By day Suzanne (right) works as a doctor. But when Oktoberfest rolls around each year she takes annual leave, puts on her dirndl (traditional outfit) and works the busy beer halls.
This experienced beer wench can carry about a dozen heavy steins brimming with amber ale in her hands all at once as she serves some of the six million people who attend the 16-day festival each year -- patrons drink more than seven million litres of beer during this time (not to mention almost 80,000 litres of wine, over 30,000 litres of sparkling, 220,000 litres of coffee and almost one million litres of water and soft drink!)
The beer hall staff also serve up loads of food to hungry patrons, including half a million chickens (so tasty!), loads of pork knuckles, bratwurst sausages, giant pretzels and some other weird stuff, including the biggest block of cheese I think I've ever seen (I was thinking of you Suzette! Notice how big it is compared to the 600ml bottles of cordial...)
So with all this food and drink it's not surprising that there's nearly 1000 tonnes of garbage by the end of the event, there are also about 1800 toilets on site (incidently the male loos are called pissoirs, much to Bryan's amusement), and about 4000 items end up in lost property, including spectacles, mobile phones, and even the odd wedding ring!
Working at the event is apparently very lucrative -- we were told that in just 16 days beer waiters can earn somewhere between 16,000-20,000 euros, so it's hardly surprising that they take leave from their day jobs. But it's not an easy job to land -- in many cases the tradition has been handed down through generations of families.
The beer halls are a great place to meet people, from chatty waiters like Suzanne (who by the way was drinking a stein full of Berocca on the morning we met her to help get her through the long shift) to visitors from all over the world.
We spent our first evening at Oktoberfest enjoying a beer in one of the many beer gardens and checking out the expansive grounds from the top of the giant ferris wheel (the place is PACKED with amusement rides).
Day 2 kicked off early -- we arrived at the Lowenbrau tent with our group at 10am to secure a good seat for a day of drinking. The first steins were served soon after and by the end of the day Bryan had polished off four of the 1 litre gems which cost $10 each (including tips). I'd had a decent crack too.
It was in this tent that we met Suzanne, and also a German Aussie called Christine and her lovely husband, who sat with us for a while.
The 20-something was born in Germany, lived there until she was 13 and then moved to Australia, where she still lives.
As she expertly ordered beer using her fluent German and then switched back to her Aussie drawl which shows no hint of a European accent, Christine revealled that she and her partner have spent the last six months touring around Europe in a cheap van they purchased, and also found time to get married surrounded by 70 family and friends. She also revealled that she (and many other Germans) don't tip at Oktoberfest unless the service is impeccable (despite the widely-held belief that you will not get served unless you ply the waiter with lucrative incidentives).
We also discovered that love has been known to blossom at Oktoberfest. A guy who travelled on a Kumuka tour several years ago met and fell and in love with his beer wench at the festival -- they exchanged numbers, caught up after the event and later married and are about to start a family -- they regularly return to Oktoberfest and were there again this year.
Later in day we ventured into other tents, where our lovely and VERY efficient waiter (see below) sat us at table of Americans.
The mates, from Denver, Colorado, work for United Airlines, and used their staff points to fly to Germany for just one day of drinking at Oktoberfest -- it cost them just $50 in taxes plus $200 to upgrade to first class.
One recently proposed to his girlfriend in San Francisco and offered lots of advice on places we should visit when we get there, and the other revealled that he NEVER checks in baggage now that he's seen what goes on behind the scenes at airports. In return Bryan explained the finer points of Aussie Rules football to the fascinated yanks.
Ironically, like them, we got to see very little of Munich other than the inside walls of the many beer halls.
But it was an education all on its own.
No comments:
Post a Comment