Oktoberfest 2010!

Yes, it's that time of year again when the Theresienwiese fairgrounds (known locally as the "Wies'n") host the world's largest fair.

I've had a blog post on it each year since I've been here and so there's really not a whole lot new to say. This year, however, was my first time going in the tents.

I made a few trips to the Wies'n (our church is right down the street after all). Perhaps the most interesting was the first trip. I was teaching a week-long intensive English course. It was Thursday and my student had worked hard and was a bit tired so he suggested we go to the Wiesn in the afternoon and have English there. What the customer wants, the customer gets...

I told him we could park at my church and so we drove there, parked the car, and then headed off to the fairgrounds. This student is actually from Ulm, which is between Munich and Stuttgart, and he works in Augsburg, so he had only been to Oktoberfest once as a child.

We walked around and explored, and even tucked into a few tents. Meanwhile I tried keeping the English side of things lively with various questions.

Here we are in the Hofbräu Tent....

Afterwords, we went back to the church where we had a glass of water and I gave him a little tour of the place. Not bad, getting paid to sight-see around Oktoberfest and then give a tour of the church!

Oktoberfest can be fun and interesting but it can also be a big pain when going to and from church fighting through the crowds. One night after our Young Men's activity, I accompanied two of the young men to the S-bahn station. It was about 10pm on a Friday, it was raining, and as we walked to the S-bahn we saw drunk people passed out, passing out, and about to pass out along the sidewalks and streets, some people were shouting and singing loudly, a group of tipsy girls started grabbing at our jackets at one point. I told the boys to just pretend they were in a zombie movie. It actually fit the scene really well. Luckily there was a very large police presence everywhere so things rarely get out of hand.

I returned a couple of other times to the Wiesn for some photos. Even walking to the grounds is a fascinating experience as you see all kinds of people.

And animals...

This year was the 200th Jubilee Anniversary of Oktoberfest. It began as a wedding party for the royal Wittlesbach family where all of Munich was invited to watch a horse race. It's continued more or less consistently ever since...

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

I even took my first climb inside the statue of Bavaria that overlooks the Wiesn...

Inside...

The form of the lion's head...

The southern half of the Wiesn...

You don't mess with those beer maids...

This tent was funny, nearly everyone was middle-aged and all were singing along to the cheesy music (some dancing on the benches)...

This one actually wasn't a beer tent but a pastry tent full of Bavarian pastries...

Cookies...

This is one of my favorites, an old lady in a wheel-chair biting away at her cotton candy...

On P-day the elders invited me to come with them and another YSA to the Wiesn (don't worry, they had permission :-) We rode the ride that lifts you up high with a view across all of Munich and then drops you suddenly...

After our ride we went into the Paulaner tent for the true Oktoberfest experience. We sat at a table and ordered four alcohol-free steins. The server said, "they're not going to believe me when I go back there and ask for that many alcohol-free beers to bring out."

Here they are...

So we clinked glasses and said, "Prost!" and drank up. Honestly, regular alcohol-free beer isn't all that tasty. But when in Munich...

Don't worry, we were mindful of the Word of Wisdom and it's discouragement of alcohol and its encouragement of "barley... for mild drinks." We even saw another church member from our ward sitting nearby with friends. She had a stein as well!


So that was Oktoberfest this year. I'm glad it's over, though, and can have a peaceful walk to and from church.


Here are the stats from Oktoberfest 2009:

Visitors:	6.2 million
Beer:	appr. 69.406 hl + 1.269 hl of non-alkoholic beer
Wine:	79.624 litres
Sparkling wine:	32.047 litres
Coffee, tea:	222.725 litres
Water, lemonade:	909.765 1/2 litres
Chicken:	521.872 units
Pork sausages:	142.253 pairs
Fish:	38.650 kg
Pork knuckles:	58.446 units
Oxen:	104 units

And here are a few pictures from Oktoberfest last year and the year before, since some things don't change...

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