La Fiesta Nacional de la Cerveza/Oktoberfest /Cordoba Part 1

I really wanted this sign for my dorm room.

 As promised, I lived through Oktoberfest to tell you all about it. While you might think that passing the better half of an entire weekend in a fenced in park full of kegs and giant mugs may be a breeze, I beg to differ. On the contrary, it was quite a lot of work to enjoy myself.

From Buenos Aires, the beautiful city Cordoba is roughly a 9 hour ride away by bus. The ride isn't as bad as it sounds but for someone that is not used to going to a massive bus terminal/station, it can be very confusing. Buses are common here because it is generally more expensive to fly--so 16 hour rides to other parts of the country are not uncommon.

This place was good and super packed. Caja=cash register

From the beginning of the trip however, everything was turning out to be an uphill battle. Upon our arrival in Cordoba, we had forgotten the hostel detail sheet and had to go to a locutorio (computer/internet service place) to re-print the information. When we finally got to the hostel after a long walk, we were surprised to learn that although they can use a terminal to charge a $7 deposit fee, they can't use it to charge for our actual stay--cash which we did not bring with us for obvious reasons. Additionally, only one of us actually had our debit card with us--so that was pretty cool. Anyway, it was mid-afternoon and we were ready to get dr--...errr, I mean go to the festival /Festival Nacional de la Cerveza. Now Oktoberfest was actually in a smaller town 2 hours outside Cordoba in a small German, Tudor-style town nestled between a pretty lake and a grassy mountain. The ride was pretty to look at the first time, but the other times I was forced to sit on the floor the whole time because some French dudes in the front of the ticket line bought the remaining SEAT tickets. I can't really explain how uncomfortable that was.

Nonetheless, we finally arrive and find ourselves in the middle of a HUGE crowd all carrying mugs and ready to party. Now when I say "carrying" mugs. I mean people (including myself) had bought buckle straps and were literally carrying their mugs around like Samsonite handbags.
Furthermore, people were dressed up in goofy outfits and cheers-ing (Salud!) one-another.The town is very quaint and a large fenced-in park was set-up for all of the festivities. In addition to beer and weiner schnitzels there was a full program each day (October 4-11) with music, parades, and various German/Argentine celebratory shows that took place either in-town or on a big stage that was set-up in the middle of the park. All the beer stands (Isenbeck, Heineken, micro-brews, etc.) were located in a mulched area away from the initial mug/trinket stands (my mug can hold a liter!).

One hoppin' fiesta

Now we went on Friday and Saturday, but most of the action didn't happen until Saturday night. The real big crowds didn't show until about 10 at night which was when things got a little out of hand. At about 9 at night was when some German bands came on stage and started playing old school German drinking songs. There was actually a german rock band that yodeled which was pretty awesome. As the bands were playing their ridiculous songs in laterhoosen, people were storming the beer lines and downing beer like sailors that just got into port. Through the evening I saw various things that I won't mention here, but one noteworthy/moderately appropriate encounter was with a group of Argentine guys who thought that my friends and I were the coolest people on Earth because we are American (or Northamerican as they say). For whatever reason, my memory seems to be cloudy at this point in the evening, but I do remember one of these guys wearing a huge afro and the other without a shirt. As we talked to them, they told us that they only knew 2 phrases in English "How are you?" and "Suck my b----" which they proceeded to chant in unison. After a while they took some photos with us and before they left to make the rounds, one of them had his (female) cousin with him that he kept trying to basically give to us as an offering. As absolutely hysterical as that was, she wasn't having any of it, hahaha.

These are some the beer vendors. The rest are attached to these and out of view--forming a big circle of well, beer..

By around 2 a.m. the party was winding down and we needed to catch our bus. 2 things happened however that made the ending a bit sour: As I walked to the urinal area (Think of the Joe Louis Arena men's troughs with a couple hundred drunk people and less than perfect aim) and did my business, I was returning back towards the entrance when a guy who was running very quickly, collided into me and caused me to lose one of my contacts. As you all know very well, that is especially bad for me. So I had to run back to the bus terminal in the dark, only being able to see out of 1/2 of my head. I am still missing a contact as I write this post.

 The second thing that frustrated me was a bad interaction with some "cultured" Americans. To my fellow countrymen abroad: 

STOP ACTING LIKE DAMN FOOLS

Seriously, the ONLY bad interactions I have had with people in Argentina have been with other Americans. These guys were drunk like everybody else, but yet the only ones who felt a need to act aggressively, arrogantly, and try to start a fight with my friends at the bus stop. I won't go into details, but these guys were just plain embarrasments. No wonder the world gets tired of our crap sometimes.

Overall a good time. I will have more on Cordoba for "Part 2" later--this post is already really long. I don't have many good pictures of the fest (mostly because we were having trouble holding the camera for some silly reason) but I have some great one for Cordoba.

Buenas Noches y Hasta Pronto!

Stage in the park