OKTOBERFEST

a couple of weekends ago, some friends and i traveled to blumenau for its annual oktoberfest celebration.  blumenau was founded by german immigrants, and is the only place in brazil where you will see blond hair, blue-eyed brazilians (or so i'm told).  the city has the largest oktoberfest celebration outside of munich.  not wanting to miss this special event, maggie, sarah, jeff, josh, and i signed up for a tour package that included bus ride, hotel accomodation, tickets to the fest at night, a free t-shirt, etc.  

THE BUS

getting from sao paulo to blumenau was going to take nine or ten hours.  fortunately, the bus was an overnight ride, so we weren't going to miss much time in the city.  it was supposed to take off at 10pm.  also, we were hoping to pop some advil PM and get some shut-eye.  every bus ride i've ever been on (even shorter trips) - people sleep.  we were ready to get some rest after a long work week, and thought it was going to be like every other long bus/plane trip, where people mostly sleep.  BOY WERE WE WRONG.  apparently brazilians (even when on their way to a three day long nonstop party) want to start partying immediately.  so there we were, the gringoes in the front of the giant tour bus, trying to sleep (thank goodness for ipods) while brazilians march up and down the aisle with a tamborine and singing, drinking beer, and passing around a fifth of vodka while a terrible brazilian pop band concert dvds play on the bus tv.  i thought just this group of people must be really rowdy until we pull into a rest stop at 2am and get off the bus bleary eyed to see about 25 other tour buses spewing loud, drunk brazilians, laughing and yelling and BUYING MORE BEER.  in the bathroom, women were reapplying and touching up their makeup like it was a party.  josh said he didn't know whether to high-five these people because of their spirit, or punch them in the face for being obnoxious.  either way, i knew the weekend was going to be an interesting one.  

DAY ONE - SATURDAY

we finally arrive in blumenau and watch our driver do some fantastic maneuvering as we pull into our hotel.  the hotel was great - more like a quaint european hotel than anything else.  we get our rooms and change clothes and go grab a bite to eat.  the boys go back to their room to take naps while us girls decide to shop for some supplies.  we get our metal beer steins and straps to wear them around us like purses, and also a funny hat or two.  at 4pm, there's the opening weekend parade, which was grand.  children dancing, men in lederhosen, beer wagons, people pouring beer into cups as they walk by, crazy floats, polka music..the whole shebang.  that night, we head down the road a bit to the oktoberfest area.  think german-style disneyland for adults.  sausages, beer, potatoes, more lederhosen all set against a german village background.  we danced to german music, we toasted with our steins, we had a blast.  

DAY TWO - SUNDAY

we slept in quite a bit and had a great lunch.  then we spent the day exploring blumenau.  we went into a tiny beer museum, we wandered the streets, we got frozen yogurt.  back to oktoberfest that night for dinner and a photo scavenger hunt of epic proportions.  we were looking for things like "biggest beer belly", "youngest child out past 10pm", etc.  we also rode the bumper cars and started many conga-type lines of dancing to the accordion polka music.  another top night.

DAY THREE - MONDAY

today our bus was taking us out of blumenau to a beach town a couple hours away called balneario camboriu.  we arrived at the hotel in the afternoon and immediately changed into our swimsuits and headed for the beach.  it was a lovely day, but the wind was a little chilly.  we spent the afternoon on the beach, and then got a snack at a restaurant right on the street parallel to the beach.  we decided to have dinner and then go to a small local festival celebrating portugal.  unfortunately, dinner was not good, and the festival was pretty disappointing.  it was more like a country fair, and paled in comparison to oktoberfest.  the hotel was also a disappointment, as they did nothing to calm down another tour group that was staying there, being really loud and obnoxious into the wee hours of the morning.  i was ready to be back in my own bed at this point.

DAY FOUR - TUESDAY

back on the bus.  we left early and actually played movies (with english subtitles for us!) instead of terrible brazilian pop concert dvds on the way home.  however, as soon as our tour director guy fell asleep, the next movies didn't have english subtitles, so it was back to ipod mode and sleeping.  fortunately the brazilians slept a lot too, so there were no tambourines.  we got back into sao paulo around 7:30 and took a cab to moema so i was home around 8:15!  felt great to be home, especially because my maid came on monday, so i came home to a nice clean apartment.  

all in all, it was a great weekend.  crazy, but also amazing.  i am glad i got to experience the brazilian oktoberfest.