Life: Idiotropic

Octoberfest pretty much insinuates that it might take place in October, and I think in "real Germany" that it does. Munich is supposed to be where the biggest parties are.
Here the NATO base, probably trying not to interfere with people's potential travel plans to attend the real Octoberfest parties, schedules theirs for September. It was two days long. The crazy "drink until you drop and dance to German folk music until the sun rises the next morning" day was Saturday, but we already had plans to attend the Flamenco party and I really preferred that type of outing anyway, so we didn't go then. Sunday was family day which is a little more my speed, so we went to that in the afternoon after a slow relaxing morning at home.
It was held in a hanger by the flightline. Although a certain amount of atmosphere is lost when an event is held in an ugly army green hanger, I've grown accustomed to events like this. In the center was a small dance floor and a stage. The perifery was lined with all the activities and inbetween were row after row of picnic tables.

We bought tokens since the venders did not take real money. The kids immediately found their corner where they played most of the time. There was an inflatable jumping thing, face painting, lots of little games, and a large area with very interesting moving "toys." Some were like scooters or low-ride bicycles, but most were the pedals without the rest of the contraption. Just pedals like on a piano mounted on large wheels. You stand on them and work your feet back and forth and it pushes along. Tiara got pretty good at it by the end, but it was harder than it looked taking quite a bit of strength and a lot of balance.

While the kids played, Kirk and I walked around. There were two big beer/beverage tents - the busiest areas of the place - one carnival style game giving away traditionally tacky oversized stuffed critters of all kinds, a wonderful candy booth selling hot candy roasted nuts. We bought a baggy of almonds, but they were consumed so quickly we had to go buy some more. The candy booths are at all German events I've been to so far and there will be several at all the Christmas markets. They always have the hot candied nuts and all things gummy, licorice, chocolates, and the large frosted lebkuchen hearts that hang from above. The food was traditional... bratwurst in brotchen, hex (a large chunk of pork on a bone), a half roasted chicken, etc. They also had big radishes that people were eating raw like an apple. Towards the end of our time when the booths begun to pack up, we got some food to go.

The German band were dressed for the party. Most wore lederhosen. Some wore wigs and aprons. They all looked very silly, but were having a great time. They played around the picnic tables standing on them with their instruments and interacting with the crowd. It was fun to watch the people all enjoying themselves and having a genuinely good time.
The rest of the time was spent socializing. There weren't a lot of Americans there, but almost all of the Spanish attended, so I talked to my friends there. There's a little girl in Arianna's class at school that is an American, but she doesn't speak any English yet, but Arianna really likes her and wanted to talk to her. She asked me how to say a few phrases and then she practiced them, and in Spanish, went to ask Katerina if she's dance with her. It was very sweet. Katerina had a big smile on her face and the two girls danced together for a while. Kirk danced with Luci and Elise for a while too.