I arrived in Munich for my book reading just in time for the...

I arrived in Munich for my book reading just in time for the beginning of Oktoberfest. If you’d left your Oktoberfest outfit at home, you could purchase a variety of them at the railway station. You could buy dirndl and lederhosen and all sorts of accoutrements like the seemingly mandatory jewelry worn around one’s waist or neck or wrists.

The Oktoberfest outfits on sale at the Munich railway station are no match for the fine leather lederhosen and shoes and some of the dirndls that can cost over $1000.

You also don’t usually see acres of cleavage at most major railway stations in Germany, but yesterday, when I arrived everyone who had a bust that could be lifted and pushed to the forefront had it on display. It was an Oktoberfest tradition, a young German man  explained to me, to show off and support your breasts. I wasn’t sure whether he meant it was a tradition to be emotionally supportive of your breasts or to support them by keeping them as upright as possible. I guess either interpretation  is a good thing.