Starkbierfest - Take 4!

I have actually had a Take 2 and a Take 3 of Starkbierfest but for various reasons (forgetting my camera, being too drunk), there just haven't been many photos taken. But I have been the last two weekends - in fact my lab has had a new postdoc, Markus, since the beginning of this month and he said that when he thinks of me, I'm wearing a dirndl and drinking because whenever we talk about our weekends, I say "I was at Starkbier". Awesome. I maintained the reputation as an apron-wearing drunk by going to Starkbier at the Loewenbraukeller this past weekend! 

I think this is the same fella who sits at the Loewenbrau Festzelt at Oktoberfest!

To me, the initial feeling inside the Keller is more formal compared to Augustiner and Paulaner because we have proper tables and chairs as opposed to those benches.

With the dark, stark bier

For dinner, I had the speciality - roast ox! When I ordered it, the waiter gave me a strange look. I'm guessing not many small girls order it.

Mit meinen Hombres, Ruben y David...

and our Kellner (waiter)

And Ruben's friend Judith who comes from nothern Germany.

Bier wasn't the only drink on the menu. Also for sale was a drink called *Ficken*...which translate as *fuck*. We asked the waiter was it was supposed to be but he shrugged and said we should just try it. 

Lowenbrau is different from the others in that they run some competitions during Starbierzeit - one is a *Miss Starkbier-esque* competition where some girls come up, give a short spiel about themselves and ask for you to vote for them. Ruben said I should try due to the advantage of being completely exotic mixed with my Kinderdeutsch! Ha, no. But more interestingly, they have a competition where people compete to deadlift a 50kg (?) block of rock as high as they can! Ruben also said I should enter this competition! Challenge considered...until I saw the huge guys I'd be competing against :P

The rock!

Look how huge they are! My money was on number 11

Lifting...no good

lifting....such struggle!

He won with a lift of 60-something cm!

Also unlike the others, there was some Bavarian slapdancing from proper dancers, but the absolutely most bizarre one was the slap dance that involved woodchopping.

I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it

Eventually the formalities ended and we got more and more drunk. As with the last time, I discovered I'm much better at speaking German slightly toasted as I joined the table behind us which consisted of people in their 50s/60s and we made small talk about how I've been acclimatising to the Munich environment. A different band came onto the stage and the party kicked really kicked in so we went downstairs to join the masses.

The sweaty, shoeless band.

With tuba!

Clap, clap, clapping along!

Munich is a very popular location for bucks and hens nights...wonder why...

The buck was from the UK (natch)

The hen was from Munich I think, it was hard to hear in front of the band

And we all danced well into the night...or at least until 11:30 when they stopped serving bier.