Tidbits

Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…

Like an 8 day drinking party

October 20, 2008, 6:55 am

So went to my second Oktoberfest last Friday, the second one anyways since legal drinking age anyways. I recall my high school bringing us up one year and they had food and folk dancing and it was pretty fun even without booze. The time after that was 2003, still in university. I think we went to the Concordia Club and it was all very.. tame. Food tables, performances of traditional dancing and folk music, some carnival games. Beer was served, of course, but people were mostly just sitting around and chilling. So from these two experiences, I figured Oktoberfest was all fairly folksy and subdued…

Apparently Mike has never gone “real” Oktoberfesting before, and had only gone to the family parade thing in Kitchener previously. We ended up going to Altes Muenchen Haus and because of typical indecision and indecisiveness, we couldn’t get any advanced tickets. We figured we’ll just go and line up a bit and get it at the door. Mike was busy at work and we didn’t end up getting there shortly before 9. We tried to call a taxi, but the line was busy, so ended up driving. There was a short line when we got there, and then we learned that those are people WITH tickets. Basically, advanced tickets are only honoured until 8:30, and if the building is at capacity, they only let you one-by-one as people leave. People without tickets would technically have to wait until everyone with advanced ticket get in first. There were five of us, and we just managed to get just enough from other people in line who had “extras”.

We waited about an hour or so in line, and saw like half a dozen people kicked out for being pissed drunk. And this was before 10. Seriously, they had two security guys literally tossing people out the door, and then leaving them there to stagger home if they could. Some could barely walk… Hmm, what is it like INSIDE?

Then it was just one group in front of us. They moved forward and commotion ensues. Apparently they had some tickets marked “Complementary”, and a manager came out and said that they had to wait until all the paid ticket holders get in first before they would let in complementary ticket holders. By then, the line is more than 50 people long (and it took a hour to get like ten people in). Two of our tickets were marked complementary, which we only noticed after we paid for them… The group in front started fussing, the people behind started pushing forward, and in the chaos we bluffed our way in by stacking our bad tickets with good ones and rushing our way in. Yay luck.

Once in, we made for the only food stall cause we were starving and then onto the beer. Being not a fan of beer, I volunteered to drive. And there really is just drinking there. The feature band, David Wilcox, came on. People were gathered in front of the stage area, dancing and being drunk. The entire floor was slick and wet from spilled booze and there were discarded cups everywhere. It’s a wonder nobody slipped. The ones who do are typically helped up and out by security guards roaming the crowds. The next band, Walter Ostanek, is polka style, and indeed, polka is rather fun when mixed with alcohol…

First drink of the night

3 to 4 later, so much happier...and redder…

Bar closed at 1 am and promptly at 1, they kicked everyone out.

So lessons learned:
1. Always get advanced tickets, otherwise don’t expect to get in at popular venues if tickets are sold out
2. Check your ticket if you buy from scalpers, or if people are giving them away
3. Eat something ahead of time, the food inside is alright, but expensive
4. They have regular alcohol besides beer

Maybe we’ll go again next year…