polka like it's 1999

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


This sign welcomed us to the fairgrounds.


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




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.


These guys look neither young, nor hip. But they liked to sing along, and loudly.


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


I dined on suckling pig and potato balls.


Steven and Sarah split a pretzel.


Everyone (like Kaj pictured here) kept toasting, so we kept drinking.


So did Chad and Mary Ellen.


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


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


I was denied.


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?



Winner for the weirdest attraction - the mause circus.

Instead, we loaded up on souvenirs.




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.


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