We had one day in Munich before the end of Oktoberfest. We were in a very festive mood. We woke up at 2pm – exhausted from our various trips. One of our close friends from Nairobi arrived shortly after – she would be joining us for the second part of the trip. Her pseudonym will be “The Lady.” “The Safety Net cooked up a storm. We ate to our heart’s content and went out clubbing later to Pimpernel – We had a lovely time and got home quite late.
In the morning we woke up excited about the last day of Oktoberfest. I went with The Lady to the festival around 4pm. There we met up with 2 of my lovely college friends who had come in from Switzerland to join us for the festivities. It was one of those nights that is difficult to explain if one wasn’t there. Key highlights of the night for me included:
· Me having a mini-meltdown and yelling at my friends when I started feeling frustrated – like I had to be responsible for everything given I was the organizer of the trip. “I am not your mother! People need to start being responsible for themselves – you can’t expect me to know everything, do everything, tell you everything, have all the directions etc.” It was not pretty - especially because I was inebriated, likely slurring and repeating the same thing over and over, but we had a debrief the next day and after that I felt that people were being more responsible for themselves. I can’t really blame them though because I also know that when someone takes charge it becomes very easy to just go along with the flow and not feel the pressure to know anything/do anything for yourself. How many times have I been driven somewhere and not bothered to note the directions given someone else is doing it for me? It’s human nature.
· Lighting candles with random strangers, singing “heal the world” and hugging people over mugfuls of beer – that closing ceremony was a very wonderful emotional experience – those moments when complete strangers are brought together by the powerful force of alcohol and pyromania and cheesy kumbaya music
· Going out clubbing alone – determined to squeeze out the most of my time in my beloved city of Munich. Getting lost trying to get to Pimpernel, but making random friends along the way who I partied with till 6:30am
· Getting home at 7am, packing in a state of drunkenness and us heading off to the train station – Paris bound.
