Oktoberfest

I headed out to Munich for the weekend to meet up with Andrew Cohen for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest. I headed to the airport Friday early in the morning only to realize that the metro/bus lines in Madrid were on strike again. I decided not to try to risk missing my flight and hopped in a cab. I got to the airport with a couple hours to spare so I took a nap and set an alarm. My flight was bumped an hour earlier and i woke up panicking and running to my gate just to make my flight. I took the train to the subway stop recommended by the hotel website. Despite that my hotel was right next to the stop, I still got lost and wandered around for a couple hours before finally arriving. Andrew and I checked in got dinner, some drinks and called it a night to get up early for the festivities the next day. We got to the park around 8am and waited in line at a tent that served Paulaner. The tents were extremely elaborate and were actually more buildings than tents. Luckily we grabbed a table through the mad rush of people in our particular beer tent. We welcomed some Italian friends we made in line to sit with us. Then proceeded to welcome a Scottish couple, an Australian couple and a small group of Italian girls to join us as well. With our table full, we conversed and ate a little, until right before noon, the Mayor of Bavaria gave a little speech in German and then said "O' zapft is!", which means it's tapped. The waitresses came out with liters and everybody went nuts. The day as a whole was a very awesome experience and I would definitely like to come back at some point better prepared with my own pair of lederhosen. When we left the park at the end of the day, Andrew found some liter mugs that we snagged as our souvenirs for the festival.  Today we walked around the park again a little later until Andrew's train got in. I got an slow-roasted oxen sandwich and an Oktoberfest shirt. The hotel we stayed at was right next to the BMW museum and the Olympic grounds from the '72 games that are surprisingly well maintained. These two places were great for passing some time until my flight. The hotel was also very close to Dachau, but I wasn't particularly in the mood to have a depressing day. Overall a very 'memorable' weekend and will hopefully have some pictures up soon!