Oktoberfest

In roughly eleven days, Munich's Oktoberfest opens up.  Preparation continues right now, with fest tents being put up....medical personnel being prepared for the onslaught of drunks....and the city transportation system preparing for massive crowds.

Virtually every hotel within Munich is booked-up, and probably has been for six months.  If you did want some last minute situation....you'd have to go ten to twenty kilometers outside of Munich. 

How much drunkenness occurs?  The problem here is that folks get served with a 'mass' (the 1-liter glass).  If you wanted to use the 'time-method' to beer consumption.....that mass ought to last you two hours.  But most folks will wrap it up after about 60 to 75 minutes.  So along about the end of the second mass.....you realize that you are more than a little drunk.  A third mass?  That starts the objective of going to the 'hill'.

The 'hill'  At the very end of the fair grounds, there's a major medical tent established.  Here, you can figure around thirty emergency technicians and a doctor or two.....will be on call.  Next to them, is this inclined hill, and they kinda encourage people who aren't deadly drunk but need an hour or two to recover....to just lay there on the incline.  So you can walk by around 1 PM, and note around a hundred folks (both men and women) laying there.

Years ago (in the 1980s), I worked with a guy who'd gone down with a group (via the train).  He'd gotten drunk early on (maybe at noon), and wandered over to the hill.  Hours later (it'd actually gotten dark), he finally woke up.  He looked at his watch, almost 9 PM.....his friends had already departed on the train (by their agreed schedule). 

Unhealthy consumption?  You can ask most folks, and I think 75-percent of the crowd drinks in a normal way.  Probably over 95-percent of the visitors have no requirement for the 'hill' or any medical assistance. 

Getting into these fest tents?  Well....maybe forty years ago, you still had a chance to just show up and walk into a fest tent.  Today?  Most require reservations.  You could be waiting two to three hours to enter without a reservation.  If it is bad weather (like colder temperatures), then it thins out the crowd and you have a better chance. 

Driving around the city?  No.  Once you get your car to the hotel and check-in.....just leave it there and use day-tickets to visit the grounds.

Oktoberfest is mostly about socializing....having a beer or two with some associates....laughing over something, and having a good time.