OKTOBERFEST 2006!!!

September 23rd, 2006. It is that time of year again. Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.

Time for liter-mug beers. Time for polka music. Time for me to break out the leiderhosen.

This was gonna be my third trip to Oktoberfest. So now I'm getting to be a veteran. This year we decided to take a bus trip with good old Nikki. The bus left Aviano around 10pm on Friday night and we drove all night. Most of us slept for at least a couple hours. But it makes for a tough night's sleep when the bus stops just about every hour for breaks. By the time we arrived in Munich I think we were all going on about 3 hours of very unrestful sleep.

As you can tell, a few of us even dressed up for the occasion. I borrowed this leiderhosen from a friend. Stop laughing, the Germans think its cool!

We arrived at the fairgrounds around 8 am and we waited outside the Lowenbrau tent for about an hour. As soon as the doors opened, there was a mad rush of people to try to get to the tables. You must be sitting at a table to get served beer, so real estate is at a premium. But no worries, we had no trouble getting two tables next to each other for our group of about 20 people.

This time Susan even went all out and ordered the traditional Bavarian dress, a dirndle. I believe these were our first beers of the day. Mind you it was only 9:30 am!

If you decide you want to sacrifice some time in the beer tents and go walking around the fairgrounds, you see lots of cool stuff for sale like these gingerbread hearts.

Nothing says Oktoberfest like beer, polka music, and HUGE pretzels!!!

Inside the beer tents its nothing but a huge party. People from all over the world are all sitting together drinking and talking. Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, Americans, Italians and Germans are usually the most prevelant. There are surprisingly very few fights! Those guys in the yellow shirts were from Australia. We happily toasted Steve Irwin with them.

Here are a couple guys in the band.

Here is our lovely waitress. One of the most awesome things to see at Oktoberfest is all the beer girls hauling around 8-10 mugs of beer at a time.

Me and my good friend, Aaron.

Here's where things get blurry. It got to be about 2 in the afternoon and I'd had about 3-4 liters of beer. And I'll remind you that I was going on less than 3 hours of sleep. Apparently I decided I wanted to change out of my leiderhosen and into some jeans. It looks like I started to change, but didn't quite finish. I swear I don't remember any of this.

Yeah. Here I am, passed out at 3 in the afternoon. In front of the bus door. Susan was kind enough to place a gingerbread heart on my chest in case I woke up and was hungry. Don't remember this either. Not my finest moment...

Here's the list of things I don't remember from Oktoberfest:
1. Passing out in front of the bus door.
2. Some big dude picking me up and moving me out of the way so people could get on the bus.
3. Taking off my leiderhosen shirt.
4. Buying that hat and telling everyone that I was a swashbuckler
5. Chipping my tooth - I have no idea how that happened.

So my Oktoberfest ended at about 3 pm this year. Every time I've been to Oktoberfest its always a good time. Looks like this one was my last one for now. I only hope I can make it to another one someday. Those Germans know how to celebrate.

Korea, here I come!

I found out today that by October 2007, I will be moving to Yong San Army Garrison in Seoul, S. Korea. I will be assigned to a small Air Force unit there at the army installation, the 303rd Intelligence Squadron.

I will be leaving Italy in September of 2006. This is when I plan on taking a trip back to the states to see all my friends and family for a few weeks before I head back to Korea for my second tour there.

I have mixed feelings about this. I love Italy. I requested to stay here longer but my request was denied.

There are lots of things I'm going to miss about this country. I've grown accustomed to driving past vineyards to get to work, not skyscrapers. I learned how to snowboard here. I skydived here. I learned a little about wine. I can look outside anytime and see the peaks of the Alps. In 45 minutes I can be in the mountains or at the beach. In 5 hours, I can be in 5 or 6 different countries.

Then of course there are things I won't miss. Life in Italy can be pretty inconvenient at times. You can't go shopping whenever you want, you can't get food anytime you want, and you can't even get gas for your car anytime you want. 'Open 24 hours' is not understood in Italy!!!

Maybe you can't find a store that's open between noon and 4 pm, or on Sunday, or on some other random days of the week. Maybe you'll have to wait weeks just to get you're internet connected. Maybe you have to hunt a waitress down to get your check. Things here are just more relaxed. More laid back. The customer is NOT always right. More often than not, the customer is a nuisance.

But to me, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The irony of Italy is this: The things that make life challenging are the same things that make it great. There is no doubt this is a beautiful country. The landscape, the architecture, the culture, the people (well, most of the people).

So as I look back at my tour here I can say that I've done pretty good at seeing Europe. And as I look ahead to next year I plan to be travelling every weekend possible. You can bet I'll continue to post stories and pics here.

And again, if you want to come visit Susan and I here, the door is always open, but now the clock is ticking!

Coming soon: Pics from Oktoberest 2006 in Munich!!!