Meanwhile, Back in Germany (German folk festivals)

So, with all of the events of the past week, this got left out. Now that everything from the week in Croatia has calmed down, i have a good chance to finally write about this. My first night in Germany, My host brother Michael took me to a German Volkfestern, of folk festival. Now, I know that image you guys in Canada and America conjure up when you think of a folk festival, and I want you to delete that image right now. German folk festivals are not even close to that. If you are from Revelstoke, I want you to picture about 4 or 5 kokanee festivals all together, combined with that carnival that used to come through town, and fireworks. For those of you not from Revelstoke, think of a really big party with amusement park rides and massive firework shows.

The big difference is all of the music being played is for the most part traditional bavarian music, and traditionally all of the men wear lederhosen while the women wear dirndl (bavarian dresses). When we went there we visited a German beer tent. Again, don't think of it as a tent so much as a longhouse, filled with people, picnic tables, music and giant glasses of beer. It is fairly common to stand on top of the benches and dance along the music, so of course, I hadn't been there long before one of these benches tipped over, sending six fairly intoxicated people sprawling, to the ironic cheers of everyone in the tent. Outside the beer tents, vendors selling pretzels, sausage, and just about every kind of traditional bavarian food can be found. Walk a little farther and you will find amusement park rides. Ferris wheels, tilt-a-whirls, those chairs attached to chains that go up really high (no idea what they are called), and all manner of carnival games line the streets of the festival. I am told that Oktoberfest is much bigger, but I can only speak from experience. Oktoberfest will come later.

Sorry about the lack of photos, but this is from the first night I arrived, at which point I had no camera.

Finally, a quick note about comments: the reason I ask for them was originally to get feedback and so that you guys could kinda shape what this blog was going to be, since I wasn't sure what you guys wanted. Now, I would like comments to suggest what topics I will write about in the future. If there is anything you wanted to know about life in Germany, please suggest it in the comments. German music, food, sports, anything you wanted to know. Post it in the comments.

Talk to you guys later