Oktoberfest(ivity)
I've got to hand it to those Germans - they know how to throw a great
party.
Oktoberfest was originally held by a king/lord/something of Munich to
celebrate his daughters birthday/wedding/something about 130 years ago. It
went so well that the people of Munich decided that it should become an
annual event. These days it lasts 16 or so days and has seating for 100,000
people, I'm not sure how many people visit the festival in total but it's,
like you know, a lot...
The atmosphere at Oktoberfest is somewhat similar to the Easter show, but
instead of animals or vegetables on display, 14 of the local breweries
offer samples* of their beers. It's similar to the Easter show in that
there are heaps of rides and stalls selling food or souvenirs around. It's
different in that it's not only the kids that are excited to be there. The
adults are too - they get to drink beer!
Similarly to Pamplona and the running of the bulls, I was surprised at how
many of the people there were locals. I'd got the impression that
Oktoberfest was about backpackers (particularly Aussies & Kiwi's) taking
over the town for two weeks while only a few really brave or really drunk
locals came out with them. This couldn't be further from the truth. There
were a lot of backpackers but there heaps of locals and Germans who'd
travelled from other parts of the country there too.
The waitresses are mostly over 40 years old (some a lot over) and yet they
push and step their way through the packed beer halls with all the nimbless
and agility of Mark Gasnier** slipping through the oppositions backline,
all the time carrying up to 15 steins of cold, fresh, beautiful German beer
in their arms. It's pretty amazing to watch from the safety of standing (or
sitting if it's early in the day) on your seat. It can quite intimidating
and a little frightening if you're on the ground and get in their way!
We were pretty generous tippers of our waitress on the first day (paying
€10 per stein when I think they were worth about €7.50) so she ended up
loving us. At the end of the night I managed to talk her into giving me her
badge that all the waitresses were wearing which, as far as I'm aware, you
couldn't buy anywhere so that'll make a cool souvenir.
The beer tents all get really really full and it can take a while to find a
seat at a table and you need to be sitting down to be served. I don't know
why cause as soon as you get your beer you can stand up and walk around...
Anyway, once you get a table it's best to stick with it and for this reason
we only saw the inside of a couple of the tents but I think that the rest
of them would have been somewhat similar. Somewhere in the middle of the
tent is a stage for the band, the floor is full of tables and chairs for
everyone and around the outside are the bars, toilets, kitchens etc.
Throughout the day the band will play and people sing along. As everyone
gets drunker they start singing louder and stand up on the chairs and dance
as well. When the band stops playing everyone just talks to everyone else
until the band starts up again. As everyone drinks more they just
friendlier and friendlier. There is hardly any violence there which
wouldn't happen in Australia. Judging from cricket and footy crowds serving
that much beer to that many Australians would result in heaps of fights.
I've got some funny stories to tell from Oktoberfest but they're not really
G rated so I'll leave them for another time.
Also, one morning while we were down there, to give our livers a break, we
went to a former concentration camp. It's called Dachau and was the first
concentration camp built by the Nazis. It was a good experience to see a
little of what the conditions would have been like for the political
prisoners that were held there, but unfortunately we didn't have enough
time to spend in the museum to read more about how they were treated.
Anyway, that's all for me at the moment. Bye for now,
Pete
* One litre sized samples
** Dragons footy player for all of you who don't live in NSW or those who
do live in NSW but don't support the Dragons (shame on you...)
party.
Oktoberfest was originally held by a king/lord/something of Munich to
celebrate his daughters birthday/wedding/something about 130 years ago. It
went so well that the people of Munich decided that it should become an
annual event. These days it lasts 16 or so days and has seating for 100,000
people, I'm not sure how many people visit the festival in total but it's,
like you know, a lot...
The atmosphere at Oktoberfest is somewhat similar to the Easter show, but
instead of animals or vegetables on display, 14 of the local breweries
offer samples* of their beers. It's similar to the Easter show in that
there are heaps of rides and stalls selling food or souvenirs around. It's
different in that it's not only the kids that are excited to be there. The
adults are too - they get to drink beer!
Similarly to Pamplona and the running of the bulls, I was surprised at how
many of the people there were locals. I'd got the impression that
Oktoberfest was about backpackers (particularly Aussies & Kiwi's) taking
over the town for two weeks while only a few really brave or really drunk
locals came out with them. This couldn't be further from the truth. There
were a lot of backpackers but there heaps of locals and Germans who'd
travelled from other parts of the country there too.
The waitresses are mostly over 40 years old (some a lot over) and yet they
push and step their way through the packed beer halls with all the nimbless
and agility of Mark Gasnier** slipping through the oppositions backline,
all the time carrying up to 15 steins of cold, fresh, beautiful German beer
in their arms. It's pretty amazing to watch from the safety of standing (or
sitting if it's early in the day) on your seat. It can quite intimidating
and a little frightening if you're on the ground and get in their way!
We were pretty generous tippers of our waitress on the first day (paying
€10 per stein when I think they were worth about €7.50) so she ended up
loving us. At the end of the night I managed to talk her into giving me her
badge that all the waitresses were wearing which, as far as I'm aware, you
couldn't buy anywhere so that'll make a cool souvenir.
The beer tents all get really really full and it can take a while to find a
seat at a table and you need to be sitting down to be served. I don't know
why cause as soon as you get your beer you can stand up and walk around...
Anyway, once you get a table it's best to stick with it and for this reason
we only saw the inside of a couple of the tents but I think that the rest
of them would have been somewhat similar. Somewhere in the middle of the
tent is a stage for the band, the floor is full of tables and chairs for
everyone and around the outside are the bars, toilets, kitchens etc.
Throughout the day the band will play and people sing along. As everyone
gets drunker they start singing louder and stand up on the chairs and dance
as well. When the band stops playing everyone just talks to everyone else
until the band starts up again. As everyone drinks more they just
friendlier and friendlier. There is hardly any violence there which
wouldn't happen in Australia. Judging from cricket and footy crowds serving
that much beer to that many Australians would result in heaps of fights.
I've got some funny stories to tell from Oktoberfest but they're not really
G rated so I'll leave them for another time.
Also, one morning while we were down there, to give our livers a break, we
went to a former concentration camp. It's called Dachau and was the first
concentration camp built by the Nazis. It was a good experience to see a
little of what the conditions would have been like for the political
prisoners that were held there, but unfortunately we didn't have enough
time to spend in the museum to read more about how they were treated.
Anyway, that's all for me at the moment. Bye for now,
Pete
* One litre sized samples
** Dragons footy player for all of you who don't live in NSW or those who
do live in NSW but don't support the Dragons (shame on you...)
posted by pete @ 6:02 AM
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