The Berg - aka Octoberfest for Germans

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  Erlangen, Germany
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

I fell lighter already. I just mentally tossed all the useless small coins which remain after being in a country, and which cannot be changed into money in the next country. I hate to say it (given its strength versus the dollar), but it is good to be back to the quasi-universal Euro. Each country before was like a monetary NASCAR race, where you are trying to cross the border (finish line) with just enough money (fuel) to make it, but nothing more.

Another pleasant difference - the trains. The most cost-effective way for me to get from zagreb to Erlangen, Germany - just north of Nurnberg in northern Bavaria - was to fly to Stuttgart and take a train. Oh, those InterCity trains are nice compared to the rattling leftover Commie claptraps. They are electric and running at speeds in excess of 150 miles per hour, they have styling restaurant/bar cars and toilets with nicer paneling than the cabinets in my loft

After the Berg

. The only downside is that they run so quiet, I suspect it is very easy to sleep through one's stop.

But that didn't happen this time, and I found myself in the smallish (pop. 70,000) university town of Erlangen, home of the Bergkirchweih, Germany's second largest beer festival. As an aside, I have to give credit to my friend Liz Yee for suggesting this festival to me; I had not found it on my own, but she sent me this article - Berg Article

Even though I had therefore read that it attracted more than 1 million visitors, I was still surprised at its scope. It is fundamentally the same as Octoberfest - carnival rides, food and souvenir vendors, and lots of people drinking beer out of liter glasses. There were, however, minor differences that had a significant effect. The Berg is held in a park, basically along one long street and a perpendicular feeder street. This street just seems to go on forever, lined with beer garden after beer garden after beer garden (and vendors). The street and beer gardens are covered by trees and the beer gardens are terraced into a hill that runs above the street, rather than being in tents like Octoberfest.

Each garden has a band, but unlike Octoberfest, some of the bands are not oom-pah bands

As Far As The Eye Can See

. I actually saw one "traditional" band playing songs like "the Chicken dance" and "Beer Barrel Polka." The rest of the bands were either 70s/80s cover bands, or playing what could only be German rock anthems. I didn't know the words, but everybody else did and heartily sang along. Along those lines, I did not meet anyone who was not German, i.e. this is not an international event like Octoberfest, which was somewhat frustrating because I had language problems with almost everyone next to whom I plopped my mug.

As another aside, far fewer Germans speak even workable English than Slovakians, Romanians, or former Yugoslavians. I think that is because they haven't had to, and because they don't get the free language lesson that is subtitled English language television as opposed to dubbed English language television. For example, I was quite surprised to find a train ticket agent who spoke no English.

Back to the mugs, though. The biers come in one-liter earthen mugs (not glass steins like Octoberfest) served my men (not scary bier Fraus), and everyone has one. Men, women, 16 year-olds, 85 year-olds, mother rapers, father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there next to me on the bench drinking 33.6 ounces of "Berg bier" after "Berg bier"

Be the Berg

! And (Mike, take note) you can keep the mugs (unlike Octoberfest) if you are willing to forego your 5 Euro deposit. I, however, have no way to get one home, so I had to settle for getting my deposit back.

Thursday night (June 8) was hopping by the time I got there. I was way behind and still suffering from the Zagreb mixed grill debacle, so I just had a couple of liters and fair food - the sauteed mushrooms with your choice of eight sauces rocked - and went back to the hotel to suffer alone. Friday night at 6:00 p.m. was the opening match of the World Cup between Germany and Costa Rica, and watching the game with a bunch of face-painted, flag-waving, black/red/gold bespangled Germans was a lot of fun. (I was at a bar because I had been warned that the beer gardens at the Berg were not allowed to have TVs showing the game, and that, accordingly, it would be deserted until after the game.)

After the game, the party flowed down the main pedestrian drag into the Berg, but it wasn't quite as full or as frenzied as Thursday was, as a result of the World Cup game preventing an earlier start. That said, I had some beers (duh), food, and stood on the tables singing those songs that I knew. The Berg closes at 11:00, so it was off to a couple of bars until 3:00 a.m

Berg Beers

. or so. Per usual, everyone was gracious to me and curious about how I found this place and about what I was doing.

Saturday was basically more of the same, but, being a weekend, it was more of an afternoon event. There were a lot more families with children, and I think the Friday night victory party had claimed some German victims. Overall, I would say that I liked the setting of the Berg more than Octoberfest, but the lack of international character outweighed that.

Coming attraction: U.S. v. Czech Republic, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Berg by Night	Berg in Lights	Champignons	Enter the Berg
Erlangen Park	Germany Wins First Game	Happy Germans	Local Brewery
Shots	Take Me Home

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