Sunday 4 October 2009

Oktoberfest


Imagine the utter horror – you’re young and carefree and your boss tells you he’s sending you to Munich for a work conference in the middle of Oktoberfest... So it’s not my usual Mediterranean haunt but it’s definitely something worth visiting Germany for. We had an area booked in the Windl tent – it’s big enough to sit 8.5k people inside and a further 5k people outside. As you can see from the picture, it was fairly packed. The atmosphere is great – you order your huge steins of beer or radlers (beer with a lemonade top for those less hardcore beer guzzlers like me) and these women dressed in dirndl carry them 8-10 at a time to your table. This is no small feat – I struggled with even one, having to use both hands everytime I wanted a sip. The food was great – not a single wurst in sight – and there’s a live band in the middle who play a medley of Bavarian classics, old school pop and every other song is a Bavarian drinking song. Pretty early on, everyone as far as the eye could see was on the table, singing, toasting, dancing and generally being merry. It was really good fun and I even managed to turn up to my 9am meeting the following day in a vaguely coherent state!

The town itself is beautiful too – a real chocolate box setting. Cute little houses in pastel colours with climbing ivy and wooden window frames. One of the first things to strike you is how tidy the streets are, which just adds to the pleasantness of the city. In the same town, there is the ultra modern BMW World which showcases the latest in luxury cars in an amazing torque-defying glass structure that looks like a twisted cone and then you see the Siemens building which looks more like an Austrian stately home – I half expected the Von Trapp kids to come running down the stairs singing about their favourite things! It was election weekend, so every street corner had photos of Angela Merkel and her peers which was possibly the only scary thing I saw the whole week...

This week we are moving office. Only across the courtyard so that now we face the church. It’s very odd how many churches there are in the City of London. I work less than 5 minutes walk from St Paul’s cathedral but my office shares a courtyard with another church and from our top floor, there are plenty more church spires dotted all over the place. There’s even a masonic temple hidden in the inner bowls of one of the older hotels. Anyhow, I’ve got 4 years of paper to sort through this week. Fun fun fun!

3 comments:

  1. SOunds like fun! (even if I don't like beer, lol!)

    What a coincidence... I just talked to a friend in Spain last night, wanted to tease him about the crazy evening going on in Liège 'cause I knew it would make him jealous... and turns out he was with the rest of our friends in Calpe (an hour north of Alicante) in the middle of Oktoberfest!

    Now before you ask... yes Calpe is in Spain, yes I said Oktoberfest... the thing is there is a scary amount of Germans living in the region and they've been organising "their" oktoberfest for quite a few years now! I'm told it's quite "authentic"! Will have to check it out next year if I'm back home...

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  2. words cannot express my jealousy. I would kill to go to Munich for Oktoberfest. You're one lucky girl!

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  3. Hey how great!My boyfriend would so liked to go there!Each year he says next year!Maybe next year!LOL

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