Oktoberfest in Australia

The longest train ride so far took Audra, Kevin and I to Fairfield where a free shuttle took us to the Oktoberfest. I eagerly anticipated sharing a few steins with several thousand Australians. It did not disappoint. I wanted to buy Lee a Tirolean hat, since they looked so cool on the attendees, but the hats arrived with owners, and were not purchased at the 'fest. We shared Thuringer bratwurst, potato pancake, and Jagermeister shots for desert. Audra continued to emit weirdo attractor rays, and one especially unappealing dude with a large beer belly (with outie) balanced on skinny legs kept trying to make eye contact with her, and would then try to slide off her rejection to me. I was successful in sliding under his glances. We were just about to leave, deciding to be prudent and not get really sloppy drunk, just toasty, when a Mariachi Band paraded through the tent and took the stage. Audra was drawn to them like the Pied Piper, even though close attention confirmed suspicion - they were lipsynching. Another beer was needed to drown the disappointment.

We boarded the return shuttle and scored prime front of the bus seats, only to have the outie sit down across from Kevin. A corner eye glance and a desperate "Let's move" from Audra sent us to the back of the bus. How fortunate! There were some middle aged drunks, to whom I seem to be honey. They vastly improved the return trip, even considering the trifecta of my beer consumption, their beer consumption, and the Australian dialect filtered through both. The videos illustrate perfectly.

Unfortunately, the next train back to St. Leonards was a 25 minute wait, so more beer was needed. The pub across from the station contained our new back of the bus friends. They are members of De'Boyz Social Fishing Club, and I think I gathered that no fishing is involved. It centers around drinking together, and being awarded custody of their mascot, Kevin, a toy hamster with a fishing hat. The friend in the platinum wig hair/hat told a story of being assigned custody of Kevin for an evening. Several hours later, he noticed Kevin was not on the barstool next to him, so he asked the bartender "Where's Kevin?" "Two dollars" was the cryptic reply. Confused, platinum hair/hat guy offered the bartender two dollars, who indignantly refused a bribe. Finally, an epiphany! The vending machine takes two dollar coins, and yep, there was Kevin, inside the machine.

This story illustrates my experiences so far - I meet someone who is so friendly, but we may or may not feel the need to exchange names. Good manners require the exchange of amusing stories, and the exchange of "next round is on me." Farewells convince me that they will miss me tremendously, and that meeting me was the highlight of the evening. Such good manners in Australia.

When we took to the train tracks, our friends were across the way, travelling home in the opposite direction. Good natured hooting and howling back and forth was soiled by the appearance of some Iraqi youth, who misinterpreted the jeering as directed at them. So sad. A clear case of how damaging prejudice is - they are always met with hostility, so they assumed the drunken banter and pants dropping was directed at them, when it was not. The pants dropping by our friends was for Audie and Kev and me, not for them. But they could only perceive what they know, and unfortunately assumed the act was hateful. Prejudice hurts us all. A sour note entered the symphony.

Which was cancelled by a young cutie on the train who started a game of toss the snurf ball, and again ameliorated by the young student from Jordan was was so pleased to be able to talk to Audra, since he went to university where she works, and he was a psychology major, so they had the language of science in common. The evening ended peaceful.

Except that Audra got too much hot sauce on her late night falafel snack, and we were all required to share her pain.