When I arrived at my first beerfest it was my welcome to Germany moment so to speak. Who ever invented the diddle, the female counterpart to the leader hoisen, should be given an award compribale to the noble piece prize, sheiza! Im at the restaurant where i get my free meals and Asked a few birls how to spell sheiza and they siqd they didnt know. WHAT!? I dont care what language you speak everyone know how to say and spell shit in their native tounge. Wait the waitress told me though, its Scheise!
But after my far share of ogling girls outfits and seeing the leiderhoisens i was beginning to see that it was a sort of way to over sexualize, for a lack of a better word, the male and female anatomy. For guys the outfit is supposed to draw attensiom to their legs, ass, and chest, and for women it is a bit more obvious lol. No, but it was quite beautiful frokm an outsiders perspective and it really shows how deeply rooted the traditions of this culture are. A cool aside to the clothing sort of being traditional is the meshing of some modern styles in with the old. Like shoes for examples. Some guy was qearing bright blue air force one sneakers instead of the traditional leather brown shoes. I applaud him for his style.
But the when checking out the beerfest they have beer tents which are pretty self explanatory that house row and rows of benches for you and your friends sit at. We had trouble finding a table but a table because of our large group but a man and his wife gave up their spot for us and non chalantly got up and sat down at a noter tale with strangers and immediately struck up conversation like they had always been friends. That was probably half because of the culture and the other half because of the beer!
But it was a family oriented ordeal as well being that their were youngins all over the place and there were rides scattered about like the rides you would see on the boardwalk of ocean city. These beer fests last about 5 days and whatever town it's thrown is shuts down during the festival. So if you want to find somewhere to get food or a drink your only chance is the beerfest.
On the topic of food, they served giant pretzels, different breads, and fish. And when o say fish I mean the entire fish. Not something I'm used to seeing lol my friend alex wrapped a piece of fish In the crispy skin and told me to eat it. It is no secret I'm not a picky eater but fish skin? I was thinking dude, WTF?lol but I had it and it tasted great.
On the topic of beer your had several different brands or types of ber to decisde from. All the beers cost about 7-8 euros but its served in what is called a Mass, a one liter mug. If you want to say cheers or something to that extent you say Prost! And when you say it you have to look the person who's mass your clanking with in the eyes followed by tapping it on the table. At first I wasnt looking ppl it eye when toasting because I was looking for the next glass to tap. I was corrected almost immediately lol it's a big effin deal. The moral and cultural significance of the whole gambit of idiosyncrasies of the German toast date back to medical times when poisoning an enemies drink was the cats meow of every homicide and conflict resolution.
So, you look in the eyes of the person your toasting to get a feel of whether or not the bastard looks like he's hiding something. you clank the bottom, never top of the mass or mug, to mix your beer with his so if their is poison in his glass you can at least take him with you, and the table tap at the end has a similar ideology behind it. Luckily for me I didn't have to worry about these guys poisoning me because I know they altleast value me as a player on their team lol but I haas a great time, maybe to great of a time, saying Prost! Mking everyone drink with me. I definatley took a lot bigger sips than most though but taken with the history, I guess that just makes me more trusting lol
I wondered a bit and tried my luck talking with some German girls, the language barrier is both a blessing and a curse. Some girls know no enlgish, most know at least a little, and for those that do talking with an American has some sort of novelty to it. Cha-ching! Just kidding, but seriously lol I had 5-6 masses I think with some strong beer and had an absolute blast though. Jack and I agreed to tap each other on the shoulder if the other was "bringing shame upon the stars and stripes" in jacks words. I got tapped several times by jack but that became for of a dick measuring competition between us and more funny than serious.
Both of us should have heided each others warning though because the next day was unbearable and he couldn't keep it down the night before ha! Small victory for me but a larger victory for beerfest vs. US lol I'm pumped for the next beerfest because I have an authentic leiderhoisen to show off and some experience to know that German beer is a bit stronger than american beer lol. But I had a great time and soaked up a lot of history and culture that I was oblivious too before arriving. So in short, it was totally worth the hangover.
-Eric
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