Day 13 - Munich

While we are still staying in Irsee at the closterbrau we made a day trip to start our Oktoberfest festivities early. We woke up and got breakfast and then got gas to spare ourselves the awkwardness of pumping gas in our tracht. We got into Munich around 10:30 and headed from out parkinglot to the fairgrounds. We approached a hill top at the park and were able to hear the first of the Oktoberfest madness. We walked down and strolled down the main strip poking our heads in each tent and taking some pictures. We were stopped by a camera crew who had been looking and Jessica's Dirndl and then asked us to pose together as they taped us for a good 30 seconds. There is a good chance we were on some local news coverage of Oktoberfest that day. After that we decided to grab a seat at the Augistiner tent which we heard had the best beer.

We sat down at a completely empty table next to a rather roudy one. The table next to us obviously got an early start drinking and turned around a few times to comment/yell/laugh at us in German before realizing we spoke English. They seemed very interested in Jacob's hat and started their day long quest of bidding on it, joking of course as they were informed if it's importance to Jacob.

Shortly after 4 young women in dirndls sat with us at our table. Everything we pretty passive until the polka band started up. First a German named Joe from the other table came over to talk with us and stayed with us nearly the entire time leaving only to fraternize and pee. He was joined later by his friend Reiner who was far more drunk and unintelligible. They were there with their soccer team and had come to that very table for 10 years in a row. They all took a liking to Jacob's hat and Reiner told us his grandfather used to wear a hat like that hunting and before we knew it Jacob's new name was Yacob, Master Hunter which they proceeded to cheer often. The conversation was mainly focused on stereotypical assumptions about Californians. They also confessed their love for American football and the 49ers. At this point we were also conversing with the girls at the table who we found out lived only 10 kilometers outside of Irsee and kept inquiring about a ride back. They too were interested in American football and expressed their attraction to Jerry Rice and compared his strong attractive stature to Jacob's in a way that can only take place in a drunken Oktoberfest state.

Throughout the day we were continuously congratulated and wished well on our marriage in toasts, hugs, handshakes and embracing. The conversations carried on through music and movie preferences. All in all there was a lot of conversing and at times very little understood. There was also a lot of puking. Around 4 just about everyone was on the tables. Now having almost completely lost our voices we decided it was time to call it a day. We went and grabbed some sandwiches and headed for the car.

When we arrived at the garage we came to the entrance to find the gate shut and locked. We had apparently parked in a private office parking garage and were locked out. It was right next to the parking lot we had intended on parking in and we continued to walk around looking for a way in or someone to talk to. We went into the other parking garage to see if they somehow connected. We ended up in an emergency exit that connected to two garages and were able to make it to our car. We got in and drove around to see if the gates would open when approached but they did not. We were very lucky that an employee at the office building was leaving and we quickly followed him out as he opened the gate. Very fortunate and relieved we headed back to Irsee.

Tomorrow we will be heading back to Munich to stay and drop off the car to relieve ourselves of any more stressful situations.