EA Radio Episode # 7 - The Dos & Don'ts Of Oktoberfest with Laura

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The Dos & Don'ts Of Oktoberfest with Laura (Show Transcript)

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guten tag willkommen this is Scott from extraordinary adventures and you're listening to the seventh episode of yay radio we're again joined by my wife Laura say hi Laura hi today we go back to Deutschland for part two of our series all about the Oktoberfest celebration in Munich Germany last time we chatted about our overall experience today we want to give you actionable advice for when you go yourself so we've compiled a list of do's and don'ts of Oktoberfest you ready look yes I am let's go so we're gonna start with the do's and the first do is to wear traditional German captain I'm ready for Scott yeah okay yes shirt Rockton what am i said so everyone we're fine everyone wears it so don't feel like you're gonna like be Dom like should I be a stupid American wearing this yes you should everyone everyone wears it it's not stupid in fact we did not wear it and we'll get to the reason why we didn't wear it when we get into the don'ts but we didn't wear it and we felt stupid we were completely out of place like everyone wears traditional German clothing for men that's gonna be a later hosen from women that's gonna be a dirndl so that is the first do is to make sure that you wear German what touches on what we talked about last episode where Oktoberfest is not a foreigners event it's a local event it's a Bavarian event so you know when you're sitting here in the States and you're looking over there and thinking I don't want to be that tourist they're not even thinking about you they're thinking about themselves it's not about you and it's not about inviting people I mean they they welcome people but it's about them and it's about their tradition and they all wear they very much all wear so yeah like she said do do where the track then we didn't and we regretted it because now all of our photos are in American style clothing and it's you we stood out we stood out like a sore thumb almost all the other people where you know the traditional chopping the next do yes let's do eat and I'll tell you this one because I made this mistake that's why I'm gonna do that in short one this one mm-hmm I started out that morning as I said last episode or tea with a beer hand I think I must have a little breakfast like something that we got train station and we went in and walked around a bit with the bathroom did whatever and then we found our friend Jake's group we're immediately beers were put in our hands but he did have a spread of food on the table as well which I hate which I had like a little pretzel whatever I wasn't hungry yet because we had just had breakfast and I'll just see later I think somebody shoves a Jager shot in my hand and after my three beers I'm a Jager shot well beer is pretty filling so I was kind of full and maybe had a few other bites of some other stuff but then I another beer and then at some point we left that tent and remember when when we say beer yeah the beers our leader beers which are the equivalent of three beers so when he said he had four beers that's the equivalent of 12 beers was it for you said third and then you got the fourth you just said it no I said I got the first on the way then Jake chef did another one on my hand and then with that I had the air oh and then I got my next beer okay no fourth and you get it I will get to my fourth in the story I didn't get to it yeah and when we're done this recording this we go back and listen one of us it's gonna be rough I'm sure you do really bad can we focus so then we go and then we leave the tent like Jake's group all leave and then they go somewhere else and we wind up in the hospital yeah where you could drink at the pig correct and we had more beer and then by the way this whole thing starts around noon for us I mean maybe for everybody else started even earlier nine ten but for us it's right around noon and I think by six seven o'clock I don't even remember who I was anymore and then she had to get me back to the hotel my video tape but so we went actually I think until closing the show they stopped selling beer at 10:30 at night I thought I was early remember now of course why would I remember we were there for a very long time the reason I know we went because Jake Jake's tour ended at five o'clock I think and we were there for an hour and you know how it is when you get drunk time just lets father what happened oh I think we were there until the very end so long story short I did wake up the next day I was not feeling very good I'm not feeling very good and that was when I realized that I hadn't eaten like anything at all that day I mean a little breakfast a few bites here and there at twelve o'clock but you need to eat it's a long day and you're basically if you starved yourself without any beer how full would you I mean I'm sorry how starving would you feel you'd be starving low blood sugar etc centre beer doesn't fix that it just masks it so you wake up the next day and you're just a mess so definitely do also eat because the food there is great and you don't wanna miss the opportunity to try all those German delicacies so that's the eating Europe so the next view is to book your hotel accommodation early when I mean early I'm almost like a year and advance early we booked in the hotel opens up its availability perfect we booked in December for the following September and it was still around three hundred and fifty dollars a night and we had to pay it in full there were no there was a non-refundable hotel fee because hotels can get up too easily thousand dollars a night fifteen hundred dollars a night a friends on what you are correct well then that's another one of our no you're touching it oh I am so okay your other option is if you don't book early you can stay in garmisch-partenkirchen which is a town now now we're outside Munich for like $75 a night super cheap and then you just take the train in the bad thing with that is that the Train takes about an hour each way so if you're drunk an hour on the train going home is probably not the best thing like you said the time flies like when we came back from our UK I mean like how drunk are you but that's gonna lead you are one of our don'ts anyway so book your hotel early and but if you don't book your hotel early there are other options even if you do just to save some money right you could stay outside of time you don't even have to go as far as Garmisch but you need to get far enough away that the rates start dropping right but there you know that's some planning advice and stuff and um that's why you maybe hire a travel advisory um okay so the other thing people might tell you is to go during the week for the Oktoberfest celebration the reason for that is because Germans have to work just cuz it's a big holiday now some of them do take off for that week but well I didn't go back to work for the day um and it's true it will be less busy Monday through Friday however do you go for opening day opening day like we touched on last time there's the parade there's the mayor that's popping the keg there's a lot of excitement a lot of hoopla you're going to Oktoberfest for the experience don't worry so much about the liens whether there are lines or not just go go and be a part of the crowd and do whatever you got to do to see the experience to be authentic to immerse yourself in what Germans do so definitely definitely definitely go opening day right yeah there's there's great parades and they bring the horses into the tent area and they don't do that any other day so if you want the full experience I really do recommend going on they do it on the last day as they're leaving but I'm not sure about that either but no we wear our devvra yeah so the next do is actually to bring your family believe it or not a lot of people think that Oktoberfest is just for getting drunk but it's super family-friendly and there are rides and it's like a carnival and it's very safe so I highly do recommend bringing your family we actually had a client who wanted to go to Oktoberfest but she didn't think that it would she didn't want to bring her grandchildren because she didn't think it was gonna be family-friendly and we're like no it well Scott was like it's totally family friendly it's it's really family friendly there's so many rides in some of the attractions and so many things to do that you totally should bring your family to the Oktoberfest yeah that's the next dude Scott uh go back twice now back-to-back but go back twice um if you spend all day getting drunk you're not gonna more personally that that's the main reason why you're not gonna want to go back to the back but you're also your first day you shouldn't be about getting drunk anyway should be about exploring the place going on that opening day having a beer or two walk in the grounds learning where everything is in a mostly sober way and really appreciating the festival forward it is two three four or five hours tops then some other day in the trip make it a full oktoberfest day where you get up early and you go in with everybody else and you make sure you have some other ride home so you don't have to worry about that but we keep talking about getting drunk and I'm gonna go ahead and just jump into the dome real quick don't get too drunk like I did I had my wife there with me to protect me but what if because she was drinking her inhibitions were lower what if you got away from her too and now you're in a strange country and expectant Beach in Dutch I'm assuming that you guys don't speak a little German I might have been able to get by could you what are you doing a foreign country if it goes worse than that if you have alcohol poisoning now you go to the hospital you really want to go to a hospital in foreign country you even want to go to the hospital when you're a year in America I don't think you do so just be careful you know drink responsibly well remember you're not gonna drive you taking a taxi or a train so responsibly can go up a notch but still try to be somewhat responsible because again you're in a foreign country so I mean while it is definitely safe I do have a friend who went to Oktoberfest and got so drunk that he did hit early pass out on the grassy hill and he was pickpocketed and they probably do yeah but two other people saw it and literally attacked the Big Bopper like completely strangers got the guy's wallet back and then woke him up because he was passed out and told him that he was pickpocketed and here's his wallet back I mean could you imagine like if it was your passport how would you get home you know right so we know it fingers we know a thing about to or about somebody losing our passport but we'll talk about that in some other episodes speaking of another episode it's another podcaster told the story about Oktoberfest where she went with a group of friends so it's her and a few girls and a few guys and they're all in there let's say their mid to late 20s I'll go and have a good time and one guy got too drunk and he headed left the zig left when everyone was zag and right and got separated from the group he's drunk and the place is not small as we've gone over it's very large and there's a lot of people there and he got lost he didn't know where he was and he couldn't find his group and it took him hours to find each other they were lucky to find each other at all yeah now imagine you're drunk in a foreign land and you get separated from your group I I wouldn't wanna be in that situation so that's that's that dome so let's go back to our dues correct so one last thing I do want to attention is they're going back to back they're going twice but not back to back we went and toured munich during the day and then we went back to Oktoberfest and the night because it's a great place to get food I mean they have a lot of great vendors and they were inexpensive vendors we're calling your nightlife so yeah they toured then you go there for your night yeah those are nightlife except for that one day right um okay so the next do is as we mentioned it is a carnival and there are lots of rides the do is do do ride the rides before you get too drunk there were lots of people riding the rides that were drunk and you could see that yeah and we're not talking tame ride some of these rides are like I can't believe that going that sober but yeah yeah so that's definitely going to terrorize before that and then definitely do check the weather yeah it's Germany so you're not expecting it's gonna be warm but you're also thinking that it's late September so you're thinking it's not gonna be that cold well there were some nights where we weren't really dressed appropriately and thank goodness that they had heat lamps on in those tents because it got downright cold yeah I just checked the weather pack accordingly pack pack layers make sure you dress in layers you can always take them off I've got chilly we also were told that sometimes it's so hot that you it you just have to check the weather some time some years in October end of September beginning of October it can be very very hot in others it can be very cold so just check the weather and dress appropriately so and what shouldn't you do doctor good zones so we did mention in the news to wear the traditional German trucked in but the don't is don't buy your trucked in in Germany so we went to Germany thinking oh wow it would be so cool if we bought our later hosen and their dirndl while we were in germany like we do with our cuckoo clocks we went down to Bavaria we want a cuckoo clock and that we know that when it sits on our wall that we bought it in Germany and we're looking at it and that kind of adds a layer right but in this case so the thing is everyone is thinking to do that exact same thing as you are and all of the trapped in shops know this and they jack the prices up really high and there are our long waits just to get into the dresser man to try the truck tent on and it just became so chaotic and such a cause for stress for me personally that I was like forget it I don't care I don't want it and so the do is buy your dirndl or your later hose in ahead of time in the United States and bring it with you to Germany yeah nothing else to sound that if you do live here in the local Orlando area we can give you some recommendations but if you have any German towns near where you live there might very well be a German restaurant or a German shop which might be selling this stuff so if you've been again if you live here in Orlando area email us at info at my extraordinary adventures calm that's info at my extraordinary adventures calm or call us at three five two five three six one five eight one is three five two five three six one five and we'll be happy to tell you where to go get some great trucked in for your trip correct you can also buy it on Amazon yeah you can but it's fun to try that stuff on I fitted for it especially for the lederhosen the dirndl is maybe our the journal journals are pretty cloth the later hose under made out of sheepskin yeah so I think I'd want to get fit for that well and for me too I tried to buy some on Amazon and I just kept sending them back to get Amazon and support local so I think the next don't we mentioned earlier in the other episode in a little bit here when I try to go the first morning I had a beer in my hand and I figured just walking on the streets of Germany you can have an opening open package open carry whatever it's called and I got stopped at the gate and they forced me to finish the beer I finished beer and then I walked onto the property and then I went to the tent well turns out you can drink in the tent and you can't walk out of the tent you can walk to the front patio area but you can't what so in other words you can drink everywhere and you drink in the tents but the little space between the tent and the streets that area you can't drink it it's very odd so do not try to bring your beer out of the tent you're not trying to wring water in the tent you're not trying to bring water up beer onto the grounds because they have some strict rules about that stuff and again there are cops and dogs and everything everywhere you won't get away with anything right don't dry well and they're speaking to you in German so it's not like you're gonna even be able to understand what they're trying to say to you so just don't take your beer out of the tent finish your beer before you leave the tent and all will be well and don't try to sneak it in under your jacket we saw people getting busted the German cops are not like American cops they're not worried about PC yeah I've gotta find something on you if they want to find something on you so just don't try it just your best bet just don't try it the next tone is don't believe it or not don't expect to stay out all night and that was one thing I was actually really pretty shocked about I thought Oktoberfest was a drinking party and it's actually not so the tents actually stopped serving beer at 10:30 at night and it's a hard close at 11:30 everybody out by 11:30 p.m. so like in here in Orlando the bar is closed it 2:00 a.m. but that's not the case there well the bars I don't know but Oktoberfest itself hard clothes and stops selling beer at 10:30 no probably just the opposite in Berlin anyway I don't know if because here county by county isn't liquor lures in Berlin the bars don't even get going until 2:00 in the morning so my guess is that bars did not close right they just throw you out of there but I guess for the we're talking about this podcast don't expect to be in Oktoberfest till 2 o'clock morning it ain't gonna happen bar closed at 11:30 everybody else and you're not gonna need an after-party cuz you're gonna be too messed up anyway you just go right and there's a good thing because you gotta start drinking again at 10 o'clock in the morning what do they open the door we're gonna leave 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning they open up so that's the part of the reason why people can't go till 2:00 in the morning because they've already been there for 10-12 hours right they don't start drinking a forward walk in the afternoon ok so then that's that one don't be afraid to walk around late at night um Europe is different in America Amerika muggings and it's a lot of this violent crime and stuff your tends to be a lot of pickpockets yes a mugging some whatever but it tends to be a lot of pickpockets so you're generally speaking you already a little safer there than you are in some of the major cities here in America but on top of that again the police presence is insane like I said I was this episode of previous one when we left the hair yeah you walk out you walk down this this path like the sidewalk and then and like there's people with you every step of the way there's cops with you every step of the way and then you get eventually to the train station where this cops more cops then you go down the escalator and stairs and there's more cops it's it's very very safe you have like armed guards all the way home don't be afraid to walk around at night there you should you'll be perfectly fine and then during the day totally safe totally safe so the next one is don't forget to tip your server so they the barmaids cuz they're all women they're not I don't think there were some men there were some men but you're right is a lot me yeah older women carry crazy crazy heavy stuff I don't know how they do it but um their work for tips yeah so please tip them and just like a euro a beer would work but just don't forget to tip them so and don't stiff them these have you sniff them you're sniffing them they carry a bank and they go and they buy the beer and then they get reimbursed by you and there they keep all their money if you sniff them they just pay $12 for your beer right so pay your bill so you're not screwing some other person because you're not be screwing over a company or a country you be screwing over that person right so don't screw a person over and definitely tip right and then don't bring a bag this one on remembers well as flora so I don't know why it's my turn so you go sure so they were very strict when you walked into the security they really didn't want people with bags probably because they could carry an explosive device or a gun or what have you so they really really did not want you to bring a bag and so ladies don't bring a purse don't bring a fanny pack don't bring a backpack but carry ID but do carry ID so one great thing that we purchased was a Scottevest and I know that that's getting a little off-topic here because it's not specific to rubber fest but a Scottevest is either jacket or a vest there's lots of hidden pockets in it and you it has an RFID blocker and you could very safely hide your passport in your vest and nobody would ever know that you had it and no one would ever be able to pickpocket because it's hidden so well in that you can't get to it so that's what we did and it worked really well so and lastly we have one last do don't do / don't and that is either whether you want to reserve a seat in a tents or not reserve a seat in a tent and that comes completely up to you and your preference what your preference needs to be based on information which we're gonna provide for you right now before having never gone there I wouldn't have known I would have thought I wanted a seat for sure I would have thought that I want to be in a tent having gone now we did both because Jake invited us to be at one of his tables but the table is in the more popular tents like the hofbraeuhaus or pollen or whatever they're so crowded I mean you you I don't know how you go to the bathrooms how to get out there was a wall here the tables like you'd have to go I think people stood on the walk over the wall patches and walked on I don't it's not the most comfortable thing in the world is what I'm saying well and also if you go into the HB tent the hot brown tent as long as you have a finger on the tables in the pit area then you're served a beer so it didn't really matter if you had reservations or not because as long as you were touching the table then you've got a beer it really all depends on your preference and also I will say to actually like reserve a seat for free is really hard to do because you have to write in and send a letter and request so which isn't gonna happen and you have to do it like yours in but you can get there before the reservation time so you can get there at noon but that's if you want to have beers at noon right so you can either do it before the reservation time or you can pay a company like Jake and all things garnished and he's already done the hard work and gotten the tent and the table reservation and there are other companies out there that will do something very similar so it really just depends on your preference I'll also say that sitting inside might seem like that's where the action is but aside from the band and all the people eating and drinking there's nothing else going on inside inside is eating drinking and listening to the band correct that's it so if you sit outside the outside beer garden you get the same food the same beer you don't hear the band as well and I think you have some music pumped in and remember right now but then you can see everything that's going on outside where all the rides are and all the people and all the pretzel stands and all the all the games and all of everything the action really happens outside of the tent so there's something to be said about just sitting outside now of course that you know 8 o'clock 9 o'clock at night and the Sun sets it could get chilly very soon I think both were fun and I probably would actually recommend doing both but again it just completely depends on you and your preferences so you have to know what you would like you know yeah so that's sort of it for today this show I'm sure there are ton more do's and don'ts of Oktoberfest that we didn't touch on here and if you have any email the show at info at - shortener ventures calm and tell us your do's and don'ts of Oktoberfest because I'm sure we miss them but overall Oktoberfest is a fantastic time one of the things you should put on your bucket list to do sometime in your life if not several times we're ready to go back we were there like I said two years ago and we go back tomorrow if we could but it's not in the cards this year we're gonna go next year perhaps but that's it that's our two-part series on the Oktoberfest celebration in Munich Germany I hope you enjoyed it until next time this is Scott from extraordinary adventures thanking you for tuning in and reminding you to share the show on Facebook and Twitter please give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our use YouTube channel we strive to offer valuable information that everyone could benefit from so please spread the word and don't forget to email the show with your questions or travel stories or anything else time permitting we're gonna read them on the show and if you would like us to give out your name and where you're from we'll do that as well we'll give you a big shout out and it helps to keep the show more interactive more of a conversation as opposed to just the two of us or even myself just giving a monologue so we hope to hear from you soon we'll catch you on the next episode of EA radio stay tuned for it bye everyone I know but I was gonna have you say
[Laughter]
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