Still reeling from the World Cup and the return of the Love Parade, Germany is once again in the international party-people scope for the Feier to rule them all, ye olde Oktoberfest, which began on Saturday with the cry of Bavarian for O'zapft is!! (it's tapped); belted out by the mayor of Munich.

courtesy of aidena @ flickr

Now, at the 173rd time around, the numbers are staggering: 6 million rabble-rousers choking down 66,000 pork knuckles, half a million roast chickens and guzzling 6.1 million litres of strong Bavarian beer brewed just for the occasion. Anglofritz will do the math for you: that's a tad over 1 Mass per person -- obviously a good mixture of over-achievers and beerphobics in attendance. After 18 days of blitzdrinking, Munich recovers from its collective hangover 1 million euros the richer. Tourists leave with their own (hopefully) fond, beer-soaked and blurry memories partially intact. Here's some tips from Toytown Germany (OMG, Paris Hilton will be there!)