52 Things Challenge: #26 Host Visitors During Oktoberfest

I did this! Three times!

Oktoberfest is in September and October and it lasts for two weeks – 16 days, I believe. It’s pure madness, I can’t even describe it in words. Just beer and millions and millions of people. Revelry, beer, and people. Drunk people. I experienced it a few times in a drunken stupor (and a few more times I was clear, don’t worry!) because when you go to Oktoberfest… you go to Oktoberfest. You start drinking at 11 am because you have to secure your table at 10. And then you’re often home in your bed by 8:30 at night and you’re completely smashed, thinking it’s got to be at least 3 am. It’s ridiculous. But it was fun! And I was really, really lucky to have some wonderful people visiting me to share in the Oktoberfest shenanigans.

My lovely lady friend, Susie Q, came to visit me first, on opening weekend. Susie Q is a family friend and if you’ve ever heard me talk about my Oma Kathe on this blog, then it is worth it to know that Susie Q is Kathe’s oldest daughter. Susie’s sister and Kathe’s daughter, the crazy, candle lady Christina, is our connecting point. I used to work for her in Monterey, selling candles and running around after her grand-daughter, and we built an incredibly close employer-employee friendship that has, thus far, been incredibly beneficial to my heart and soul. Christina and her hubbie, Bunny Buttons (okay, that’s not REALLY his name), have been like a second set of parents to me and so their family is very important to me. So, THAT is how I know Susie Q and since their entire family is German and once lived in Munich, it was only natural that one of them had to come visit me. Susie Q was the one! She spent an entire day with me and my friends, watching the Oktoberfest parade, eating grilled hendl, and drinking beer from at least five different tents. Tourists in the tents would constantly ask if she was my mom and we just went with it. Who wouldn’t want to party with their mom at Oktoberfest? Haha.

On the very same day one of my best girl friends from college, Miss Kate, passed through Munich for the night with her friend, Kari. I somehow managed to find her at her hotel and then spent an hour, maybe 45 minutes, drinking with her and Kari in one of the tents before I became so drunkenly confused (I thought she went outside so I was waiting for her out there for 20 minutes but she was inside the whole time, right where I left her) and then I was just so lost that I ended up going home. But, even so, it was so nice to see her, if even for an hour, and I’m sure I was equally as entertaining. Haha.

The following weekend two of my friends from England flew down to Munich and joined me in the city. I met both Alison and Helena while we were working together at a summer camp in Pennsylvania, the summer of 2007 (and 2008!), and have kept in touch with them since. Being in Germany meant that I was incredibly close to both of them so getting them to come down to Munich for a weekend was really easy! They came in on a Friday and stayed until early Monday morning. We did Oktoberfest twice (both times were wild) and even went to Salzburg, Austria for a day. We had so much fun, it was so good having them here and I wish we could do it again!

Alison, Helena, and me at Hacker Pschorr