The Wholly Unedited Travis Magamoll Post with a Brief Interruption From Your Host

so, i arrive by train via jamlando, philly, amsterdam... to the wonderful land of the hague. I had not slept in a day or so due to the lovely 15 hour flight, but was exicted like no other, dewspite the fact i got lost meeting ted. So i am hanging out at a Subway (go figure) anxiously awaiting ted to answer my email, which i assume will take three hours to go through. none the less ted shows up within half an hour.... nerves calm.

Well at this point its 9am and we need to pick up the car at 4pm, i realize this is not exciting, but it happened. Fast forward through three beers and we pick up the car at AVIS (go figure). Well we pull the car out of the 'drive'. Note: Ted is driving because i cant drive a stick and I have never drove a stick. Also we farggled for it and Ted lost two to three. So after about 12 stalls and roughly 119 "safety honks" we were off to pick up Chris and John.

Fast forward.

We drive 11 hours thorugh the Netherlands and Germany. the Autobahn s fuhn un yeaah. Also you have to pay to use the bathroom, however there are no highway patrolman.

Oktoberfest Day 1:

We take the train to the Theinweise stop, get off and realize this..... We are glad we did not wear "fake" leiderhosen. If we wore the Target or Spencer's Leiderhosen, we would be the flat out laughing stock of Oktoberfest.

So we get there and get int the Paulaner tent. Apparently 10am is about 5 hours late for a prime seat. Well we "luck" out and get a seat next to some crazy ass Austrians "dressed to the nines in Leiderhosen". they buy us a few beers, we buy them a few beers, next thing we now, its getting close to black out central. At this point....

Side note: My family hails from Austria (or Bavaria).

Ted realizes that I have, for the most part, meet my long lost cousins. He's right. They are a spitting image of my family... traditions, food, beer, facile expressions.

Well. We are have a drop down, drag out time.

Honestly: These Bavarians can flat out drink. We were not challenging them, but we had no chance.

Fast Forward: We have been drinking pints, however, we got called up to the "Majors". Chris got us a seat at 2pm in the HB tent where they bring the funk. Funk meaning the 32oz beer mugs.

New narrator:

I think Travis understates the wrath of the Dutch. I was the only person who could drive stick and the autobahn sat an hour drive away. The Dutch are a rule oriented people. They do not like it when you can't figure out the difference between first and third gear. First versus third, that's easy enough. Yeah buddy, it's real easy when you are used to pulling the stick back for reverse and forward for first gear but how cool are you when reverse and first are next door neighbors? We ultimately figured out that reverse has a trigger much like the joystick on an Atari. In the meantime, I stalled out about twelve times while everyone tried to keep their cool and the smell of the clutch took my anxiety through the roof.

Driving through Germany takes the cake. It gets better as the trip progresses but the countryside is stunning. Castles and churches abound. Lush green fields and windmills yield to the foothills of the Bavarian Alps on their way to the red carpet of the world's most famous beer festival.

Back to Travis:

yes. ditto. Ted totally drove like Jimmy Johnson to germany (just kidding, like Mark Martin). Well lets wrap up Oktoberfest with a timetble:

Day 1:

10am: get there, amazing.
11am: rage with Austrians
12pm: still raging with Austrians. they can drink
1pm.