Sometimes, I guess, a country just has to let it all hang out. Germany, a comparitively orderly, sensible sort of a culture, lets off some serious steam in Munich, once a year! We didn't see any other signs of celebration (little Oktoberfests) in other towns (like the one we had in La Mesa, for example). Just Munich. Oktoberfest is CRAZY big! Huge grounds (the “Wies’n”)! It’s an open area in the middle of Munich that accommodates a fun zone the size of Delaware (well, almost). Rollercoasters, ferris wheels, other rides that throw humans around like so many socks in a dryer! CRAMMED with people—at least 1/3 of whom are wearing traditional Bavarian dirndl dresses or lederhosen outfits—really! Little kids to old people! Food everywhere! Beer, even more places than food! Humungous barns (“tents”), each sponsored by
a brewery (we were inside the Paulaner tent), stuffed with thousands of singing, drinking, dancing party heads, giant band high in the center, leading the festivities, nonstop! Everybody seems to know all the words to all the songs, no matter what language (the first song we heard was “YMCA”). Total sensory overload, whether
one is inside or outside the barns! We were there on a weekend (especially wild) and the middle weekend, at that (out of 16 days—Sept.22 through Oct.7), when, apparently, about half of Italy comes to the party. 
marched around playing on kazoos, some the size and shape of tubas and other horns! There’s a big river (Iser) running through it all (that's me, helpfully pointing to it), and, along side, the biggest city park in Europe—the “Englische Garten”, of all things. Whilst strolling through the trees in relative bucolic peace, one can come upon, without warning, another few thousand people in a beer garden, singing at the top of their lungs to a big band, a jazz group grooving away under a tree, or just a naked guy or two, basking along the creek, sunny side up, so to speak. In just a couple of days, there’s no way to see it all (Munich, that is)!
To be continued...
