Ayelet's Side of the Story

Sequel to Greg's version below. Sorry there are no photos to go along with it. Someone else had the camera that day!

First off, let me say that I obviously did not die, get seriously hurt on my bike, or get attacked by men in lederhosen and women in dirndls. You would have heard about it much sooner.

I took off on my bike, leaving Greg walking in my dust, and headed in the direction of Oktoberfest or Wiesn as it's known to the locals. I made excellent time... helps to have a ton of people to follow, all wearing the conspicuous Bavarian classic outfits. I saw what I thought was the U-bahn sign and followed it away from the festival grounds. And I waited patiently at what I thought was the only exit of the Theresienwiese U-bahn stop for like 45 minutes. Greg and his bright yellow t-shirt never showed up. Finally, I decided that either Greg couldn't figure out the underground and was hopelessly lost OR there was another exit.

I walked along until I saw the other exit! Well, that made more sense. Sadly, by this time, Greg was heading to find the exit I had waited at previously. Long story short, I didn't see him come out of the other exit either and gave up because I figured by that time, he either had returned home or headed over to his work party.

I still enjoyed some time at Oktoberfest because I rode all the way there and it was a beautiful sunny day. Let me just tell you something about Oktoberfest... it is like any other festival, but with SO MANY PEOPLE! And everyone gets into it from the elderly locals to the young hip things to foreigners to expats. EVERYONE.

Most were in the lederhosen or dirndls (or some were in what could only ironically be called dirndls because they hardly covered anything at all and if people in medieval times wore those, they probably would have frozen some very important limbs off). It was fun to see, but there also were down-sides to the festivals. The transit system was packed for 2 weeks straight; the amazing bike lanes here were littered with broken glass; many people drank too much and became disgusting; and the city became generally dirtier because of all the reveling. It's not always been this way as I've heard from some people, but that was my perspective on it at least.