Oktoberfest 2008

500,000 spit roast chickens, 350,000 pork knuckles, 14 giant tents, 6,000,000 people and 6,940,600 litres of beer.This is not heaven gentleman, this is the 2008 Munich Oktoberfest.The largest beer festival in the world is not something which can be taken lightly so training for this event started early. Liver cleansing diets mixed with tolerance training and of course the search for the perfect hangover cure.

The trip began on Thursday night as the three teams set off from Stansted airport. Two Kiwi's, two Aussies and two Brits.We didn't arrive until 1am so went straight to bed as we needed to get up early to get inside a tent for the day.The weather was terrible in the morning. It must have been about 1 degree so it was essential we made haste and started drinking to get a nice warm beer blanket. We jumped on a bus and almost instantly we had a Bavarian beer in our hands.

I think it important to mention that all Bavarian Beer is subject to the 1516 purity order (act) which means all beer must only contain water, hops and barley-malt. Apparently this justifies early morning starts as you don't get very bad hangovers. That and the fact that beer is considered a beverage rather than an alcoholic drink.

After about half an hour waiting in line we managed to get into the Haufbro tent. We grabbed a table and got stuck in. Everything seemed to be going great. The beer was flowing, we were dancing, singing, meeting new people from all over the world.Then some how everybody became separated. I never saw anyone apart from Luke (Aussie) for the rest of the night. Here's what had happened. One of the Brit's Paul had been arrested and put in prison for throwing a stein glass, Andrew (Kiwi) had become lost missed the last bus home, tried to use the underground which was even hard sober so gave up and spent the rest of the night sleeping on a bench at the train station using the bin as a spew bowl. James (Aussie) had become lost so went to town and continued drinking. Steve (Brit) got lost and went home so didn't drink anymore. Luke (Aussie) got punched in the neck by a security guard and spent the next hour filling out police reports and getting medical assistance (which ended up costing £34 for the privilege).On top of this pretty much everybody lost an article of clothing.

Day two and the training had paid off. Andrew managed to get back at 5am from the train station have a couple hours sleep and then we all set off. No one really feeling that bed despite the amount of beer that was consumed. Oh still one person short as Paul was still in the cells!!!!!!! Dachau Concentration camp was our destination. What a humbling and frightening place. More than 30,000 people died there due to the terrible conditions, murder, starvation and disease.

The previous night was catching up to us but not to worry, hair of the dog was not far away. We jumped back on the coach after a quick Mac Ds stop and drove straight to Andechs Monastery. This was an amazing church with a difference, the monks loved beer and had been brewing it for centuries. They also had the best pork knuckles in Germany. £13 later and I had half a pig in front of me. I had to finish it no matter what!!!

Andrew and I then got dropped of in town to go and find Paul who was still in prison. It was a bit of an experience walking down a dark empty street to a prison. The experience was made worse considering we had the horrific images of the Dachau Concentration camp still playing on our minds. They were not very help full. Apparently you are guilty until proven innocent in Germany so basically we couldn't do anything. On that note we decided to grab a travel beer for our short journey back to the festival.

We never made it into a tent but did manage to meet up with some cool Italian guys and have a great time outside. I think our beer wench called Claudia had never seen such rowdiness. Beer wenches are amazing they can carry up to 20 steins all while wearing a particularly flattering traditional dress.

Two hours by train lies a castle that was the birth child of the Walt Disney castle. There were only two teams left by this stage. The other Brit had gone walk about and missed the train. Have a look at the pic. It was amazing to say the least.

Quickly back to the tents for one final night. We got back to Munich and to our surprise and delight the Aussie team piked. That left Andrew and I. We walked in sober while everybody else was well and truly fueled. We knew that before we took offence to the pushing and shouting we needed to get stuck in. I have to say this was probably the best night.

I got back to London one jumper down one flat mate down but a national champion.