In heaven there is no beer . . .

That's why we drink it here!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen! Lend me your ear. I have a proposal.

After spending the past 3 days at Oktoberfest, we must unify like Voltron to descend upon Bavaria next year. We must represent the Midwest. Here’s why:

Beer!

Duh! It really is as delicious and potent as you'd expect. Especially in the Lowenbrau tent. I managed to drink about 5L on Saturday, weak in comparison to our Italian pals who put away 8L from 10AM to 10PM.

People!

We met some great Italians and got to spend the week with Greg and Nancy. Goodtimes! The best part is that, despite my worst fears that Oktoberfest would be the ultimate jackass tourist symposium and that I would be pissy, it was actually an amazingly friendly and fun ultimate jackass tourist symposium, as you can see from the pictures. The festival represents everything that's great about strangers and beer coming together. Instant friendships and an open-mindedness and anything can happen feel dominated. We didn't see any fights either. Impressive!

Bavarian beermaids! [and other women (like Sue) dressed up as them]

Either young and beautiful (at least through our beer goggles) or old and curmudgeonly . . . Either way, goodtimes!

Pretzels!

A miracle of German engineering. I could survive on these for life (and did for 2 days). How do pretzels baked hours early remain soft and doughy hours later!

Perfect fall weather!

Truly perfect fall weather to greet me on my first trip to Europe. Sweater weather, god bless you!

Leiderhosen (you must wear these next year to be eligible to join us)!

Sue already has a pair picked out for me.

A million other reasons exist. To learn about them, join me next year!

Planning begins now!