EuroTrip - Day 14

October Fest - Bas Naam Hi Kaafi Hai

If in one day we could found out about any one religion in Munich, it's got to be that of drinking bear. October Fest is the place to be to learn about it. The Bavarian world comes alive in its full charm for the 15 days of festive time. As soon as you board any train heading to Munich, you can start feeling the energy. People dressed in traditional Bavarian attire start enjoying the fest well before even reaching Munich. Bear starts flowing on the train itself. Where else in the world can you see people boarding again with 12 cans of bear in hand?

As soon as the train reaches Munich, the atmosphere becomes fully charged up. On the station, you have your first interaction with the crazy crowd of October Fest. The traditional dressing of Bavarian region include Haferlschuhe (men's shoe with shoelaces on the side), Loferl (half sock which covers a man's calf), Kurze (lederhose which does not quite reach the knee) etc. In no place have I seen so many nice girls dressed so beautifully and traditionally. Head gears include hats from normal cowboy hat type to those with devil horns. There are many funny ones too like those with bear barrels or the one with lighted rabbit ears. Many of the people sported the memorabilia Tshirt from the previous editions of fest as well as some personalized ones (many of them wore group designs and region based prints).

All the roads lead to October Fest so just follow the crowd and you are bound to reach the most happening place in the town. At the entrance, a grand welcome awaits everyone. "Willkommen to October Fest" says the banner put on the entrance and once there you know that you have arrived somewhere.

The fest arena has big tents put up by most of the major bear producers in this country. The tents (of the size of atleast half the football field) host all the guests on tables that are as cramped as you can imagine. Who cares if while dancing or shouting your hand hits the person on the next table. He is just going to get up and and say "Cheers" after doing a loud bang with the bear mugs. If you are lucky he might come and do some random talk praising bear and the bear fest. If it was girl, you might get smile in reply too :-) Upto you to make best use of the chance. ;-)

The tables inside the tents are generally all reserved and you get place only if you are lucky to find a place to sit. About the people who have grabbed table, be assured that there is very rare chances of them leaving the table till the end of the day.

The band in the mid of the tents play tradition and popular music which keeps the people on their feet. There can be occasional cheer shouts from some table or other. They are all part of the fest culture.

After hopping couple of tents, we finally got lucky and found a place in one of the tent. The elderly Belge couple welcomed us to their table and thus Baba could get a chance to taste some bear in that tent. The Belge people seemed to enjoy each moment of their life as well as their presence in the fest. Uncle talked about Indian IT and Bangalore. Actually these two things can be starting point of any conversation with foreigners. :D

The rule of the tents are simple. You can not enter with any bottle or other drink with you. You find a place and it's yours (ofcourse there are some separate reserved tables). The lady serving the bear will come at regular interval and you can buy you mug (1ltr) of bear at the pre-specified rate. The food can also be ordered to the people serving. There are some girls who sell stuff for quick bite as well as some others who take your picture for making memorabilia. You can buy those hats here if you want.

The music is very lively and people seem to enjoy with rising bear level in their blood. They can start dancing aytime, anywhere and in any way. PDA is common too. There are too many things about this place that I will keep off this blog :-)

All Indian student on exchange programs religiously make a visit to this place. So you are very likely to meet many of those in the fest arena. We met a gang from MDI, XLRI, IIMB and ofcourse one from IIMA. We are everywhere you know. It was fun to do tempo shouting in the evening. "Wimwi ka tempo high hai, Munich ki le li Zigzag Zigzag. Wimwi ka tempo high hai, October Fest ki le li Zigzag Zigzag." Boondiii, HotTiii, PooCh, Baba, Ponto, Creamiii, Bandook, Mirchi, Josen, Rex, Cobra - one big Wimwi gang doing the nation proud at the firang land. Unfortunately we missed meeting some of them (DCorp, Darwin, Chinge, ForNo etc) else the list would have been longer and even more interesting.

Food in Germany seem to be less of problem and this country is comparatively cheaper too. Staying here at Munich at this point of time is really expensive. We faced the similar issue and Josen and company came to the rescue. They suggested us to take the night train to Koblenz and then take the famous cruise on Rhine river. So after doing some TP on the station, where watching the drunk people can be quite an entertainment, we boarded the post midnight train to Koblenz. It's an ICE train so good night's sleep is almost guaranteed. Tomorrow we reach Paris after around 10 days of travel. It's good to be back. So see yea tomorrow.

ps: for me, October Fest was always about seeing the spirit of a culture. It's like going to Kumbh in India. You can go their for your faith or to know about someone else's faith. I got high without drinking even a drop of bear. That's the magic of this place. It's must visit if you are coming to these parts of the world in sept-oct. Take my words, there ain't any other thing as October Fest.