We have been able to spend some nice time together lately, because The Schatz is finally back from his travels in Vegas and NY. Last weekend Elly & Gerhard (& Leon of course) came to visit. We had a great time and did plenty of walking with the dog, and drinking nice wine together.
This weekend we decided to go and visit Elly in Leutenbach. It has been a really great time here. I feel like these little weekend getaways are just what I need to get away from the 9 to 5 mentality–and I am so over the 9 to 5 mentality.
Yesterday we went to the Fellbacher Herbst. It is kind of like a Fall Festival of sorts. They had this really sweet parade and we had a grand ol time. We had a few glasses of wine there with Elly & Gerhard and then D and I went on our way (via train) to the Folks Fest.
The Folks Fest…. oh dear.
I had seen these kind of places in movies and had always wondered what it would be like to experience it in the flesh. So The Schatz gave me a little tour of the seemingly normal fair of sorts. They had lot of amusement park type rides, games, etc. What was a bit special were these huge “beer tents”. They are called tents, but I have to say they are the farthest thing from the simplicity that this might imply. They are HUGE halls that are packed full each night of the three week fest. We happened to come to this fest on its last weekend, which meant that everything was even more packed and crazy.
I am really having a hard time coming up with the words to describe this place. My brain cells are a bit “sensitive” at the moment due to the fact that they were horribly abused by the amount of alcohol that I consumed at this festival–but I will come to this in a moment.
So The Schatz and I arrived at the festival, and he showed me around. It seemed pretty normal until we came across these huge tents. We noticed there were loads and loads of people standing around outside the tent, waiting to get in. We went up and asked the “tent bouncer” how one would enter this tent. We came to realize that tickets to get in are actually booked ONE YEAR in advance. Crazy, I thought… why on earth would someone book a ticket an entire year in advance, just to get into a tent and drink some beer.
Anyway, we finally talked our way into getting into the tent despite this minor book-in-advance requirement (having blond hair and an American accent helps I believe).
It was like walking into an evangelist church, but instead of having a preacher with a southern accent up on stage, they had dudes in lederhosen signing German drinking songs. Instead of the congregation lifting up bibles and yelling “Amen!”, they were lifting up beers and yelling “hölle, hölle, hölle!!” Crazy when I think about it…. Hölle means “hell” in English.
Anyway, The Schatz and I started out with our first liter (!) of beer and had a little walk around. We quickly became best buddies with the nearest group of inebriated folk. As the night went on, and we were on our 5th liter, things started to really take off. Everyone was standing on the beer benches, singing these songs, swinging their glasses around, and having a grand old time. I proceeded to make friends with every waking soul within a 10 meter radius, and The Schatz attempted to give these poor chaps dating advice and help them catch some unsuspecting victims (err… well you know what I mean).
Needless to say, he and I are sitting back and relaxing this morning. “The Morning After” is not always pleasant, to say the least. But this penance is surely worth the time we spent in the infamous tent, drinking our beer by the liter, and yelling “hölle, hölle, hölle”.
Memoirs of Alicia 