Cheat Sheet for 2008

Hacker Festzelt - Bavarian Heaven

The following is what you should expect. It is adapted previous year’s cheat sheet, but still is 99% accurate and will give you a general expectation about what to do and when to do it.

Make your way to

Hotel Tryp Paul-Heyse-Strasse 24 Munich GERMANY 80336

Tel: (49) 89 514900 - Fax: (49) 89 51490701 - E-mail: tryp.muenchen@solmelia.com

Bergman, Azevedo, & Baxter go to Hotel Ibis (details sent separately)

and get checked in. If you take the S Bahn from the airport, you take the S1 or S8 train from the airport towards downtown Munich and get off at Hauptbahnhof Central Station. Transfer to the U4 or U5 one station and get off at Theresenwiese station. It will take about 45 mins or so for the entire journey. It sounds a bit complicated, but it is actually very easy. Print the map of the train system that is located on our website. It is all simple to read and well laid out. The cost of the Ubahn is about 10 Euros/person. A taxi will cost about 50 Euros (if I remember correctly).

9/25 Thursday Arrival day Game day shirt: Black Polo

Arrive early and you will be the first to taste the 2008 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. Ask for directions at the front desk how to get there, but I assure you there will be a steady flow of people heading there. Just follow the crowd. If you are following a bunch of totally hammered people, you are going the wrong way. These are the people who are leaving the Wiesn. Turn around! The hotel is only about 5 minute walk to the Wiesn.

There is a main road where all of the tents are located. Hacker Pschorr is between the HB (Hofbrau) and Shottenhamel tent and across from Augustiner Brau. This is where we will hoist a few masses of beer for the next 3 days. 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 (just before the band), look for people in our black travel shirts . We’ll be near the walkway so we should be easy to spot.

We'll stay there pretty much all afternoon and evening and then head for pizza afterward

Friday 9/26 Game Day Shirt White mesh shirt Meet in the Tryp 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 imperitive that you are in the lobby so that we can all sit together on Friday. It is a nightmare saving seats, so meet in the lobby by 8:00 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, text me +1 925 518 7437 or Joe Sanchez +44 777 273 185 and we will try to get you in. All of the entrances are numbered and we will tell you what door to go to. Phones are impossible to hear inside the tent so texting is the only real option for communicating.

Saturday 9/27 Game day Shirt Yellow T Shirt morning - Get up at your leisure. 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 Tryp 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 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, they 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. .

Sunday 9/28 Return home. I suggest you take a vacation day on Monday.

Miscellaneous things:

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. Might want to buy a disposable pancho from Wal Mart for the trip so that you won’t get wet walking to the tent. It is dry inside of course. 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: White Baseball Jersey Sat: Yellow T-Shirt

You should have your shirts, beads, and shaving kit by now.

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 will pay for our own beers at the tent. We will take a small collection at the beginning of the day to ensure we have good service from our waiters and also to grease the doormen. Beers are served in liters only and normally cost about 8 Euros (+/- $10 US) Food is <15 style=""> Normally we buy pizzas after the festivities across the street from the Wiesn. This costs another 10 Euros or so.

A good website to keep track of between now and the beginning of Ofest is the official Ofest website: www.oktoberfest.de/en

OUR WEBSITE IS

http://www.ofestforever.blogspot.com/

Our website is the best resource for the trip. It has lots of info. Play around with it and you will see lots of useful info

PRINT THIS OUT AND TAKE IT WITH YOU TO MUNICH