Oktoberfest 2014

As this year marks our third Oktoberfest living in Munich (combined with us being low-key homebodies to begin with), our approach to the festival was on the low-key side.  We went a total of two times to the Wiesn – and only one of those included a trip inside a tent.

Luckily for me, I have an easy ‘in’ for a tent each year since Intel Finance holds an event for us employees.  This includes a seat in the Hofbrau tent, 2 free beers (1 liter each) and 1 free ‘halbes hendl’ (half of a roasted chicken).  And since the yearly reservation is always for the first Monday of Oktoberfest, there are always a few who RSVP yes that either don’t show up for work reasons, or end up leaving early for family reasons.  This means I get to ‘sneak’ Noah in to join me only a few hours after I arrive.   

The band joined us in the balcony for a few songs

Our second trip to the Wiesn was motivated by my desires to get a really cool picture of the whole grounds including the Ferris wheel – similar to this photo I found on Google.  

Well, after walking around the entire perimeter, I realized that to get this photo you either have to have special access to someone’s private balcony, or they used a helicopter.  Either way, I was not going to even come close to this.  Instead we took some much-less impressive photos and called it a night. 

The best we could do from the Bavaria statue

Some might call us lame for living only 3 miles away from the famous Oktoberfest and only going twice (only once to drink beer).  And we probably are.  But we are happy being lame together, at home, with our girls.  

Ready for my German-Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

Once every three months, I head out west to Karlsruhe, Germany for work.  I am there only one night, so it is a quick trip, but one that requires a suitcase and a 4 hour train ride out of the Pasing train station.

I mention all of this to set up my story.  Whenever I travel out there, I typically arrive at Pasing a bit too early for my train (I have a fear of missing it).  On this particular occasion I decide to go down to the bookstore to grab a candy bar for the trip. 

As I am paying, I notice there is a film crew standing right outside the store.  They have their cameras pointed down the main ‘hallway’ (for lack of a better word that I can come up with) where people enter the various train platforms. 

As I have some time to waste, I pause outside the store to try to figure out what is going on.  I see them wait for the hallway to clear of ‘regular’ people coming from the trains and proceed to yell Action (or whatever word they used, I can’t remember).  All of the people around me start to walk away from the cameras down the hallway with various bits of luggage.  After about 15 seconds, they yell at everyone to return.  I, meanwhile, covertly snap this photo of the cameramen. 

As they gear up to shoot the scene again, the guy next to me looks at me like I should be getting in place.  I mean, I guess I do look like I belong – I have a rolling bag, and I am just loitering around the crew.  Also, I do need to walk that same way to get to my platform.  I hear them yell Action again, and once again everyone around me starts to stagger away down the hallway.  I decide at the last moment to join in, though when they yell Stop, I just keep going to my platform while everyone else turns around.

In the end, I have no idea what show/movie/commercial/college film project they were filming.  On top of that, I realize the chances that they choose the one take where my backside is included is very slim, but none of that matters.  For those 15 seconds, I was a movie star.  Or more like a movie extra.  Or just the back of my head was.  Whatever.  I was on film.