will Survive” made it onto the set list multiple times throughout the day). There wasn’t as much dancing as I would have expected, probably because there wasn’t room for it. By the end of the day, the tent we were in was so packed that it was hard to move much of anywhere. It also got pretty smoky as the day wore on – we realized how spoiled we’d been in Ireland, where smoking is banned in all public buildings.

















One thing that surprised us was the number of people in traditional Bavarian garb! We thought it would mostly be cheesy tourists and people who were paid to dress up, but I would say about 60% of the crowd were wearing the lederhosen (the guys’ suspender outfits) and dirndl (the ladies’ busty dresses). We all decided that the outfits were pretty attractive for both sexes.

Well, we started the day off at about 10:30 or 11am, and the festivities continued until 11 or 11:30 in the evening, so you can imagine the condition of the people in the tent. I found the beer to be so filling that I couldn’t have very many, and after about seven hours, my attention span for the whole thing started to wane. So we headed out for the amusement park outside the tent, which I must say was one of the best amusement parks I’ve ever been to! They had about three different versions of every sort of ride you could imagine!

The next day we pulled our bleary-eyed selves out of bed for a final breakfast together before heading our separate ways: Amy to London for work, Kieran and Nate back to Dublin for work, and Megan . . . oh yeah, I’m not allowed to work. So I decided to stick around Germany and travel on my own for a few days – my first solo journey! Stay tuned for that post! Until then, auf wiedersehen!