I had heard that it was like the mother of all Frat parties. I had expected crowds and copius amounts of public drunkeness, but nothing prepares you for the scale of this. Literally tens of thousands of people drinking, eating and singing. And then a few hours later, drinking, eating, singing, falling down, expressing their love for strangers, and generally devolving into incoherance. It is a little staggering is the amount of human carnage that develops as the day rolls on. I will refrain from a full description but suffice to say I saw more than one young gentleman fall into the urinal in the WC. Oktoberfest is not all degenerate behavior, but you don't have to look far to find it.
On our first day , we arrived very early because we didn't have any tent tickets. Fortunately, the weather was amazing after an evening rain and we found an outdoor section of the Paulaner tent. We were joined by a couple of Brits and a lovely young Aussie/Bavarian and her lovely Bavarian/Bavarian friend. (We referred to her as Bavarian Cameron Diaz, because that is who she looked like). The Aussie/Bavarian was quite a good promoter of Australian tourism. ("You have to hold a Koala, they pee all over you, it's wonderful"). Hard to argue with that kind of enthusiasm.
I would be remiss at this point if I did not mention the dirndl. The dirndl is the traditional dress of Bavarian women and it is amazing the variety that you see at Oktoberfest. Everything from the traditional demure dirndl to truly shockingly revealing dirndls. In almost all varieties however, the 'ahem' bosom, is prominantly displayed. I tried to talk SWMBO into getting one under the theory "When in Rome" but she refused. Maybe another time.
Most of the afternoon at the Paulaner tent was quite good. There were only a couple of altercations involving a Polish Tablemate and his "girlfriend". The best part was Polish guy's friend restraining him which caused the girlfriend to take the opportunity to get a couple of vicious right hooks in. One to the ribs and one to head. Those natural instincts can't be trained. I think she could be a contender.
German Oktoberfest beers are served in one liter measures which frankly are a challenge to the bladder. It makes the small 33 cl glasses of Belgian strong ale look much more efficient. One would think that the volume alone would be a barrier to people getting completely crippled and yet the evidence to the contrary was easy to find.
The second day was much more civilized, She Who Must Be Obeyed has a college friend who lives in Munich and she scored us some tickets to the Ochsenbraterei Tent, where we sat on the upper level, out of the fray. The photo with the Blue and White streamers is from that tent. SWMBO and I were happy to be up top but I think my brother would have preferred to be in the middle of the action. For us however, it was great. We spent the evening with a bunch of fun people, sang Neil Diamond and Jon Denver songs (I didn't understand that either) and had a really good time.
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