Sunday 5 April 2009

DOM

God, they know how to do fairs here. We have a fair in St Giles' in Oxford once a year for two days. In Hamburg they have the DOM three times a year for a month each time. And it's great.
And I'm speaking as someone who doesn't like rides much. At the Oxford fair in 1981 I was violently sick after riding "The Cage" (all because my mother forced me to eat an omelet before I went) and I've never forgotten it. But I will do Dodgems and Ferris wheels and stuff. There was a good deal of machismo from our SM Kai at the mediaeval axe-throwing contest (he was beaten by a girl) and we all did the archery, ghost train and log flue. But the highlight for me was the Mouse Circus.
I don't think I was actually expecting mice taming smaller creatures, or on the trapeze and what-not. Actually what you get is hundreds of mice belting around the place climbing over stuff. And it makes you smile much more than it should:
The Ferris Wheel is not to be missed, either. At twilight you get a sensational view over Hamburg, and the DOM itself is the brightest thing in the city:

It was all very "Third Man". If we hadn't been the worse for a couple of Gluweins by that stage then maybe one of us might have quoted it.

3 comments:

AliCoul said...

German fairs and "schutzenfests" (shooting festivals) are things I really, really miss about living in Germany. You're absolutely right - they're the best! And the fab thing about all the shooting galleries at the fairs is that, unlike the british gyppo pikey carnies, the germans don't bend the sights on the guns, so you actually hit what you aim the gun at!


Glad you had fun :-)

Vespertina Quies said...

You had me at "mouse circus."

Steve Dineen said...

Ali - you'll be delighted to hear that your better chance enables you to win exactly the same crud as you do in the UK. Our SM Kai won me a vibrating plush penis on "The Claw".