Oktoberfest

This actually happened yesterday, in the same day with St. Patrick, but I have some photos of larger than life things that I want to share and I though they deserved their own post.

I spent yesterday afternoon with friends with whom I studied abroad in Germany, and the first thing we did, since we all acquired a love of Turkish food while there, was to head to a Turkish food festival.  It was not exactly photogenic, since it consisted primarily of vendors tents and huge lines of people, but I did get a picture of what billed itself as the world's longest kebab:

Looking at it then (and now) I thought (think) that it didn't seem all that long.  I think I may have to look up the actual Guinness record for the world's longest kebab, but regardless of the veracity of that claim, it smelled heavenly.

After stopping to peruse the food festival and the associated crowds (and meeting with and then parting from yet more friends from study abroad), the three of us went to pick up another friend from study abroad at the National Portrait Gallery and catch up with her, since she had been in Ireland doing a masters and none of us had seen her in ages (I, not for three years).  Since we had all studied in Germany and it's the month of October, we eventually found ourselves in what can only be described as a beer hall across from the gallery, and all had a beer.  A Festbier ("Fest" meaning "festival," which surely you guessed; I'm not even going to translate "bier"), and in Fest size.  E.g. huge.  See?

That's a liter of beer, which is the equivalent of about three beer bottles, or an entire bottle of wine (750 mL) plus some more.  By the time I finished mine, I was quite happy.  We all were, I think, and one of my friends, who collects beer steins, asked our waitress how likely it was that his stein would be missed if it were to disappear.  "Not at all," she answered without batting an eye.  "Let me wash it out for you."

She ended up washing out everyone's and now I have a gigantic beer stein.  Triumphantly I made my tipsy way home, absolutely ecstatic about life.  Maybe I'll start drinking in the afternoon more often...