OKTOBERFEST!!!

After some minor set backs such as being flown into a tiny airport on the boarder of Switzerland due to fog, realizing that I do not have my pin code for my cell phone that is not working in Germany, and a few trains, buses, S-Bahns and U-Bahns later I arrived at the infamous Oktoberfest in Munich. We right away headed to the Hofbrau House ( the very firts original beer house) to get our first beer which of course was delicious. The entire city is packed with drunken idiots... I don't even know how such a holiday could exist or be legal. Usually it is the tourists who get drunkest when they travel but definitely not in this case, the locals take off from work and visit the tents almost on a daily basis for the two strait weeks in their lederhosen and dindrls (traditional outfits that they were everywhere not only to the tents during Oktoberfest). I then met up with all of the German Ukrainians that I know and we went to my friends Sonja's house because she was cooking all of the Ukrainians dinner. I was pleasantly surprised to find ukies from the United States, Paris, England and Germany, there were about 25 of us.

The next morning we woke up nearly at the crack of dawn in order to make sure that we got a table in the Paulaner Tent which I guess is an annual tradition because the ribbons on the top of the tent are blue and yellow (Ukrainian colors). I stayed with the Sammer family (which has six kids and is clearly a great time) they even had an extra dindrl outfit that I was able to borrow to wear to Oktoberfest, I looked like a true Bavarian girl. As we weaved through Oktoberfest to reach the Paulaner tent my german girlfriends and I were stopped several times by tourists asking to take their picture with us. I used what little German I remembered from freshman year and was able to fool them... they thought they were getting an authentic picture with German beer girls but little did they know that I was from New York, I thought this was hysterical. The general atmosphere of Oktoberfest is happy, people do not seem to have a care in the world besides drinking steins of beer. Each tent has extravagent decorations and some have amusement park size mugs on top of them... tents that were included were Paulaner, Spaaten, Augustiner, Hofbrau, Fischer, Braursol, Hippodrome just to name a few. There were stands with any German food that you could think of from chocolate covered fruit to bratwursts that are a foot long. There were also roller coasters and other rides and outside every single tent is a little beer garden to sit in if you do not want to go inside or cannot get in. Inside the Paulaner tent were thousands of people all packed into wooden tables absolutely covered with steins of beer. The waitresses were the most impressive, they were able to carry 6 steins in each hand, I had a hard time just holding one. There is a live band in every tent and they sing alot of German songs but then randomly break out into The Twist or other classic American songs to which everyone sings along. Every half an hour they sing a song to which you are supposed to chears you neighbors called "Ein Prosit" its bizarre, you jump up on your bench and then just clank mugs with everyone around you singing the song. In the tent I had the largest most delicious pretzel, the Germans definitly do it right. After about seven hours in the tent we came out for fresh air and headed to the Englisher Garten where the true Beer garden is outside. Here we had dinner and another stein and then later in the night still in our German get up heading to a club where my friend Edgar works. Everyone there was in German traditional costumes.

The next morning we went to this beautiful lake called Starnberg Lake where apparently all the upscale Germans have houses. Here we had lunch on the water and took a break from the craziness of Oktoberfest. Later on in the day we headed back to the tents and hopped around a bunch of the tents then went to the Hofbrau house and then came home. I left very early the next morning and I know I must come back for the amazingly fun holiday and this time I will come prepared with my very own dindrl.

Tschoss ( its a form of goodbye in Deutsch),

Tania