Oktoberfest Digest

After the MESS, we had 10 days off from rehearsal with the SPO, so Matt and I decided to go to Munich for Oktoberfest. How often do you actually have the opportunity to do something like that? After a 16-hour bus ride and a much-needed German style breakfast, Matt and I set out for the Oktoberfest grounds. What we found surprised both of us.

See, I thought that Oktoberfest consisted of just a bunch of tents that served expensive but tastey liters of beer and people sitting around singing drinking songs all the time. I didn't realize that it was actually a carnival. What a horrible idea, lol. Let's all drink liters of beer and then go on a roller coaster. There's something that your stomach will love. We passed many different types of rides on our way to the beer tents: traditional roller coasters, dizzying rides, the drop of death, and carousels with swings. There was even a freak show and a haunted house. The only difference between the scene outside of the tents and a big American fair (like, say, the Minnesota State Fair) is that instead of a million different kinds of fried food, they have soft pretzles, bratwurst, and leberkäse.

About half the people at Oktoberfest wore traditional Bavarian clothes. The men's outfits varied from läderhosen and a normal shirt to the läderhosen plus knee-high socks, matching shirt, and feathered hat. Simiarly, the womens' outfits combined tradition with modern style. Some women wore the darker colored dirndles that are at least knee-length with a sleeved white undershirt. But then there were women who wore shorter dirndles that were bright pink or neon green and barely any undershirt. At least I didn't see anybody wearing the halloween costumes you see in the US. I may or may not have given in and bought a traditional dirndl. :)

As you would expect, the scene inside the beer tents (or Festhalle) was quite a spectacle. We learned quickly that you shouldn't stand still on the outside of the seating area even to scout out a free table. Either the waitresses will run you over while carrying 7 liters of beer or a security guard will tell you to keep on moving. There are at least 200 tables that seat 10 friendly people in the tent, and a raised platform in the center of the tent has a polka band with all the typical instruments plus wagner tuba. They play everything from American songs to traditional German drinking songs. It seemed like the traditional German/Bavarian songs happened during the day. Later in the night though, they started singing American pop songs in German. I couldn't even sing along in English because I was so distracted by Hey Jude being in German.

After 2 days of Oktoberfest, Matt and I had a chance to explore Munich for a couple of days. We needed a change of pace from the excitement of Oktoberfest. We went on half of the New Europe walking tour, which I actually did the last time I was in Munich. It was okay though because I had forgotten a lot of what I had learned the first time. I can't believe that I forgot the story about the Devil's Footprint in the Frauenkirche though. Basically, the devil struck a deal with the architect to help him build the church as long as he didn't include any windows. The architect was clever enough to hide the windows from the devil on the initial inspection, but when he returned after it was completed, he saw the windows. See, during the devil's first visit to the church, he only looked at it from the doorway. After it was completed, he took a few steps inside, where he could see past the columns to the windows. The devil was angry and stomped in the foyer, leaving a footprint that you can still see today.

While wandering around Munich after the tour, Matt and I were fortunate enough to run into the best street musicians. Our favorite was the duo of accordians we stumbled upon when they were playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. It made our day. I wrote down a name I saw on the cds they had propped up on their case, but apparently, that was just a composer who wrote a piece they recorded and not their group's name. They played at Karlstor both days we were there. We also saw a drumming group that put on an exciting show in the English Gardens during our last day.

During our stay in Munich, Matt and I realized that everybody had the same reaction when we told them what we were up to. They thought we were crazy...even the people who just decided to drop everything for a month or so and backpack across Europe without a definite plan. The Germans we met at Oktoberfest were just confused. I'm not sure they understood why anybody would move to Bosnia for a year. Why not? Yeah, I enjoyed being out of Bosnia where I could breathe clean air, practice my German, and take advantage a few more of the conveniences I'm used to in the States (like a dryer), but by the third day, Matt and I were feeling nostalgic. We decided to sit down at an outdoor cafe in Karlsplatz and enjoy a nice, long cup of coffee, Bosnian style.