DJFC goes to Oktoberfest and almost Dies - Nubblies.net Forums

DJ FC · 09-29-2010, 04:28 AM

A coworker of mine asked if I wanted to go to Oktoberfest.

He asked quite a few of the people in my office, and initially it looked like we'd have a very large group. So about 6 of us started putting our heads together and looking for flights and hotels in Munich for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest. I was probably the 2nd most gung-ho about going (behind my roommate Mike).

Weekend trips to Europe are fairly common for us. Bring your bags to the office on Friday, leave a bit early and hop on a flight to somewhere overhyped and deceivingly expensive. You arrive late Friday and go out. But you're tired because you've worked all week and have just done a bit of traveling. On Saturday you can do one of two things: get up fairly early (9-10am) and go sight-seeing, or sleep in a bit and meet your mates for lunch around 1pm. Then you go see some tourist shit and prepare for the evening. The evening is the reason you travel. You go out and get drunk/try to buy some pot/cause general distress. Go to clubs and meet hot local women. The dream is to hook up with a hot foreign girl, but this rarely happens because you're A) most likely sharing a hotel room with a friend and B) only in the country for one night - which is a major turn off for most women. Sunday you fly home and wonder where all your money went. I've done this trip many, many times. Here's a rough list:

Paris (several times)
Dublin
Galway
Cardiff
Brighton
Edinburgh
Barcelona
Bologna
Bratislava (several times)
Munich (several times)
Stockholm
Oslo (twice)
Amsterdam (several times)
Brussels
Luxembourg
Lisbon

and a couple others. It's always roughly the same trip.

So we put some numbers together and it's looking expensive - probably 400 GBP for flight and hotel per person. "400 bucks for one day!? Count me out." Says one coworker who tends to be a general pain in the ass. Because of this comment, people started dropping out. This domino effect continued until it appeared that the trip wouldn't happen at all.

But this isn't just a weekend trip - this is OKTOBERFEST. It was an event I wanted to go to not for a fun weekend, but to say I've been. Kind of a bucket-list type event. So Mike says what the hell - let's go. I agree. Turns out 2 of his friends from another, similar firm are going with 3 of their friends. Now we have a posse.

400 bucks cha ching, spent and gone. Once it's a sunk cost you don't care about it anymore and you're just excited for Munich. We mark it on the calendar and wait. 2 LOOOOONG weeks. Actually went to Stockholm the weekend before - but that was just a practice run. The girls in Stockholm are amazing by the way.

6pm flight London to Munich. Mike gets sick on the plane and stays in the hotel room. I go out and meet the other guys and we head to the Lowenbrau beer hall for some refreshing Bavarian lager. We talk about the next day. I knew we were going to be serious about this - it's Oktoberfest. I thought we'd wake up at 9am to try to get to a beer tent before 10.

"Let's try to be at the Schottenhamel tent before 6am, last year I got there just after 6:30 am and didn't get in."

Holy crap these guys are hardcore - I love it. I text mike that we're waking up at 4:45 (it is currently just before midnight) and he replies: "Are you serious?"

Wake up at 4:45. Dress, and meet the guys at the Burger King.

Walk to the festival grounds. I'm tired, but god-damned excited I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas day. We find the Schottenhamel tent and it's already teeming with 16 year old Germans. Hundreds of them.

There are 2 doors.

Here's a diagram of the door we chose to approach:

At 6am, when everybody desperately wants to get into the main tent of the opening ceremony of the 200th anniversary of the Oktoberfest, there is no order. It's pure chaos. There is no line. Just a crowd. And the crowd is ROUGH. We take our places in a narrow corridor outside the tent and wait. LOTS of people show up. And they start shoving their way to the front. At first they made good progress. But after a while, the crowd was so dense it physically couldn't handle any more bodies. You were as close to the people around you as could be possible. To my left was a group of American girls. They were mostly average at best. But one caught my eye and I swear over the course of that day I fell in love with her. But alas she lives in Munich and I don't think feels the same about me. Nevertheless I will try to stay in touch with her as best I can. She's freaking awesome. Here's a picture:

So the crowd is so dense that if you raise your hands, you can't put them back down. Small girls begin to complain about being crushed and inability to breathe. It's starting to get seriously old. You couldn't leave if you wanted to because everybody is shoving you.

Door 1 opens and the crowd goes into a frenzy. We're talking insane panic mode. People start shoving so hard it's downright rude. People are being let into the tent!!! Everybody wants in because if you don't get in in time you don't get a table. And if you don't have a table you can't be served. And that would be donkey-cock.

So I get shoved almost to the entrance, just outside door 2. And lucky me - door 2 begins to open. YAY!

Except that's bad. Very, very bad for me. Because door 2 has to open into the crowd and then close flat against the wall. And we're not talking about a small door here- this thing is probably over 100 pounds of solid wood. A big fucking Bavarian door. So it's opening and I'm trying to get out of the way. But the only way out is back into the crowd, and that's getting harder and harder as my exit is getting smaller and smaller. At first I think nothing of it. The door is opening - great.

But then my back's against the wall. And the door is being shoved toward me. Hold up guys I'm still in the way. The crowd doesn't care. It's in such a frenzy it will shove and push anybody in it's way. So I begin to push back and try to get some breathing room. I'm pushing as hard as I can against the door and trying to escape to the left. But despite my entire strength, the door is still coming my way. Now I'm suddenly filled with fear. I'm doing all I can and this door is still coming toward me, it's going to crush me against the wall.

And a crowd of hundreds of Germans can't do anything about it because the crowd is so aggressive and frenzied. There is a girl to my left. I shove her out. She's relieved, but begins to worry about me - and begins to cry. I can feel the door start to crush me - and I'm scared for my life. I begin to scream for help.

Help! This is unreasonable! Help me! Somebody fucking help me! I'm giong to be crushed to death, don't you get it!?

As hard as I push against this door, it's still coming toward me. I debate going the opposite way into a crack between the door and wall, but I don't know if this crack will be big enough for my head - I could die there too.

A couple of people grab the door, but it's not much help as they don't have the anchoring to grab the door. And everybody is being shoved into the door rather than away from it.

There is a crowd of hundreds of people shoving a door and I'm the only thing in between it and a flat wall. Jesus Christ I'm going to die.

Well I didn't die. And enough people were able to get their hands on the door to allow me to slowly squeeze out. At one point my shoulder was pinned behind the door and I was so amazingly relieved that my shoulder would be crushed but at least I'd be alive. I saved my shoulder too. Somehow.

Now both doors are open and the crowd is in such a mood that it cant be stopped. All security breaks down and people bum-rush the tent. I ran in just as fast as anybody. No way in hell I'm staying in that crowd.

I ran in, sat down. And waited.

And waited.

For 5 hours.

Then we got beers.

The mayor of Munich tapped the first keg at noon. Everybody was happy.

I was exhausted, worried, nervous, excited, tired, and hungry. But there wasn't much to eat. So I drank instead. I fell in love. Then got so drunk I started being an idiot. But so was everybody. We all blacked out.

Woke up at 11 not that hung over. Because I didn't actually drink that much - I got drunk from being tired and not eating. On Sunday we did it all over again - except this time we could casually walk into a beer tent of our chosing. By 10pm I was wasted flying home. Got home at 2:00 am and told my coworkers I'd be late for work on Monday. I stole a liter beer mug from the airport.

The end.

Ugly Bastard · 09-29-2010, 09:57 AM

That sounds like absolute hell. Did the stampede at that German techno festival that killed a bunch of people cross your mind?

Beebs · 09-29-2010, 10:48 AM

I would be beyond control after waiting for 5 hours.

Orgazmo · 09-29-2010, 11:54 AM

The techno fest thing was all I could think about while reading that.

I'm glad you weren't crushed.

DJ FC · 09-29-2010, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ugly Bastard

That sounds like absolute hell. Did the stampede at that German techno festival that killed a bunch of people cross your mind?

Yes. It seemed like such a poor way to die too. Crushed to death by 18 year olds while sober at Oktoberfest.

SittinOnDubsWGW · 09-29-2010, 06:40 PM

How would you rate the experience from 1-10?

THEINCREDIBLEdork · 09-29-2010, 09:03 PM

Thats insane. I think being trampled by a crowd would be one of the worst ways to die. Not because it would be more painful than any other death, but because its so senseless. The way people behave in large groups disgusts me. No brains.

DJ FC · 09-30-2010, 02:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SittinOnDubsWGW

How would you rate the experience from 1-10?

Overall: 7
Almost being crushed: 9

09-29-2010, 04:28 AM	#1 (permalink)
DJ FC MURICAN Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Virginia Posts: 5,136 Internets: 253094	DJFC goes to Oktoberfest and almost Dies A coworker of mine asked if I wanted to go to Oktoberfest. He asked quite a few of the people in my office, and initially it looked like we'd have a very large group. So about 6 of us started putting our heads together and looking for flights and hotels in Munich for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest. I was probably the 2nd most gung-ho about going (behind my roommate Mike). Weekend trips to Europe are fairly common for us. Bring your bags to the office on Friday, leave a bit early and hop on a flight to somewhere overhyped and deceivingly expensive. You arrive late Friday and go out. But you're tired because you've worked all week and have just done a bit of traveling. On Saturday you can do one of two things: get up fairly early (9-10am) and go sight-seeing, or sleep in a bit and meet your mates for lunch around 1pm. Then you go see some tourist shit and prepare for the evening. The evening is the reason you travel. You go out and get drunk/try to buy some pot/cause general distress. Go to clubs and meet hot local women. The dream is to hook up with a hot foreign girl, but this rarely happens because you're A) most likely sharing a hotel room with a friend and B) only in the country for one night - which is a major turn off for most women. Sunday you fly home and wonder where all your money went. I've done this trip many, many times. Here's a rough list: Paris (several times) Dublin Galway Cardiff Brighton Edinburgh Barcelona Bologna Bratislava (several times) Munich (several times) Stockholm Oslo (twice) Amsterdam (several times) Brussels Luxembourg Lisbon and a couple others. It's always roughly the same trip. So we put some numbers together and it's looking expensive - probably 400 GBP for flight and hotel per person. "400 bucks for one day!? Count me out." Says one coworker who tends to be a general pain in the ass. Because of this comment, people started dropping out. This domino effect continued until it appeared that the trip wouldn't happen at all. But this isn't just a weekend trip - this is OKTOBERFEST. It was an event I wanted to go to not for a fun weekend, but to say I've been. Kind of a bucket-list type event. So Mike says what the hell - let's go. I agree. Turns out 2 of his friends from another, similar firm are going with 3 of their friends. Now we have a posse. 400 bucks cha ching, spent and gone. Once it's a sunk cost you don't care about it anymore and you're just excited for Munich. We mark it on the calendar and wait. 2 LOOOOONG weeks. Actually went to Stockholm the weekend before - but that was just a practice run. The girls in Stockholm are amazing by the way. 6pm flight London to Munich. Mike gets sick on the plane and stays in the hotel room. I go out and meet the other guys and we head to the Lowenbrau beer hall for some refreshing Bavarian lager. We talk about the next day. I knew we were going to be serious about this - it's Oktoberfest. I thought we'd wake up at 9am to try to get to a beer tent before 10. "Let's try to be at the Schottenhamel tent before 6am, last year I got there just after 6:30 am and didn't get in." Holy crap these guys are hardcore - I love it. I text mike that we're waking up at 4:45 (it is currently just before midnight) and he replies: "Are you serious?" Wake up at 4:45. Dress, and meet the guys at the Burger King. Walk to the festival grounds. I'm tired, but god-damned excited I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas day. We find the Schottenhamel tent and it's already teeming with 16 year old Germans. Hundreds of them. There are 2 doors. Here's a diagram of the door we chose to approach: At 6am, when everybody desperately wants to get into the main tent of the opening ceremony of the 200th anniversary of the Oktoberfest, there is no order. It's pure chaos. There is no line. Just a crowd. And the crowd is ROUGH. We take our places in a narrow corridor outside the tent and wait. LOTS of people show up. And they start shoving their way to the front. At first they made good progress. But after a while, the crowd was so dense it physically couldn't handle any more bodies. You were as close to the people around you as could be possible. To my left was a group of American girls. They were mostly average at best. But one caught my eye and I swear over the course of that day I fell in love with her. But alas she lives in Munich and I don't think feels the same about me. Nevertheless I will try to stay in touch with her as best I can. She's freaking awesome. Here's a picture: So the crowd is so dense that if you raise your hands, you can't put them back down. Small girls begin to complain about being crushed and inability to breathe. It's starting to get seriously old. You couldn't leave if you wanted to because everybody is shoving you. Door 1 opens and the crowd goes into a frenzy. We're talking insane panic mode. People start shoving so hard it's downright rude. People are being let into the tent!!! Everybody wants in because if you don't get in in time you don't get a table. And if you don't have a table you can't be served. And that would be donkey-cock. So I get shoved almost to the entrance, just outside door 2. And lucky me - door 2 begins to open. YAY! Except that's bad. Very, very bad for me. Because door 2 has to open into the crowd and then close flat against the wall. And we're not talking about a small door here- this thing is probably over 100 pounds of solid wood. A big fucking Bavarian door. So it's opening and I'm trying to get out of the way. But the only way out is back into the crowd, and that's getting harder and harder as my exit is getting smaller and smaller. At first I think nothing of it. The door is opening - great. But then my back's against the wall. And the door is being shoved toward me. Hold up guys I'm still in the way. The crowd doesn't care. It's in such a frenzy it will shove and push anybody in it's way. So I begin to push back and try to get some breathing room. I'm pushing as hard as I can against the door and trying to escape to the left. But despite my entire strength, the door is still coming my way. Now I'm suddenly filled with fear. I'm doing all I can and this door is still coming toward me, it's going to crush me against the wall. And a crowd of hundreds of Germans can't do anything about it because the crowd is so aggressive and frenzied. There is a girl to my left. I shove her out. She's relieved, but begins to worry about me - and begins to cry. I can feel the door start to crush me - and I'm scared for my life. I begin to scream for help. Help! This is unreasonable! Help me! Somebody fucking help me! I'm giong to be crushed to death, don't you get it!? As hard as I push against this door, it's still coming toward me. I debate going the opposite way into a crack between the door and wall, but I don't know if this crack will be big enough for my head - I could die there too. A couple of people grab the door, but it's not much help as they don't have the anchoring to grab the door. And everybody is being shoved into the door rather than away from it. There is a crowd of hundreds of people shoving a door and I'm the only thing in between it and a flat wall. Jesus Christ I'm going to die. Well I didn't die. And enough people were able to get their hands on the door to allow me to slowly squeeze out. At one point my shoulder was pinned behind the door and I was so amazingly relieved that my shoulder would be crushed but at least I'd be alive. I saved my shoulder too. Somehow. Now both doors are open and the crowd is in such a mood that it cant be stopped. All security breaks down and people bum-rush the tent. I ran in just as fast as anybody. No way in hell I'm staying in that crowd. I ran in, sat down. And waited. And waited. For 5 hours. Then we got beers. The mayor of Munich tapped the first keg at noon. Everybody was happy. I was exhausted, worried, nervous, excited, tired, and hungry. But there wasn't much to eat. So I drank instead. I fell in love. Then got so drunk I started being an idiot. But so was everybody. We all blacked out. Woke up at 11 not that hung over. Because I didn't actually drink that much - I got drunk from being tired and not eating. On Sunday we did it all over again - except this time we could casually walk into a beer tent of our chosing. By 10pm I was wasted flying home. Got home at 2:00 am and told my coworkers I'd be late for work on Monday. I stole a liter beer mug from the airport. The end.
	The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them. Last edited by DJ FC; 09-29-2010 at 04:35 AM.

09-29-2010, 09:03 PM	#7 (permalink)
THEINCREDIBLEdork Emperor Meow Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 9,352 Internets: 290966	Thats insane. I think being trampled by a crowd would be one of the worst ways to die. Not because it would be more painful than any other death, but because its so senseless. The way people behave in large groups disgusts me. No brains.
	#YOLO

09-29-2010, 09:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ugly Bastard Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 13,643 Internets: 247330	That sounds like absolute hell. Did the stampede at that German techno festival that killed a bunch of people cross your mind?

09-29-2010, 10:48 AM	#3 (permalink)
Beebs Poor Sport Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Indianapolis / Middlebury / Long Lake Posts: 5,306 Internets: 127341	I would be beyond control after waiting for 5 hours.

09-29-2010, 11:54 AM	#4 (permalink)
Orgazmo COME ON YOU YANKS Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Indiana Posts: 15,730 Internets: 311447	The techno fest thing was all I could think about while reading that. I'm glad you weren't crushed.

09-29-2010, 06:40 PM	#6 (permalink)
SittinOnDubsWGW I make bad decisions. Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: The Desert Posts: 3,018 Internets: 108015	How would you rate the experience from 1-10?