You can always tell that Oktoberfest is near as you see an increase of lederhosen and dirndls as you walk around Munich. Today Oktoberfest started and we went to the parade. The parade on the first day is all the local breweries. The last wagon arrives at the Oktoberfest grounds just before 12:00. At 12:00 the mayor of Munich taps the first beer keg indicating the start of all the Oktoberfest festivities. This is the mayor’s most important task of the year. We attempted to walk through the grounds but there were way too many people on the first day, which one could expect.
On Sunday there is another parade that is more of the traditional dress from various areas around Bavaria. Today was cold and rainy, so we didn’t watch too much of the parade.
We went with the ski club to Oktoberfest as they have a box reserved. This box area has seating for about 100 of your closest friends and I think we had about 125 or so in our area. I guess they were trying to squeeze as many people inside since the weather was so bad outside.
Since our box area had a floor above us you could hardly hear the band, so Jay and I went to another tent which had more “American” music and we had a great time. We were able to squeeze in at a table that was close to the band.
Monday night Jay had someone from the states here, so back to Oktoberfest we went. Jay's friend was amazed at the size of the tents and how many people were inside. This time we were able to get into one of the tents known for the younger crowd. Way too many drunk people, but they were very funny to watch.
Tuesday Jay went to Oktoberfest with a group for lunch. Can you imagine this happening in the US? Leaving the office for several hours and having a few liters of beer and then going back to work. I am sure some of them didn’t make it back to work.
We met some friends on Thursday night at Oktoberfest and of course had another good time. It is really funny just watching all the drunks. In the tents later in the evening, nobody is sitting at the tables; everyone is standing on the benches. It still amazes me that we have only seen a few people fall off the benches.
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