So its done, the last big stop on the Europe leg, Oktoberfest. Every preconceived notion I had of the festival was there; the massive smokey beer halls filled with people singing & swinging steins, locals wandering around in traditional outfits (I was told a lot of Germans have some lederhosen tucked away in their closet), oompah bands playing funny traditional music (although they do some modern stuff too, ACDC was brilliant) and millions and millions of tourists. There's so much more going on though - the whole place is a massive fairground with heaps of rides. I went on 2 rollercoasters, some big pendulum thing, one of those freefall things and the dodgem car! It's time to spare a thought for all the pigs and chooks that dies for the festival. Pork knuckle and half roast chickens are the only thing really eaten during Oktoberfest and each beer tent (about 14 in all) has massive roasting walls with 100's of chooks cooking at once throughout the day. It's enough to make a vegetarian weep! Great for me though. Then there's the messy after effects that too many 1 litre steins can have on a person. On Saturday it was too busy to get in a tent so we sat outside and people watched (a really underrated way to see the real culture of a place). At 12 noon we say our first drunk person carried off on a stretcher (tents open at 11). A little later we see some guy stumble from a tent and sit down across the way from us and proceeded to have a massive chunder (did well to not get any on himself). He was still sitting there, next to the spew, when we left a couple of hours later. So I'm pretty happy with the whole Oktoberfest thing, lots of fun, every one is fairly jovial (only witnessed one fight). They could do with making it a bit cheaper though - no eating for me for the next couple of days!