Morning Line is out for ROY '07

Believe it or not, we are now within the one week countdown for Ofest ’07 to begin. Some are already traveling over to Europe to take in some additional sights and sounds. At 65, this is our largest group assembled for the annual pilgrimage. You should all feel proud and privileged that those who extended the invitation believe that you are as big a degenerate as they are and that you will not only fit in with the rest of us, but will add value. We also have the largest Rookie class ever, so the coveted “Green Hat” will truly need to be earned this year with an outstanding performance. Many have asked what it takes to win the ROY ’07 award, but it is not that easy to describe. There is no set amount of beer to be drank, no set amount of Hendel to be consumed, but rather the person that best personifies the spirit of O’fest will clearly set themselves apart. Members of the voting committee and past ROY’s will vote on this years recipient, and any form of bribery, solicitation, and general ass kissing are all welcomed and expected. Here are the early odds on favorites for ROY ‘07

2 to1 John M. - John jumped to the early lead when he showed up for the bag stuffing event at my house. John showed his team attitude by jumping right in and handling the CD’s and Translation Cards. Not only does John have a German sounding last name, but John’s teamwork, spirit, and willingness to give up his time at home with his wife and kids and come to my house and drink beers until all hours of the morning show that he has what it takes to wear the Green Cap.

3 to 1 Chris P. A.K.A “Jasper” Not only is Chris a rookie for Ofest in ’07, but this will be Chris’s first time across the pond….ever! What better way to experience Europe than loaded and flat on your back. Chris’s tenacity in the drinking department is only surpassed by his seemingly endless ability to communicate effectively while completely obliterated. Chris patented “book your taxi before you go out so you don’t drive home drunk” move is one that we all are in envy of. Chris’s expectations for the trip…”Have a killer time and don’t land in Jail” In addition to staying out of the German poky, Chris also roped in Mr. Irrelevant (See 15 to 1 odds) for the trip.

5 to 1 Glenn E. Glenn was originally part of the “Tango and Cash” team, but just like Lavern and Shirley, Joni and Chachi, and Sonny and Cher , all good tandems must eventually split up. Cash, suffering from a sever case of “my wife has my balls clinched tightly in my hands” was forced to be a late scratch, leaving Tango to “tango” on his own. Based on his inability to beer bong on the summer houseboat, Glenn has his work cut out for him to keep up. He is equal to the task, and has been drinking ram’s urine for the last 2 weeks to prepare for the onslaught of beer heading his way…..

10 to 1 Darryl and his brother Darryl- slightly out of his element and without his computer, this techie faces the undaunting task of interfacing with the women and men of Octoberfest. The only problem is that sometimes it is hard to tell the German women and men apart. His knowledge of iPhoto, and his ability to convert JPEG files into PST files won’t fly on the floor of Hacker tent. Darryl will need to muster every ounce of courage he has in order to sing “Alice Alice , Who the Fuck is Alice ” at the top of his lungs with 9000 other drunk ofest goers…..

15 to 1 Tony N. Tony officially hold the “Mr. irrelevant” title for ofest ’07. Like the last man drafted in the NFL draft, Tony is the last man to commit to the pilgrimage just 1 week prior. In addition to obtaining a passport in under 5 days at the cost of $400, Tony has also taken up German by ordering the Rosetta stone language program, is on a steady diet of Pretzels and sour krout, and answers only with “Ya” and “Nine” when spoken too….

50 to 1 Any of the Cypress Semiconductor Sales guys- Failing to understand that this is a marathon and not a sprint, they all believe that the couple of days of prep work on their boondoggle, uh, I mean sales conference…will adequately prepare them for the Olympics of Beer Drinking. They all come out hard on day 1 with a 50% attrition rate for day 2 and 3. If they want to make the mark, they will need to answer the bell and be first in the tents on Friday and Saturday, not just Thursday.

100 to 1 Any of Hahn’s recruits- Following in the footsteps of Hahn is almost an insurmountable task. Who can forget the first time you where in the tent and fell off the table, AND DID NOT SPILL ANY BEER. Or the time you crawled into bed with me naked, AND OUR ROOM HAD 2 BEDS. Then there was the time we you were last in the room at night and when we awoke in the morning , the TV had soft porn on, The faucet was running, and our door was wide open…and you asked “What the hell happened last night?” Or the time you smuggled illegal ham through customs and gave it to your 10 year old and proudly told him “Here michael, I got you a ham from Germany ”. How could any of your rookies be equal to the Task I ask you. (Note: I specifically left out the story of you peeing the bed to save you from any additional shame because that is the kind of friend I am).

Who will it be. Good luck to all, and remember that who ever wins the ROY ’07 award needs to return next year to present to ROY ’08.

Regareds,

Vondii

Aritcle from SF Chronicle

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070904/ap_tr_ge/travel_trip_oktoberfest

Ofest Dress Rehearsal

Teskes Germania was the scene for a dry run of Ofest. The wives donned their dirndl's and we enjoyed the Spaten Ofest beer. Bratwurst were enjoyed along with pork shank, weinerschnitzel, and sauerkraut. Everyone enjoyed listening to the CD on the ride over and then singing along with the Oompah band. Favorites like Alice, Hey Baby, and Country Roads were popular as always. Looks like the gang from Pleasanton is ready for Hacker. Is Hacker ready for us???

Miscellaneous Info

Clothes: This is very informal. Wear comfortable shorts or pants. Have both available. Normally the weather is nice, so shorts are appropriate. If it is raining and cold, then you could still wear shorts, but you’ll get wet on the walk to the tent. It will not be cold in the tent. If it is 75 outside, it will feel like 175 inside. Lots of smoke, sweaty people, and spilled beer. Your shoes will get beer spilled all over them. Don’t wear nice shoes. You likely will not need a nice set of clothes, although some adventurous people have gone out to clubs after the O’fest closes at 11pm. Take a look at the various pix that we have sent and you can see how casual the dress is. Here is a listing of the shirts that we will all wear: Thursday: Polo Shirt Friday: Green Baseball Jersey Sat: T-Shirt

You will receive your travel bag and shirts and other schwag around Sept. 1.

Weather: Normally it is 75 or so. However, it could be 50 and raining. Bring a light jacket just in case it is raining and you have to be outside for the 200 meter walk from/to the hotel. Bring a jacket that you don’t care if it gets lost or VERY dirty.

Money; Normally I would expect > $350 US to be enough to pay for beer and food and trains, but you should probably count on $400-$500 because you are going to be in a good mood and want to buy your new German friends a few beers. A taxi to the airport is about $70. If you are going to take taxis and buy lots of beers for your new best friends, then you need to bring lots more money. Beers are about $10 each (per liter). USD will not do you any good there. They do have ATM’s that you can get Euros from or you can get them at the airport or at your bank before departure. They have ATM’s at the airports, throughout the city and at the Wies’n itself.

Beer & Food We normally contribute 50 Euros to the kitty each day and that typically covers the beer for the day. Beers are served in liters only and normally cost about 8 Euros (+/- $10 US) Occassionally, we need to buy the last beer or two on our own if the kitty runs out that day. Food is <25 style=""> Normally we buy pizzas after the festivities across the street from the Wiesn. This costs another 5 Euros or so.

Hotel: Hotel Maria www.hotelmaria.de

Hotel MARIA Munich

Schwanthalerstr. 112-114

80339 Munich/Germany

Tel: +49 (0) 89 / 510826 Fax: +49 (0) 89 / 505520 e-mail info@hotelmaria.de

Itinerary Wed. Sept 26

If you are flying with the group organized flights, We will be departing from SFO on Wednesday Sept. 26. Those of you taking the shuttle flight and van ride will all meet at Randy Hahn’s house at 3:15am and have Black Tie Limos take us to SFO. Randy lives at 2916 Takens Ct. Pleasanton (Laguna Oaks) We depart from SFO in the morning of 9/26 and arrive about 14 hours later in Munich. Due to time zones, you will actually arrive into Munich’s airport on Thursday 9/27 around 8am. We will then take the train from the airport to Hackerbrucke station. We will walk to the hotel from the train station.

Itinerary Thursday Sept 27

For those of you arriving independently prior to Thursday or on Thursday, make your way to the Hotel Maria (Schwanthalerstr. 112-114, 80339 München/Deutschland Fon +49 (0) 89 / 510826) and get checked in. Take the S1 or S8 train from the airport towards downtown Munich and get off at Hackerbrucke. You won’t have to transfer. It will take just over ½ hour or so. When you get off the train, go up to the top of the bridge and follow the crowd headed for Oktoberfest. The crowd will veer left once you get over the bridge. Keep following the crowd until you get to Schwanthalerstrasse. (It will likely be the first traffic light where you have to stop and wait for traffic. It is NOT the street that has train tracks on the street itself. It is the light after that street.) When you get to Schwanthalerstrasse, the crowd will go straight. You should turn right. The hotel will be about 50 steps up on the right.

You will be the first to taste the 2007 Oktoberfest beer. This beer is brewed specifically for Oktoberfest and is arguably the best beer in the world. Once you have checked in, I would suggest making your way over to the Wies'n (vee-sen). That is the piece of land on which the Oktoberfest is sitting. Veterans call it the Wies'n, so start calling it that. Examples, "Are you going to the Wies'n tonight?" "Is Ken still passed out at the Wies'n?" "Did Walt get thrown out of the Wies'n again?" You get the picture. I will get there at around noon on Thursday and will be at the Hacker Festzelt tent. In the map below, that is tent number 4. Here's how to get there:

Turn left out of the hotel. When you get to the first main street, turn right (follow the crowd). For those of you that arrived by train, you will just be retracing your steps (so far). Within 2 minutes of leaving the hotel, you will be standing at the top right corner of the map below (where it says TAXI at about 1 o'clock). Cross the street and go into the main Wies'n entrance. There will be a big arched sign with the words "Willkommen zum Oktoberfest." Go under the sign and you will be on the main Ofest path called "Wirtsbudenstrasse" (the path running in front of tents 1-8 below). The first tent you will see on the right is a red tent called the Hippodrome (#1 below). Then you will see the Armbrustschutzenzelt (Paulaner - #2 below). Then you will come up on Hofbrauhaus (HB - #3 below). The fourth tent on the right will be Hacker Festzelt. That is where I will be on Thursday afternoon. Go in the front doors, turn left and head towards the back of the tent down the left hand side. When you are about halfway (about 3 rows before the band), look for people in our travel shirts . We'll try to be in section H near the walkway. If not there, look around.

We'll stay there pretty much all afternoon and evening and then head for either pizza or Indianfood.

Itinerary Friday Sept 28 ROOKIES CAN NOT BE LATE FOR THE 7:45 assembly!!!

Friday 9/28 morning at 8am ALL ROOKIES MUST BE PRESENT TO SECURE SEATS, we all need to be back in the same place (Hacker Festzelt, section H). Meet in the hotel lobby at 8 and we will walk over together. They start serving beer at 10. We do not have reservations for Friday. It is a nightmare saving seats, so meet in the lobby by 7:45am and we will head over to Hacker. We will spend virtually the whole day in Hacker that day. Get to the tents as early as possible, because many of the Germans in Munich will take a half-day off of work Friday and fill the tents. The doors close around 3 or 4pm sometimes, and it is hard to get in. If the doors ARE closed, call Joe Sanchez on his cell phone and we will try to get you in (+44 7770 273 185).

Itinerary Saturday Sept 29

Saturday 9/29 morning - Get up at your leisure. If you are going to go on the easy bike stroll and take a guided tour of the sights of Munich, meet in the lobby at 10:00am. We will go to meet the bike tour guys and take our 4 mile tour and see some of the famous sights of Munich on a non strenuos bike ride. If you don’t go on the bike ride, today would be a good day to walk around the Wies'n and see what else there is going on. If you can't bear to smell the beer, jump on the train and go to the town center (MARIENPLATZ). Munich is a nice city. Explore. If you want to get really adventurous, Dachau (concentration camp) is pretty close. The hotel will have information about Dachau. Ask at the front desk. Whatever you do on Saturday, BE BACK AT THE HOTEL BY 3:30PM! We will be meeting in the lobby/restaurant of Hotel Maria at 3:30pm. We will have our annual award ceremony at this time and it is normally something you do not want to miss. We will be departing for the tents at 5:30pm. We will have our official Ofest Rookie of the Year and HOF inductions at this time. We have reservations at tent 4 (Hacker Festzelt) above. We all need to stay together and enter the tent around 5:45. The reservations start at 6:00pm. If you do not come with the group, the WILL NOT LET YOU IN!!! They will clear some tables for us at that time. It's magical. We will drink all night Saturday. If you are not there with our group, you likely will not get in the tent on Saturday. It is packed and impossible to get in w/o reservations on Saturday. This will be a great night, so be sure to meet in the hotel lobby to get your pass. There is a slight chance that we will be a couple passes short on Saturday but we have connections at the doors.

Itinerary Sunday Sept. 30

Sunday 9/30 Return home normally we meet in the lobby around 8am (the exact time will be announced shortly) and head to the airport together on the train. We fly home on Sunday Munich time and arrive at SFO Sunday evening. I suggest you take a vacation day on Monday.