So, Oktoberfest Zinzinnati - 2 reports, 1 good, 1 sh*tty
Posted by
CovingtonCat
Sep 20 '14, 12:09
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1) Took the trolley over the bridge with a friend to downtown Cincy, home of the largest Oktoberfest in the US. This is the 3rd Oktoberfest I've been to in the area this year, each in a different city. I don't go for the beer because you can get the same beer anywhere for a lot less money. I go mostly for the food which, I will admit, is pretty much the same fest after fest, year after year. I go to Zinzinnati also to get a pin. I have one for each year I've been here. Some years I just walk across the bridge, buy the pin, then walk back.
This year my friend wanted to go (he usually avoids Zinzinnati because it's so crowded). He had a hankering for a Bahama Mama from Schmidt's. (I was thinking of you, TWuG, while I ate mine. Juergen's Bakery also had a booth next to Schmidt's. I got a pretzel from them. It was OK - too much like a croissant in texture. For those who are curious, both Schmidt's and Juergen's are from the German Village up in Columbus. Schmidt's is also home to giant cream puffs, as seen on Man vs Food.)
We watched the opening festivities. There were speeches by the German counsel, then a representative of the mayor of Munich (Cincy's sister city) and the tapping of the keg. They just don't tap kegs like they used to. The tap was already in so they just filled some steins, sang the Prosit song and opened up the fest. Then there was a parade which stopped at each biergarten along the street to do the Prosit song. The bigger breweries all have areas with tables set out for their gartens. And there were many more small craft brew booths throughout the fest.
I sampled a Sam Adams Stout - not bad. (Sam Adams has a brewery in Cincy so is a big sponsor of the Oktoberfest - and nearly every other fest in the area.) The crowd was really large for so early on a Saturday. Very hard to make your way through everyone. Doesn't help when people bring stollers. This is not a kiddie event, parents. If you're going to bring the kids you might want to hang out at the end where the kiddie rides are. You can still get your beer there. The weather was excellent so maybe that was a factor for such a large crowd. Or maybe it's because Cincy's own Lachey brothers were going to lead the annual chicken dance later - there were LOTS of people wearing chicken hats. Got a potato pancake from Izzy's (not traditionally German but a favorite of mine) then tried some spicy cabbage & noodles from Bessie's (new to Zinzinnati Oktoberfest - they're from Dayton). The noodles were freshly made in the booth and were very good. Then picked up some strudel to take home before we headed back to the trolley stop.
I did notice several homeless people with signs, begging for money at the fest. I've never seen that before at any fest in Cincy I've been to. Cincy has usually been aggressive in moving panhandlers out of downtown. I also saw one homeless guy get in someone's face on the street and yell at her. Don't know what he yelled but it was unsettling to see in such a dense crowd.
2) About a block on the way back to the trolley we passed where there used to be a Bruegger's Bagel shop on a corner. It's an older building with a corner entrance (there's nothing in the store now). The doorway is set back so the corner of the building is basically a covered walkway. I was walking ahead and turned the corner when I heard a loud oof and a body hitting the ground. It was my friend. He came through the walkway differently than I did and, probably because it was shaded, didn't see the large pile of wet shit that he skated through. Fortunately, he didn't hurt anything other than his pride. He managed to skate through it and got a couple feet from it before he fell (on his butt).
I turned around and saw him down. Neither one of us realized then what he slipped in. I walked behind him to help him up (he is a very large man) and then I smelled it. I got him to his feet. He stepped out of his shoes (nothing got on him or his clothing). I ran across the street to the Starbucks and got a couple bottles of water and wads of napkins so he could clean his shoes.
There were people sitting on the benches at the corner. No one offered to help. They just stared. They had to have known there was shit there because if you stood on the sidewalk you would eventually smell it. I don't believe any of them were responsible because who shits on a city sidewalk and then waits for someone to slip in it? But I could be wrong. While it might have been a homeless person who needed to take a dump in a hurry it could just as easily been some drunken yahoo from earlier.
Fortunately we could get the shoes cleaned up enough so we could get on the trolley without grossing anyone out. It may be a while before I venture back across the river. At least to downtown.
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