Oktoberfest Doha Style

I'd never really celebrated Oktoberfest until this weekend. Which is strange really, as some of my closest people have such an affinity to all things Deutsche. A lot of my friends from Uni studied German and when we moved to London for work, we spent a fair few Friday nights in Katzenjammers, giggling away to the Oom-pa band. Even my husband-to-be spent a year in deepest, darkest Germany back when he was 21, and seems to have developed an impressive talent for seeking out the only place in a hundred mile radius that sells German beer.

It was about time we celebrated Oktoberfest.

And so it was that I found myself in Doha of all places, with a stein in one hand and a (chicken) bratwurst in the other at three in the afternoon on a Saturday.

Christoff, the General Manager of the Grand Hyatt Hotel had invited the beIN Sports gang along to experience their Oktoberfest brunch. And in true Grand Hyatt style, they had pulled out all of the stops.

I made a bee-line for the (non-pork) sausages

While Ryan and Ash made a beeline for the big yellow hats.

And we all made a beeline for the beer.

Several steins later...

The brilliant German band started up, and we all leapt out of our seats to Schuhplattler along to the beat.

The engaging lead singer (who bore a striking resemblance to Jurgen Klopp, apparently) in his fetching lederhosen had us all in raptures

And none of us could escape that loving feeling in the room

Least of all Jurgen.

While I leave you with that incredibly sexy image forever etched into your eyeballs, here are some lesser-known Oktoberfest facts:

• This year marks the 201st birthday of Oktoberfest
• Every year, 7,100,100 litres of beer are drunk - that equates to TWO AND A HALF OLYMPIC SWIMMING POOLS. 
• 104 roast oxes are devoured 
• 120,000 sausages are eaten 
• 770 ID cards are lost
• And 37 children (luckily all of these are usually found again)

When we'd consumed approximately half an Olympic swimming pool of beer, we headed up to Dunes for a cheeky nightcap, and I had a long overdue catch-up with the gorgeous Ash.

Which makes every night go off with a bang(er).

I loved my first Oktoberfest experience. And I promise not to make any more terrible dad jokes. Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

I'd bitter stop now, I can barley stand it.