Monday, October 22, 2007

polka like it's 1999

As promised, here's my Oktoberfest 2007 photo essay:

willkommen zum oktoberfest
This sign welcomed us to the fairgrounds.

locals and frat boys
Horses pulled wagonloads of beer to the various halls. Locals and tourists alike get their pictures taken with the horses and wagons.

jim and spatenbrau kegs

hippodrom
The beer tents are huge temporary structures, with each tent catering to a specific crowd. Our beer tent for two nights, the Hippodrom, gets a supposedly younger, hipper crowd.

i know this song!
These guys look neither young, nor hip. But they liked to sing along, and loudly.

horses over hippodrom
Inside the Hippodrom, lots of lederhosen, dirndl, food, singing along with oompah-pah music, and beer.

suckling pig and potato balls
I dined on suckling pig and potato balls.

steven, sarah and the bigass pretzel
Steven and Sarah split a pretzel.

Kaj hoists a cold one
Everyone (like Kaj pictured here) kept toasting, so we kept drinking.

chad and mary ellen drinking
So did Chad and Mary Ellen.

my beers
I discovered earlier, in Heidelberg, that three liters of beer is my limit.

four more beers please
I tried to order a few more beers. I never learn.

don't take my picture
I was denied.

wall of steins
Behind the scenes, more steins at the ready. But I'd had enough and there was a whole fairground outside, full of more food, beer, and roller coasters.

Before we left the tent, we hit the toiletten, where I saw this sign... for ass containers?
ass container?

mause circus
Winner for the weirdest attraction - the mause circus.

Instead, we loaded up on souvenirs.
beer steins
toys of oktoberfest
stack of oktoberfest hats

One aspect of Oktoberfest that I enjoyed but didn't get a chance to photograph was the beery-go-round. You guessed it, it was like a merry-go-round, but instead of children riding on toy horses on a carousel of sorts, there was a bar in the middle dispensing liters of beer and adults stood on the revolving platform, drinking. After exiting the Hippodrom tent the first night, we stumbled onto the beery-go-round, which also seemed to be the gathering spot for American tourists. I stood there, drinking a liter and watching the Oktoberfest and fairgrounds whizzing past me in a drunken blur. Pretty.

auf wiedersehen sign
Finally, it was time to go. At least once in your lifetime, do check out Oktoberfest in Munich. It was a blast.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love ya, but dayum you look wasted in that picture.

Nanette said...

Beautiful pics! And it looks like you had such a blast!