This weekend I was in Munich at a friend's party. We stopped by the Oktoberfest for about an hour. The weather was sublime--that's why the Oktoberfest was long ago changed to September-- and the Tracht-wearers were out in force. It's the tradition to wear dirndls or lederhosen (Tracht) to go to the Wies'n [the Meadow where the Oktoberfest is held]. Not just echt Bavarians wear it; blacks and Turks and Asians wear Tracht too. The rule is, if you feel at home in Bavaria, you should wear Tracht.
I have to admit that I have two dirndls, and at the Oktoberfest, I always think I should get a third one.
"Are you ever afraid driving late at night when the Oktoberfest gets out?" I asked a woman taxi driver.
"Oh, no," she said. "Sometimes I have passengers who are ganz besoffen, but they always pay correctly. Once a man did not have enough money, but he paid me the next day. And in Munich, if a taxi driver is robbed, it's always front-page news."
"I meant about drunk driving," I said. "Do you worry about an accident?"
"Some people do drive drunk, but I'm not afraid. You know, starting at ten o'clock-- the Wies'n gets out at eleven-- the police put a blockade across the autobahn. They systematically stop every car for an Alkohol-Kontrolle."
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