Donut go to Oktoberfest...unless you love sausage and beer! Luckily enough, I happen to love sausage, beer, pretzels, and everything else Germany had to offer me. Growing up, I liked hearing stories about my grandma and grandpa who came right from Germany to start a farm in South Dakota. Since my mom is 100% German, I guess that makes me at least 50%! So i decided that going to Oktoberfest was a must. You know, to learn more about my German heritage. It was purely for research purposes. We arrived late on Friday night and stopped at a nice German restaurant. Want to guess what we ordered? Veggie burgers.
Absolutely not, we ordered sausage, sauerkraut, and beer. In fact, come to think about it, that's basically all we had to eat for the whole time we were there and I'm not mad about it. We took it easy on Friday night because we knew Saturday would be a long day. We woke at 5:30 just so we could get a good spot in line! We got in line at exactly 6:59 (I have the snapchat filter to prove it).
From there, we stood in yet another line to get into the actual beer tent. When we were finally allowed in, there was a mad dash for the very best booth. We chose a nice booth that was off to the corner and sat with a group of German kids about our age. They tried to speak German to me before they realized I was American. Must be that 50% German in me! Fortunately, most Germans speak English because they learn it in school starting at a young age. They were very interested in our life in America. My friend Tim (in the middle of the bottom left picture) said he wanted to marry an American girl and move to the states eventually so I was more than happy to show him pictures of my friends. Tim taught me that the ribbon on the dirndl actually has a significant meaning. Apparently, if you tie it in the middle, it mean you're a vrigin or a very young girl, if you tie it in the back, it means you're widowed, if you tie it off to the left, it means yore single and looking! if you tie it off to the right ( as shown below) it means you're taken.
Speaking of dirndls, a dirndl is a traditional German garnet that the peasants used to wear. The word dirndl used to mean "young girl" but now it mostly refers to the dress. Out of all the thousands of people who were at Oktoberfest, I never saw two dirndls alike...except for the one that I was wearing! The men wear the laderhosen, which is made out of deer leather and they are never washed to keep the leather moist! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures with anyone wearing the laderhosen. But that's alright because after my third stein and so many pretzels that I lost count, I made a promise to myself and anyone listening that I would come back again, eventually. After I pay off my student debt...