So, 2 weekends ago, I was rewarded a trip to Germany to experience the real Oktoberfest with my family for being such an amazing son. It was probably one of the most memorable trips I have taken with my family, and I have taken a lot of trips with my family, actually, probably the majority of trips i take are with my parents.
Anyways, the whole experience of playing and marching in my dads band down the streets of downtown Munich with crowds of people cheering and singing along to "Drei Tag gen'n ma nimma noam" from the sidewalks, hanging on light posts, on top of fountains, and hanging out the windows of the apartment buildings was an experience i have never witnessed (Marching in Redwood City and Morgan Hill for 4th of July isn't the same, since most people don't know "Drei Tag" let alone sing along).
And the best part of the march was that instead of runners handing us water halfway down the 5 mile route, they were handing us half liters of munchen bier. I guess its a feeling of marching in the Macy's parade, except we were the only Americans in the Parade, and 10 years ago when my dad's band did the same thing, they were the First Americans to march in the Oktoberfest Parade, a parade that's been going on since 1812! The feeling i got was the American troops marching through the streets of conquered lands, like Italy, or even Munich 60 years ago! I told my brother, "Only if they knew we were Americans..." since you wouldn't know it unless you tried to speak to us, which happened a few times. But then i later found out that it said in the program that we were from California. Oh well.
The parade route took us straight to the fair grounds of Oktoberfest, and we continued to march through the crowd, sometimes running over festers with the trombones, and came to the Ochsenbraterei tent, then once inside, we marched around the perimeter of the tent, filled with 100k people cheering and singing along drunkenly. Once we made a complete circle around the tent, we found our reserved tables, and pounded a Mase. I have never drunk that much so fast so enjoyably(beer bongs aren't that enjoyable, and its not hella tasty Munich beer at Oktoberfest, a fricking Beer Festival). I could write much much more, but its better if you go yourself and experience it. It was just great to be getting trashed with my father, uncle, cousin, brother, sister, and my dad's college buddies, singing and "prost"ing on top of the tables, from 12-21.
