Wies'n 2002 - Various

(Click the thumbnails for the bigger picture.)

During the fest I took a lot of photos in various places. Some at the Wies'n and some elsewhere. Basically the elsewhere shots were taken on the days when it was either just impossible to get in anywhere or we were in recovery mode so avoided it like the plague. So here they are in no particular order. Well, except for the fact that I've put the shots from when my parents were here first, because otherwise they'd kill me. And the shots of cute girls later on because otherwise Kathrin would kill me. And the shot of the "Auf Wiedersehen" banner last because that makes sense. But apart from that they're in no particular order

Mum & Dad in Ligsalz on the Thursday night. Dad had a long indepth conversation with Udo, the owner. Which considering that he doesn't speak German and Udo doesn't speak English was no mean feat.

Kathrin & Mum all Dirndl'd up.

On the middle Friday we headed to the Wies'n at about 2:30 (Chinese dentist time). In hindsight that was crazy since a couple of hundred thousand Italians had just arrived and everywhere was full. We went into and wandered around pretty much every tent and there wasn't a seat to be had for love nor money. And as I've said before, no seat means no beer. So we did the sensible thing and headed off to the Augustiner on Arnulfstraße, met up with Bernd & Liz and did some damage to some very palatable beers.

Heidi. Nuff said.

Saturday we did the sensible thing and headed down at about 11am. As it happens this wasn't early enough. Augustiner closed its doors at 11:30 because they were totally full and the others followed suit soon after.

Kathrin was definitely proving to be something of a tourist attraction. These two Italian lads just wanted a photo, others went as far as proposing marriage as she walked past them.

Another victim crashed out on the grass.

I just take the pictures and try to explain the events. But some things defy explanation. Like this shot for example of the Queen of somewhere going through the Wies'n on the back of a tricycle.

One of the waitresses taking a break from the madness inside. There's definitely scope here for a gag in the general area of golf balls and hose pipes, but we'll let it go. This is a family show after all.

A barrel & Maß.

"Pretty in Pink"

Anyway, so as I said, we didn't get in anywhere, so we headed about 100 metres away to the beer garden at the Hacker-Pschorr which was almost completely empty.

Then we decided to get the hell out of Dodge and headed off with GP to Andechs. It's a monastery perched on a hill which produces some top notch beer. Those monks new what they were doing alright.

A couple of beers, some Obazda, large Brezns & some free snuff all made for a very good day.

These shots above were taken on one of the nights down in Kilian's pub. Smithy had his brother and some friends over for Oktoberfest so it would have been rude not to down them for a quiet couple of beers

Can't remember which day it was, but a few of us decided to head down to the Wies'n from work for a bit of lunch. Amazingly the tents were almost completely empty. it's weird being in a Festzelt and having to try to decide where to sit because there are so many options. Doesn't happen too often I can tell you. Of course the Italians had gone home so the population of Munich was probably halved.

Swend, Merter, Bernhard, Ludwig & Kurt laying into the chicken.

Emptyness, or is it Emptiness. Hmmm. Anyway, the place was pretty empty.

A happy waitress. Obviously just starting her shift, or else it may have been the large tip we gave her.

Prost! Anyway, it was only Radler that we had. We're professionals, we never operate computer equipment after full strength beer. Actually, that reminds me, I got pulled over by the cops last Tuesday after driving out of the squash club where I'd had two beers after the game. The guy obviously smelt the beer and got me to blow into the breathalyzer. 0.5 and I would have been done for being over the limit (which allegedly is one beer). I scored 0.22 on the Richter scale. Yippee!!! He also suggested I get a different car because Jeeps are very heavy on fuel. Thanks for the tip, I hadn't noticed. I thought it was just evaporation due to the great weather we've been having.

And that's definitely it for another year. That was my 5th Wies'n. Think maybe I've had enough. We'll see