Oktoberfest

I was told Blumenau, Santa Catarina hosts the world's 2nd largest Oktoberfest . I boasted about this fact to my brother and told him I would be attending, he disagreed with the statistic and said that he had been to Cincinnati's party and that they in fact held the world's second largest Oktoberfest. Wikipedia to the rescue. We were both wrong.

The largest Oktoberfest outside of Germany is the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest in the twin cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (700,000+ visitors). Other cities claiming to be the largest Oktoberfests outside of Germany include Blumenau, Brazil (600,000+ visitors) and Cincinnati, Ohio, United States (500,000+ visitors, )

My friends and I, mainly from the UN of soccer had chartered a booze bus to take us there. Compiled of a multitude of nationalities, the bus was the most inebriated collection of international students since the Quiddich Cup. My friend Peter from Jundiaí arrived the morning of the festival. I met him at the bus station. I gave him a brief tour of the city and neighborhood and we congregated at the grocery store. We stocked up on booze, mostly cheap whiskey. I suggested we buy "Wall Street" brand liquor, because it would make us all collapse. It was without a doubt the wittiest thing that has ever been uttered from my mouth.
We caught a bus just as it started pouring rain. It took us down to the bus terminal where we caught the hired vehicle that would escort our drunken selves all the way to the festival. My friend Katherine was running late. I love her, but she's lived in Brazil so long that she's beginning to forget the fact that Germans are supposed to be prompt. I spotted her running through the rain just as the bus was pulling out of the station and she caught the second bus just in the nick of time.
As soon as we hit the road the drinks started flowing. It was one of the most entertaining bus rides i'd been on since the 8th Grade Florida trip, and I think most of the fun from that nostalgic ride was determined by pestering the Greek hearing-impaired science teacher. (sorry Mr. Antonokas) Drinks were poured, clothing was doused. I'm sure we were a terror to the other half of the bus who were largely quiet and not drinking. We were a rowdy crowd of Argentines, Germans, English, Swiss, French, Chilean, Peruvian, Dutch, Colombian, oh and a few Brazilians were allowed to come along. By the time we were halfway we pitted at a truck stop. Most of the gang was already spent and wondering how we would keep up the partying at this pace until we would get back on the bus at 5:00 the next morning.
When we got to Blumenau we got let off at the start of a traditional German parade. The city's charming German architecture is the backdrop of the parade as polka bands and scantily clad blonde German descendants bounce their way through the streets. We bought beers while weaving and wandering through the parade aimlessly and unsuccessfully searching for food as night descended upon the city.
A large group of us got pizza at an all you can eat restaurant. I was hoping for German food, but at that moment I was delirious with hunger. We bought our admission and loaded up on beer tickets. The festival is a large operation that has been going on strong for 25 years. Oktoberfest Blumenau features large tents with pulsating German brass band music to aggravate even the lightest headaches brought on by beer, bratwurst and strudel. The tents and campgrounds were crowded, humid and filled with women and men dressed in costume and the latest in Bavarian hat ware accessories. The night was a constant see-saw of finding my friends and within minutes losing them. I eventually gave up looking for them and almost got in a fight because I accidentaly stepped on a guy's hand who who had been sitting on the ground. I walked off without formally apologizing and as a result he chased after me. I told him sorry but he said at that juncture it was no longer acceptable, so I told him to go have his way with himself and walked off.
I grew wary of the party, as my money had run out, my friends had run off and my energy was running short. I was going on a combined 8-10 hours sleep from the previous two nights, so I was just about spent. I walked back to the bus and immediately passed out. At 10 to 5, just before the bus was about to leave I received a call from my friend who had no idea where the bus was leaving from. I told him in between the two local grocery stores which confused him. Thankfully he made it to the bus on time, however so did my French friend Antonio who was still fervently in the mood to party. We got into a yelling match, and I hope that I didn't tell him that we were right to have changed the name to Freedom Fries.
We arrived back in Floripa and the bus driver dropped the lot of us at our respective locales, but not before lots of beer was consumed (and subsequently vomited), polkas were danced, and German paraphernalia was purchased.