Oktoberfest

The best way I can describe this festival is sufficient and probably worthwhile. Sort of like disneyland for adults. It is expensive, it involves waiting in lots of lines, but the beer is delicious, the food is good, and a huge number of people get mindblowingly drunk.
So due to train issues and such we didnt actually make it to the festival until about 1pm on the first day. By this time every tent is completely full and the only option is to see the other sites of oktoberfest (which are plentiful). The festival itself is like a huge carnival with enormous beer tents randomly scattered throughout. The carnival places were not really that interesting and although this fest had quite a few more than winefest or brezelfest they didnt have as much diversity and felt much more commercialized, which for me takes away from the experience. Outside of each of the masstive beer tents there is a beer garden, but the real action with the bands and warmth is inside. We tried several times to get into the tents later, but it was all but impossible. They were letting in about 1-2 people/hour at best and germans seem to be much better at cutting in line than us americans. We also rode one of the rides (perhaps a bad idea), since it looked like it would be so much fun. It was nice in the sense you got a birds eye view of everything and could start to appreciate how many people were really here. The weather for this weekend was also much colder than nearly all of us (except kamila) expected and thus we spent a good deal of time shivering and in some cases drinking coffee instead of beer (we all make mistakes). The weather proceeded to get colder and by the time we had to return to our tents to sleep, we were fairly confident we would not survive the night, or if we did, we would sacrafice a few fingers in the process. I do not think any of us got an especially restful night of sleep but it was sufficient to trek out again for some sunday morning drinking.
Sunday was noticably less busy (we also arrived earlier 10-11am-ish), but still amazingly crowded for anything on a sunday. So we were able to make it inside a tent, which we soon realized was not exactly that desirable, it was incredibly smokey and nowhere to sit. Furthermore the bands that had seemed so exciting and lively the night before were now just loud and headache inducing (what an effect a day has). We found a nice place outside with some real bavarians who have come to fest every day (it is 16 days long) for the last 10 years. They are currently my heros, although at no point in time do I wish to spend 16 days in a row drinking.
As I got on my train back (sadly realizing I may never see some of these people again), everything seemed in order. The train rolled out and made it to about munich passing before it decided to take a nap. I had time at my connection in zurich so I did not worry too much. Plus I was in the eating cart and had just gotten a really fancy looking green tea. 50 minutes later when we still had not moved I was starting to worry. Eventually everything started moving but it was clear I would miss my connection in Zurich, and in all likelyhood the last bus, I was sure about, that went to PSI from Brugg. I also realized this train skitted through Austria, and thus my eurail pass required a supplement. Fortunately this supplement was only 5eu, and the conductor was really nice about the whole ordeal, so nice in fact that he never stamped my eurail pass (if only I were as skilled as rob). The train after a period of time I found comparable to forever arrived in Zurich. I hopped hopefully on the train to Brugg only to find in Brugg not only were there no busses coming until 6am the next morning but also there were no taxis or anyone around at all. Realizing I was in no condition to hike 2 hours to get to PSI, I jumped on the next and apparently last train back to zurich. In Zurich I realized the Bahnhof has a church, but not a mission like the Hannover HBF.
On a side note I was able to stay in the Hannover HBF the night before my flight back to portland at the Mission there. They gave out free coffee, and give you a place to hang out until your plane or train comes. And if you like they tell you about god, but they didnt force anything upon anyone. The place in Hannover impressed me quite a bit, and I met some great people there just drinking coffee and waiting between 12am and 5am. I assumed they were omnipresent. False
Back to Zurich, they actually closed the HBF, gates and all and when I asked one of the guys what i should do the only thing he could tell me was find a hotel. I did not want to pay for a hotel, or even a hostel, but sleeping outside again, especially without a tent was out of the picture. I found a few hotels some of which charged 170sfr/night, a few of which were completely booked. And one, not quite perfect, but certainly trying hard. That charged a still outrageous 85sfr/night, but was themed after rock stars, and designed by someone who does not like having all the stairs in the same place and likes exploring. There was no central stair case, instead there were little min-stair cases that went from one floor to the next (possibly even next .5 of a floor), and then dumped you off to wander until you found the next set of stairs. I was so frustrated with everything else in the world, that I somehow found this terribly amusing, and added it to the list of things I want to do if I ever build a house. Anyways it worked out really nicely since I was able to sleep in a bit more since my class was in downtown zurich, plus the croissant breakfast and coffee tasted quite good, and I didnt really spend thaat much at oktoberfest so perhaps this is how the world is punishing me for not drinking enough or any number of other things I have done.
Anyways it was a really enjoyable weekend, I would do it again without a doubt, but maybe do things a bit differently.