A great day in Munich

Last Saturday, I met my friends Netty and Christian from Dachau. Christian had to work on the Oktoberfest (he is a MD) so Netty and I decided to join him to stroll over the “Wiesn” and get some drinks in our favorite restaurant in Munich afterwards. The Oktoberfest was CRAZY! We arrived there around 4.30 pm and it was insane…thousands of people and pretty much everyone was drunk. Most of the beer tents had closed their doors because they had too many people in already… we didn’t go there to drink beer (we prefer cocktails… but we wanted to buy some souvenirs). It was almost stressful to be there sober, seriously…being surrounded by so many drunk people isn’t funny, particularly if you have to pay so much attention that no one burns you with a cigarette, drops some mustard on your clothes while eating a sausage or – even worse – starts vomiting next to you. We also saw a pair of jeans that had no owner (unfortunately, we didn’t see the owner who must have been “pants-less” at that point…). We escaped the Oktoberfest fairly quickly and had dinner and drinks at Joe Penas, which is our favorite place for cocktails. We picked up Christian at the Oktoberfest on our way back home and as we got there before his shift was over, we were allowed to wait in the waiting room for the medical professionals. It was so interesting to see what is happening “behind the scenes”..! If you see how many people get injured you start thinking twice whether to party at the Oktoberfest again…it’s quite scary. That night alone, almost 50 people needed to get stitches (most of them get hit by a stein)….It was a great Saturday and despite all the drunk people, it made me realize how much I miss Bavaria, its people and all its traditions. I love California but my heartbeat is still Bavarian.