Oktoberfest; Iconic 200 year old German festivity steeped in tradition and history? Monumental booze up whereby tens of thousands of people from all over the world swim about in a multi-cultural melting pot posing as a vast ocean of the finest brews Deutschland has on offer? A bloody good time?
All of the above!
No sooner had my morbidly obese backpack hit the floor of the new London lodgings did I find myself once again rolling up what was now effectivly all my worldly possessions and jetting off into the sunset once again.
"Welcome to Munchen" read the sign; either Munchen translated into Munich or I was in for one frightfully quiet Oktoberfest, spent with half a dozen other ignorant saps crying into our lonely steines wondering where it all went wrong. Nope judging by the amount inebriates littering the streets as we made our way to the Pension Locarno that night, we were either in Munich "Home of Oktoberfest" or this place called Munchen had a problem with alcohol that made Menzies look like a town of tee-tottlers.
After a reasonable nights sleep and a hearty european breakfast, our small circle of fellow Londonites, comprised primarily of Kiwis and Aussies decided to head down to the festival. The first thing you notice about Octoberfest is sheer scale of the thing, reportedly 6 million revelers will pass through the gates over the 16 days of the festival during which some 6 million beverages will be consumed. There are about 30 beer tents which are more like halls, the biggest accomodating up to 5000 people at any one time. A live band typically takes center stage inside most of the halls; entertaining the masses with traditional german folk/pop and classic american renditions. If you don't know the German national anthem before you go to Oktoberfest you certainly have a rough idea by time you leave given it's recited roughly every hour on the hour.
Unfortunatley for us arriving at 10am was nowhere near early enough as most of the beer halls were found to be 50+ punters deep with people waiting to get in. Eventually settling for a table at one of the many ajoining beer gardens we were quickly greeted by our veteran festival hostess Silvia, who couldn't help but quickly impress on us her ability to carry up to 10 full steines for fun...I'm sure had the good lord blessed her with longer arms she could have carried a couple more. Four and a half steines and one giant pretzle later my afternoon had quickly coalesced into a blur of Italians singing, New Zealanders bareing arses and well everybody and intent on just enjoying themselves without any signs of aminosity or violence one would expect to see with this amount of people and alcohol involved.
Beer halls aside, Oktoberfest also offers drinkers the chance to line there stomachs with plenty of food; vendors peddling outrageously long sausages, giant pretzals and big bags of pom-fritz (french fries). And then there is the avenue, should the mood strike you, to throw everything up, by partaking in one of the many amusement rides, rollercoasters and the like.
Couldn't recommend Oktoberfest highly enough to anyone who hasn't already experienced it...afterall 16 million people can't be wrong.
