Happy Days in Milwaukee

Having got to bed at 3am the previous night, it is still a miracle to me that I was up in time on Saturday morning to meet Caro, Brad, Rak and Nic, and make the Amtrak train from Union Station to Milwaukee. We were headed for Oktoberfest, one of the many US-based beer festivals being held to coincide with the real deal in Germany.

I've never been to the German equivalent, but I would imagine there'd be more people there than there were in Milwaukee. The only advantage that we could work out from such poor attendance in Milwaukee was the lack of lines at the food stalls, and the pristine condition of the portable toilets. Two very big thumbs-up in my book really.

We were booked into the Holiday Inn, because marathon runners and conference delegates had nabbed all the other hotel rooms in the city. But the Holiday Inn was clean, quiet, and in close proximity to Oktoberfest, so it wasn't bad at all.

We met up with Rak's sister and her husband at a nearby beer hall, and we had our first German beer of the day. It proved to be the first of many. Whether we were motivated by alcoholism or just a sense of responsibility to drink our share of the kegs, we sunk a hell of a lot of beer in a very short time.

Let's just say that our afternoon of beverage consumption ended back at the beer hall, with dancing on tables and Gab doing her very best oompah-arms as we did the best chicken dance we could do. When Caro started falling asleep at the Indian restaurant, she and I threw money on the table and went back to the Hotel. Collapsing into bed in a fuzzy drunken haze, I got a text from a Chicago friend and so I grabbed my phone.

It was 8.20pm.

The next time I opened my eyes it was 7.45am. Meeting up with the rest of the crew for breakfast at a nearby diner, we swapped funny stories about the things we remembered (and puzzled over the things we didn't) and laughed loudly much to the bemusement of other patrons.

We spent the rest of a Sober Sunday in the sunshine, visiting the Art Museum and sitting on the banks of Lake Michigan watching the celebrations for the marathon that was being run today. We grabbed some lunch at the Irish pub and then made it back in time for our 3pm train to Chicago. We were all asleep before the train pulled out.

I can't tell you the relief we all felt when we woke up and saw the imposing John Hancock tower piercing the Chicago skyline. We all just relaxed and felt at home, it was an unspoken collective thing. Milwaukee was fun, and the beer drinking was awesome (photos will be testament to that), but be it ever so humble....well, you know the rest.