Log:Oktoberfest in Munich

2020/10/08 Night Marshal|Carpenter Grimm 1

As Carpenter and Grimm head for the diner, Grimm looks around. "Hey, I know a short cut down this alley," she says as she formulates a plan. It's close up ahead, and off the main streets of city center and away from the eyes of the crowd or press. As soon as they turn in the alley and Grimm can tell there's no one in line of sight of them for the moment, she smiles cunningly. Which is a tip off to Jack before she suddenly turns towards him to grab him for a heated kiss she's been holding back due to the risk of his professional colleagues seeing.

Carpenter initially tenses as she grabs him and plants a kiss on him. He relaxes almost immediatley though, and returns the kiss with a smile. "A short cut, huh?"

Grimm smiles at him as she grabs the lapels of his coat to hold on as she drops back on her heels. "Oh, you see right through me," she laughs warmly. "I have a better idea. Especially since things have been busy and we haven't been able to go on too many dates yet. Think you could call out sick the rest of the day and claim food poisoning?"

Carpenter chuckles. "Umm....I can take the rest of the day off without lying, I think. Why? What do you have in mind?"

Grimm's face lights up even more. "I was thinking we could grab a bite to eat...in Munich. It's Oktoberfest. It should be...hmm...around 6pm or so over there I think? Which is after 5 o'clock, which meaaaans...drinking beer is acceptable. And there'll be plenty of food. And other things."

Carpenter nods slowly as he thinks about it. "I'm okay with that. IF we stop by my apartment first. I'm not going onto foreign soil with my weapon."

"Sure, we can do that. I figure you'd want to get out of those clothes, too," Gabrielle smiles at him. "I'll admit, I forgot about the gun. I thought you were just happy to see me," she winks as she leans into him. She lets go of his coat and takes a step back, then turns towards further in the alley and focuses for a moment. She holds her hand out an uses her shadow sight to travel far across the city, pushing its limits at his building and manages to open a portal into his living room.

Carpenter chuckles and steps through the gate. "Well, I was happy to see you. You know it's in a shoulder holster, right?" He goes ahead and pulls off his coat after he gets into the apartment.

Grimm laughs as she steps through and closes the gate. "Ohhh reeeaally? Well, that makes me think of delaying briefly before heading to oktoberfest," she teases. "Perhaps the lederhosen and dirndl can wait," she winks.

Carpenter chuckles and heads into the bedroom to stow his gun. He then also changes clothing quickly, getting into a polo shirt and jeans.

Grimm waits for him to come out. She smiles approvingly, then playfully says, "Awww, no lederhosen? But it's tradition to wear it to oktoberfest!" It's hard to tell if she's serious, or she just wants to see him in that.

Carpenter chuckles. "I don't own any. And don't create an illusion of them, either. I'm good like this." He grabs his coat again and throws that on over it.

Grimm looks a little disappointed. "Aww, okay. Well at least I'm going to dress the part," she chuckles and makes a little flicking gesture from the wrists, down at her clothes. They quickly reconfigure to a less traditional dirndl, with a white blouse, black and grey patterned skirt, and a black apron with bodice. The top half of her hair even ties itself up and back into a braided bun, leaving the rest loose around her shoulders. "Though you do look good like that," she smiles.

Carpenter smiles and looks her over. "You look great. You managed to make it feel Goth-like too."

Grimm smiles at that. "You can make just about anything look goth-like," she says without fully thinking of what might not be gothifiable. That's a word now. "Give me about a minute, and I'll find a safe place to open a portal, okay?"

Carpenter nods. "Okay, sounds good." He waits patiently while she looks for a lcoation to appear in.

Grimm checks her outfit one last time, thinks a moment, and then with a wiggle of her nose, the bow of her apron at her waist switches from the left side to the right side. "Ah, there. That's right." She grins and vanishes in a swirl of darkness. About a minute later, a portal opens, leading to the side of some building on the outside. There's already sounds of music and taking, and it's still light outside.

Carpenter goes ahead and steps through the newly opened gate and looks around. "I hope you picked someplace where I can get away with English." He smiles. "I know most major cities I should be fine in."

"It's Munich. It's fine. I'm sure most people here speak English. Unless they're from another country," Gabrielle chuckles. The portal closes behind him, and she steps up next to him to put her arm around his. "I know a little german. Enough to get us in trouble," she winks and leans up to kiss him on the cheek.

The festival grounds are clean and well kept, paved, and lined with giant buildings all along the main pedestrian only street. Across the way from them is a giant beer 'tent' that looks more like a beer hall and an actual building, with the name "Schottenhamel Spatenbrau" on it. As they step out from the side of the beer hall they're hiding against, all down the street there are beer halls, and street food served outside. Lots of the people are wearing lederhosen and dirndls, but there's plenty of plain-clothes people. There's also massive festival rides in various sections.

Carpenter smiles as he looks around. "You didn't happen to get German money, did you? I'm worried that credit might be an issue and get my cards flagged." He chuckles as he sees the rides. "I'm not sure what I was expecting, but that isn't it."

The whole decor and architecture looks like a bavarian alpine village, but decorated with gazebos and plants, a scattering of cupids and hearts are hidden in the decor for some reason.

Gabrielle leans a little against Jack as they get to just be anonymous tourists in the crowds. Everyone seems happy and cheerful. They approach a festival stand selling a variety of different sized heart-shaped gingerbread cookies. All of them have sayings written in icing on them.

"Ummm, I...did...n't. But I'm sure we can still pay," Gabrielle says hopefully. Though Jack may not approve of she uses her powers to make people think it's german currency, even if they are still technically paying. Dating a detective is tough! "D'awww, hey, look," she reaches for a smaller cookie heart on a stick and turns towards him. It reads: 'Ich liebe dich'.

Carpenter looks at the words and smiles. "Umm....Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb. Does that mean 'I love you'? My German is...pretty non-existent." He looks at her hopefully.

"Yes! For non-existent German skills, you're right, mein Liebling," Gabrielle smiles. She notes the look of hope on his face and suddenly laughs. "Geez. I'm not that bad. And this is a festival of love AND beer, I doubt they're going to have hearts saying what you were probably afraid it was saying!"

Carpenter chuckles. "Well, I was hoping it wasn't wrong. I mean...those little candy hearts now say some dirty things at this point."

There are other cookies that say things like "Du bist so sub" and "Du bist so sexy", so it's not exactly all pure, but nothing as explicit.

Gabrielle smiles and swats for his shoulder playfully. "Well, I guess that -would- fit my sense of humor, but I was trying for sweet," she laughs.

Carpenter smiles and leans over to kiss her temple. "Thank you." He chuckles.

Gabrielle smiles happily at the kiss. "Well, don't thank me yet. We still don't have local currency. How do the other mages manage it? They seem to just conjure money," she laments and returns the cookie to the rack.

Carpenter shrugs, "Maybe they do? Maybe they exchange bills before showing up?"

"Nah, most of them just wave their hands or pull gold from who knows," Gabrielle guesses. "I...honestly should've put more thought into this," she sighs. "But I thought it would be fun. And most Americans don't realize Oktoberfest is also a love festival. The first one was to celebrate King Ludwig the First's wedding. And they kept the tradition going since. So it's like...German valentine's with beer."

Carpenter smiles. "Well, we can at least walk around and look at the sights. That's cool. Bask in the general feeling of the place. If we can find a bank, we might be able to convert some cash."

"Weeeell," Gabrielle says with a higher pitched tone than she usually does. "I could change our cash to euros. Not just an illusion. Like actually change it," she proposes, though she gets the feeling he'll shoot that down since he's so straight and narrow.

Carpenter thinks about it. "What's the exchange rate like? I do feel a little uncomfortable about doing that. But at the same time, people would actually get paid for something, which would be good."

Gabrielle pulls out her phone. "Oh, that's easy! The exchange rates are online." She pulls up that info on Boogle and it's $1.18 to 1 euro. "So...not too bad." She looks up him with a hopeful, pleading expression for permission. "They'd get paid. We'd get to have fun. Everyone wins? No laws broken," she bats her eyelashes at him.

Carpenter nods as he considers it. "I think it's fine. We're actually losing money ourselves to do it."

"Well, we don't got to pay bank fees at least?" Gabrielle offers, though she's excited that's he's willing to go along. She pulls out her wallet from her purse, counts the amount, and uses the calculator to figure out the transfer amount that it's worth. Then she closes her wallet and her eyes, and focuses for a few seconds as dark energy surrounds the wallet. When it fades, she checks inside and pulls out euros. "We're good! This'll be my treat today."

Carpenter raises a brow. "Not an illusion, huh? Neat trick." He smiles.

"Not an illusion. An actual alteration to reality," Gabrielle smiles and leans up to kiss him on the cheek to reassure him. Or maybe seem more guilty.

Carpenter smiles. "Okay, okay. I'll just try to relax then." He chuckles. "Let's go take in the sights."

Gabrielle smiles and gives him a hug. "Yeah, relax. We're anonymous here. No villains. No bad guys to arrest. Just us and fun," she promises.

Carpenter smiles. "Fair enough. Lead the way. I'm guessing you've already scouted around a bit."

"No, but I can feel around a bit to get an idea of where to go. Let's get some beer to loosen up," Gabrielle suggests and grins, leading him along the wide concrete fairground. There's lots of grassy areas on the side, massive beer halls that can house thousands of people in each one. There's fair rides up ahead, which seems like a bad idea for a drinking festival, but maybe if you lose your lunch/drinks, you'll need to order more.

Lots of people are dressed in lederhosen and dirndl's, so Grimm isn't so out of place. There's lots of couples and everyone seems pretty happy. She leads him along to the Hofbrau drinking hall.

Carpenter smiles and relaxes, following her over toward the drinking hall. "I'm a little surprised to see everyone in the traditional clothing, honestly. I figured that was like...a stereotype."

There are still some people dressed in plain clothes, so it's a mix. Neither one of them are out of place. Some of the Lederhosen looks a bit more modern, others are very traditional. "It...both is and isn't. People have fun dressing up. It's like... dunno, Ren Faire? You've been to Ren Faire before, right?"

Carpenter looks surprised, "The medieval thing? Nope, never been. Is it fun?"

Grimm gasps at Jack. "What?! Yes, of course it's fun! We've got to go. And you've got to dress up," she grins.

Carpenter chuckles. "Dress up? As like...a serf, or something?"

Grimm laughs and leans against him playfully. "If you want to be -my- serf, sure. But you could dress as anything. Not just renaissance period. Some people go more medieval. Some go a bit fantasy. You could be a swashbuckler. A noble. A dashing rogue. A shining knight."

Carpenter smiles. "I heard of some people dressing as Star Trek folks. I found that kind of funny, honestly." He puts an arm around Grimm.

Grimm slides an arm around him as she tucks in close. "Some also go as time travelers. There's a steampunk weekend, but I don't know why. So I guess there's no major rules. But I could craft up any costume you want," she offers as they reach the big Hofbrau-Festzelt tent.

White and blue checked banners fly that say HB Munchen. There's even an HB crest on the outside. It looks like a real building instead of a tent, and while there's a crowd, they just have to slow their walk to get inside. Once inside, everything looks like a huge open beer hall with wooden decks, benches, elevated seating areas, a second floor. The roof, however, is a white tent fabric.

Carpenter lets out a long whistle as he looks around the interior. "Wow. Much bigger than I expected." He slowly takes in the entire view, "I guess...we should get some beer." He grins.

Grimm needs a moment to take it all in, too. She felt it, but seeing it is something else. "I ...guess they -really- take Oktoberfest seriously. I've never seen anything like this back home." She's smiling in excitement and gives him a squeeze. "We'd better!" she grins back at him. There's several bars dispensing beer at rapid place. It's practically free flowing. She leads them in that direction. As they past tables, there's plenty of people drinking, but also eating food. At some tables, people are dancing on tables to the music. No one is having a problem with that.

Carpenter smiles, watching the dancing. "I might need a couple before I start doing anything like that." He then adds as an afterthought, "We need to get some food, too."

That gets a smile from Gabrielle. "Ooooo, so you might be up for that?" she teases, though is excited by the prospect. "I'm paying for all your beers, then. All of the beers," she emphasizes. "I don't think I've ever seen you really inebriated. Or even what three-drink Jack looks like." She nods at the food offerings. They get to the bar fairly quick. Grimm exchanges some broken german with the man and slips over some euros, and they're given three massive steins of beer. There's also a cafe counter to order food closer to the side of the hall. "I bet the pretzel's here are legit."

Carpenter laughs. "There's a reason for that. I'm usually carrying a firearm. Booze and firearms don't mix well. Though I guess that don't preclude me getting drunk at home." He takes the beers from Grimm, "Go ahead and get some food too. Your German is way better than mine."

Grimm chuckles at that. "Good point. I guess our dates will have to be with you unarmed from now on," she winks. She smiles as he takes the beers for her. "Okay. You get us a table, then? It's like...hall seating. People share where there's space."

Carpenter nods. "Mmm...got it. Share space. That'll take some getting used to." He smiles and heads to try to find a seat someplace.

Gabrielle smiles and gives him a kiss on his cheek before they split up. There's lots of people, and the rows are crowded. There's some space for maybe three people that he spots. He just needs to squeeze his way there.

Carpenter slips between a couple of drunk singers...and then has to spin to avoid a women who trips but catches herself before toppling to the floor. He manages to get to the table without spilling anything.