Thanksgiving/Oktoberfest weekend

 This previous weekend I went to Waterloo which is about an hour north of my town to celebrate Thanksgiving and Oktoberfest (the 2nd largest festival behind Munich) with three other mates. Without further adieu:

This far south in Canada is very flat with a lot of farmland and corn fields

The family that hosted us lived in a beautiful neighbourhood already decked out with Halloween props

Being a North American household they naturally had a big pick up

We actually got to this bar before it opened but they had a nice selection of beer mugs. We found another bar where we started Oktoberfest the traditional way [in Waterloo]: with pitchers of pumpkin ale

Being a family-oriented celebration (theme alert) there was a multitude of daytime events. This was the keg race

There was a strongman competition in the middle of the street?

Some Andrew Wylie size mofo's all over the street

We found our way to the day-time tent

The classic Transylvanian pipe band

A very interesting man selling German hats and memorabilia*

*I'm thinking of starting a 'Legends of Canada' picture for each blog; I have a few pictures of people straight out of Grand Theft Auto

The beer and schnitzel/pretzels contiuned 

We stumbled past another rival called Laurier University

And spent the afternoon at this bar. You can see the net for the beach volleyball court at the back- great way to sobre up before a big night

So that was the day- spent drinking pumpkin ale and beer, eating German snacks and looking around the town. On to the night

Tyler and Neill representing German culture much better than Tom and I. No one told me I looked like Bruno Mars' queer counterpart

We stayed at the pre's a little too long and were met with a line at the main Oktoberfest tent

Naturally the 'tent' we were in was an ice hockey rink. You're never far from Canadian culture

Family event- people of all ages join in on the chicken dance and other ageless classics

Next to us was a grandmother with her sons, daughters and grandchildren

Saw this guy on my way out- his handshake crushed my hand so I can only presume he's a regular of either tug-o-war or some Bavarian finger pulling**

**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3EKiBIRUy0

 With a long day of walking, consuming, volleyball, German jigging and eating under our belt we decided to head back from the tent and call it a night. What should have been a simple taxi home turned into two girls following our host back to his house in the middle of the night, waking up the entire family and making  themselves at home at the dining table.

Honestly if the family that had us stay weren't so nice/Canadian they would have told these broads to f*** off and taxi home but they let them use the bathroom and tried to politely usher them out.

Here you can see one of the girls (who couldn't talk) sitting on a chair against the wall. In the background is Rachel who had woken up to come see what her brother brought home, Lynn humouring the drunken girls and Tom having the time of his life

Here Neill (whose house we were at) decided to have some fun with it and engage in responsible conversation with the gal.
In the end Neills parents drove the girls home who were convinced they were supposed to be at a frat house

That was Oktoberfest done and dusted; as good as you could imagine it would be

The next day we thought we were going to be heading back to London quite early but due to unforeseen headaches and unavoidable sleep deprivation we all woke up later than expected and were invited to stay for thanksgiving dinner that evening***

***we were told that we agreed to this when we came home from the oktoberfest tent but can't confirm or deny this allegation

We spent that afternoon testing our the local course and returned home to a steak dinner

This is what was in the garage; what I can only imagine is a staple of every Canadian household

Special thanks goes out to Neill and the McCaffrey family for taking us into their beautiful home and looking after us this weekend.

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Next on the agenda is Halloween and a trip to Michigan to watch a football stadiums which holds 100k fans.

Louis Cassells [signing off] You stay classy, Planet Earth