Let’s see, where do I even begin. Oktoberfest in Munich is like a big giant carnival for adults. There are rides. There is food. And as one would expect there is lots and lots of beer. They claim 7 million liters are consumed during the 2 week event. What I didn’t expect? The famed beer “tents” to be not tents at all but giant buildings the size of a rocket ship hangar that seat up to 10,000 people.

Augustiner Brau tent sometime in the middle of the afternoon

Paulaner Tent, exactly 9:15am. Notice the mass of people waiting to get in.

The whole town dresses up in Dirndls and Lederhosen (think Heidi garb). Heaven forbid you drink beer without looking the part. Any excuse to wear a costume is a-okay with me, so clearly I had to get in on the action.

A Dirndl. Think St. Pauli Girl. And an elusive Petunia sighting.

Every 20 minutes or so the oompah band in your tent strikes up a tune (the same tune, every 20 minutes) and you are supposed to sing along and drink to the health of everyone at your table. Clearly they just want you to buy more beer. The words are Ein Prosit, ein Prosit Der Gemütlichkeit (and repeat). Ein Prosit means ‘a toast’ and apparently Gemütlichkeit means ‘to cheer and good times.’ I’m not going to lie, I sat through two days of singing this and I never actually learned that word. A google search was necessary upon my return home. No matter!

Another tent. I have no idea which one. It was a long several days.

Beer is served exclusively in liter steins. This is a LOT of beer.

mmmm...beeeeer....

You can buy condoms, a drug test, painkillers, and tampons all from the same vending machine and all for 3 Euros. How convenient!

Misty, gray early morning

Check out the eagle on the biggest stein

There was a carousel converted into a bar. It even turned around (VERY slowly).

Even Anonymous needs to drink some beer sometimes.

It was fabulous to see old friends and meet new ones, and the camaraderie with other Oktoberfesters was beautiful. People make room for you at their tables, strike up conversations, and within minutes you are toasting each other like long lost siblings. We met 16 year olds from Munich, 60 year olds from Frankfurt, businessmen from Gujarat, a whole gaggle of (very cute) American boys from New Orleans, and lots of people in between.

Pork and sauerkraut and potatoes. Stick to your ribs food.

Beergarden - so pretty

Confectionary hearts

The aftermath: Munich's Hauptbanhof 6am Sunday morning. No, I did not sleep there.

Verdict? Something to see, tons of fun, but I don’t think I can handle that much beer in one weekend ever again. It might be several years before I muster up the courage to try this again. I’ll just have to gaze longingly at the Dirndl in my closet, which I fully intend to wear as my Halloween costume for the next 10 years.

Kericho reminded me of Juba at first because I walked through the “industrial” part of town right after arriving. The concrete structures with painted signs offering welding, iron works, wholesale of foodstuffs, and mechanics fixing cars on the sidewalk, jumpsuits torn and oil-stained. But then there are flowers and palm trees. Clearly not like Juba.

The matatu ride here (south east of Kisumu) was nice except for when the lone smelly straggler tried to shove his way bit by bit onto my seat after failing with two other guys. It was Sunday morning so churches are going at it full swing. Added a nice touch and a bit of a soundtrack to the journey.

There was a bit of banter during the ride, especially about the issue of bribing the police at checkpoints for various reasons including  but not limited to: having an extra passenger than was legal, and permission to use part of an unfinished road (the detours next to the tarmac are bumpy and muddy and slow).

Man #1: “We need to stop this corruption, this bribing of police!”

Man #2, wedged up against Man #1 on the bench: “Pole pole*. We will get there.”

Man #1: “Where is it? I do not want stages I want it to be here!”

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During the ride I was thinking about my comfort level with traveling. Specifically why it is so backward. I get so nervous and tense and uncomfortable when I ride around in nice cars in places with dirt roads. Maybe because I see every little injustice done to the people who aren’t sitting comfy in their SUV. The accidental splash here, a startling horn honk there, maybe even cutting off a bicycle. It just feels unnatural that I’m sitting in aircon while the rest of the dusty world rolls by outside. But put me on the back of a motorbike and I am happy as a clam. The wind in my hair, hearing and seeing what’s going on at ground level, waving at people surprised to see a mzungu on a motorbike. No hassle with parking, no gas fees, and $0.70 for a 15 minute ride? Yes please. Tuk tuks I don’t like quite as much because they’re loud and bumpy.

Even the matatu to Kericho – I’m glad I couldn’t see the odometer but we were going fast. Even with the roadworks it took only 1 hour and 45 minutes to go 84 kilometers. But I was so relaxed and happy and not nervous or on edge at all. I even like the informal payment system. It’s fun to banter and joke for awhile to get to a price (in limited quantities obviously!). it’s just people at their best. Unfortunately this kind of travel makes it more likely that you will also see people…not at their worst, but not how they want to be seen or how you want to see them.

At the beginning not 500 meters from the bus stand, while we had stopped to  try sorting out the issue of the matatu selling more tickets than seats, there were three boys sitting in the gutter. Literally. One had on a moldy suit, one plastic sandal and one sneaker with the sole held on by a rubber band, and one trouser leg tied around his ankle which what looked like a strip of a plastic shopping bag. This is what people do when they drink the local brew (changa’a) because it messes you up so badly that you often lose control of your ability to relieve yourself. Pant legs are tied so your piss and shit don’t run down onto your shoes or the floor. Charming, I know. It’s milky brownish-looking and served in a clay pot on the floor and men sit around it and rink out of long reed-like straws. This guy had the most miserable expression on his face and once in awhile put his head on his knees and pulled the collar of his suit jacket up over half of his face.

Clearly I was not paying much attention to what was going on in the matatu at this point.

The two other guys couldn’t be older than 15 if that and were visibly twitching. Bottles of Kenya King glue were stuck to their lips. Sniffing glue helps keep hunger away. Many street kids are addicted to the stuff. You see empty Kenya King bottles anywhere there is litter.

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The Tea Hotel, supposedly the nicest place to stay in Kericho, is crumbling away. It seems as if nothing has been maintained in the past 20 years. The farther away it gets from Independence the more it fades. The roof tiles are falling off. The patio slabs are cracked where the grout should be. The piano is out of tune. Safari hunting trophies are stuck haphazardly on the lobby walls. But the gardens out back are immaculate – perfectly proportioned, manicured and a riot of color. Perfect for exploring.

It was really cool sitting here on a Tea Estate, having a delicious lunch, drinking tea, having the rain pour all around. Quite the contrast from the start to the day. I don’t feel guilty, but I do feel…odd. Like I shouldn’t be witness to either scenario.

All the hills around the inhabited areas of Kericho are filled with tea estates. Doesn’t seem like there is a whole lot else going on economically. Can’t help but wonder if the local residents would rather that the land had gone towards food production instead of a mainly export crop. I asked Herman, my guide for a tour through one of the Tea Estates, and he said that people would rather the tea companies be there because they provide jobs as well as housing, schools and medical care for their employees and their families. Fair enough.

The hills with the tea are so stunningly green and amazingly fresh. It was a joy to walk around.

*Slowly slowly. Pronounced poe-lay poe-lay. Basically the theme of the region. As in the song by the late, great E-Sir: “Moss moss moss moss, pole pole, mos mos… haraka haraka haina baraka.”  Basically means “slowly slowly (etc)…..hurrying does not bring blessing.” Moss moss (pronounced moes moes) is Luo for pole pole.

Lake Victoria

Fresh fish straight from the lake

Destined for the fryer

Get in my belly!!!

Kisumu is situated in the West of Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria. One of the former Presidents (there was no consensus over whether it was Moi or Kenyatta) once said in a speech that he was “going to turn this village into a city,” so now residents refer to it as Kisumu City. I would not necessarily call it that, but that’s not the point. This area is the most populated area of the country, also with the highest poverty rate and the highest HIV rate. Mostly a dusty town, choked with boda bodas and tuk tuks, much like the rest of East Africa. Except for the tarmac road out to the research station which has been investing in the region for 20 years. A few years ago there was a survey to assess the center’s impact on neighboring communities and the main response was that people benefited because “now we can see at night” due to the streetlights that were put in. Never mind the decrease in infant and maternal mortality rates, decrease in malaria, etc. People care about things that help their day to day lives rather than “government” targets.

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The Rift Valley and Western Kenya in general was the most affected by the election violence back in January 2008. Apparently what they don’t tell you about the violence in Kisumu is that the majority of deaths were at the hands of the police. The first hundred or so were regular people killing each other but then the next 500 were when the police finally got there and started indiscriminately shooting people, often for no reason at all. There is still tension here, people telling stories about what happened to people they know, etc. No one thought that sort of thing would happen in Kenya, but it did. One of my colleagues is from a country in West Africa and he was talking about how what happened brought back a lot of bad memories for him about the war in his home country, a place he came to Kenya to escape. I thought it was quite timely being there at the same time that the first part of the first ICC trial got underway attempting to bring to justice some of the perpetrators who orchestrated the violence.

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In any case, I was recently in Kisumu for 11 days for work and had an absolutely fantastic time. Get ready for a few posts on the topic!

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. NOW HIRING. Inquire within."

Amazeballs.

Only in DC. What is Alma Ata you might ask? It's the declaration from 1978 that was the first of its kind urging governments around the world to prioritize primary health care.

Why suddenly all the Mt. P love? Well…deep breath…I am now officially a homeowner! I bought a condo. Holy crap! It’s amazing and scary all at the same time. This way I will have a home to come back to whenever I am in the US and will finally, for the first time in over 4 years, be able to unpack all the boxes currently in my parent’s attic and hang up my art on the walls. To say I am excited is an understatement. I have missed DC since the day I left and feel at home there, and now I can truly consider it as such. Here’s to backyard bbq’s, Salvadorean food and Saturday farmers markets. Come visit!

Reichenstein Castle

While we arrived in Arlesheim with no problem, we couldn’t find the road up to the castle. Pesky castles on hills. So we ended up pushing/carrying our bikes most of the way up a steep hill on what turned out to be a deer path or goat path or something equally unsuitable for bikes. Apparently there are supposed to be paleolithic and neolithic caves around there, but we were too distracted by all the bike carrying to notice…

S on the cool wall at Reichenstein Castle

Reichenstein castle was closed, but it was still pretty nonetheless. A short distance away on the way back down the hill (we found the road – it was on the other side of the hill!) was a Hermitage that contained the ruins of another castle. Also closed. Remind me not to go sightseeing in Europe again on a Sunday.

Ermitage

Once we recovered from the mountaineering expedition and took in the scenery we spotted a very strange building down in the valley.

Goetheanum - international center of Anthroposophy

Turned out to be the Goetheanum, the international center for Anthroposophy which apparently is a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner. I had not heard of this before, but my flatmate S had actually worked at a Special Education school that applies this philosophy. S said it was incredible how well the methods worked for the kids. Wikipedia tells me that the idea is that we should try to develop imagination and intuition separately from other sensory experiences, and we should apply the scientific method to our investigations of the spiritual world, and treat individuals as holistically as possible. The philosophy extends to the arts, special education, agriculture, and many other disciplines.

Um, Cat Sphinx? Another building on the grounds

It was late afternoon and there were some pretty menacing-looking clouds that rolled past, but the skies also graced us with a pretty wicked double rainbow that we had to play around with.

My flatmate S.

I’ll have to take some more day trips to find more gems like these!

Yarn bomb in Mt. Pleasant! Probably has something to do with the fact that June 11th was International Yarn Bomb Day. I’m sure the tree appreciated the extra warmth in the 100 degree heat we had last week. Hat tip to the creator!

I love DC

The tab is located right at the top of the blog on the Petunia in Paradise menu. Here’s where you can check out a list and interactive map of countries I’ve visited, lived, worked, studied, etc. As a bonus, many of the country names are linked to either previous  blog posts or corresponding pictures from my Petunia’s Pictures blog so you can take a peek at what these places look like. Quite a few of these trips occurred before I had a digital camera, but even so there are plenty of things to explore.

Enjoy!

Oh my goodness I forgot to publish this post! Sorry for the extended delay!

The last major part of Fasnacht are the lanterns. Each clique picks a sujet (theme or subject) that is reflected in the groups’ costumes as well as the lanterns they cart around during Morgestraicht.

Lantern during Morgestraich

Generally the sujets act as social commentary on what is going on in the country and the world. For example, this year the BP oil spill came up as the theme in group after group, as did pedophile Priests and the issue of banning the veil in public places which was a big debate in Europe. On Tuesday night during the carnival all the lanterns end up in the Munsterplatz for everyone to see and it ends up being like a giant outdoor art exhibition. You can walk along and look at the similarities and differences between lanterns, and admire the handiwork as they are truly works of art in and of themselves.

Sujet: BP oil spill

Pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church

I'm not sure what the lantern in the middle represents (it's cool tho, amiright?) but the one on the far left is about the banning of wearing the veil in public

Another priest sex scandal sujet on the right

This one says "L'eclat c'est moi" / Liberte / Sarkozyte / Roma Ade/ - addressing Sarkozy's attempt at persecuting the Roma population of France

Not really sure, but I think it's saying that Switzerland's banking industry means that Switzerland is not actually neutral

More veil ban and the Munster in the background

And the Greeks make an appearance. With a Swiss owl on Zeus's shoulder.

And finally, as much of the lineup I could get in one frame!

I’ve noticed that a few lantern canvases from Fastnachts past end up in the weekly Saturday flohmarkt (fleamarket) in Petersplatz and for a couple hundred Swiss Francs you can buy one for yourself if you so choose.

I think it would be completely fascinating to compare and contrast what the sujets would be in other countries and cultures. If you were to pick a few sujets to represent the major social/political/world themes of the past year, what would you choose?

This one’s for you Dad!