Oktoberfest!!

Oktoberfest is like a drunken state fair x100. Or maybe even x1000. It's pretty incredible. First of all, the space is huge, covered with all removable structures - the beer houses are taken down every year and put back up again. There are carnival rides, including a pretty legit roller coaster, and carnival games like knock all the cans over throwing the ball at them, or toss a ring around a stuffed animal prize.



And then the food. Oh the food. They have these carmelized almonds which are heavenly. They also have all sorts of meat products, the names of which I can't even attempt to spell here. And whole chickens. You just buy a whole fried chicken and eat it with your hands. Fantastic!

In the beer houses, it's chaos. Some are more, um, sedate, than others. We spent the majority of the time in a pretty amped up beer house with excellent music. The music ranges from traditional Bavarian and German songs, to good ole USA classics like Sweet Caroline.


And then there's the fancy dress. Lederhosen for the guys and dirndls for the ladies. It's amazing how many men will squeeze into the tight lederhosen pants and wear such an outfit that in any other setting outside Bavaria would be considered a pretty decent Halloween costume. The women are the interesting, because you have the older generation that have bought real dirndls (for prices like 800 euros!) which are super cool, and then you have the actual Halloween costume dirndls, that are not such good quality. I myself bought a discount second hand dirndl (of course), from, oh, probably about 20 years ago. Hahahaha! But I love it. The best part is that I used my friend's actual apron that didn't quite match. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but I enjoyed the cultural experience for sure!