It's fest season! ... Wabbit season! ... Fest Season!

Apparently the Germans spend the entire summer drinking at fests every weekend. These weekends usually start on Thursday and stretch through Monday. That leaves Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare for the next fest.

Every town has one. Most seem to have several, spread out over the summer. One theory is that the summer in Germany is so short, they try to make the most of the available outside time. To do this, they celebrate what they do best... beer. Occasionally, they will celebrate wine. They do this only to piss off the French. Problem with this theory is that they also choose to celebrate the end of the summer with the biggest fest of them all (Octoberfest, in case you're clueless). Then, they spend all winter drinking to try to forget how g*****n cold it is. When they sober up, it's spring, and time to fest again.

Not that I'm arguing.

My theory is that the fests are German socialism at its best. The government doesn't want to have to tax the whole population to pay for the 7 million "lower income" citizens (we call them carnies) that refuse to work real jobs. Instead, just have them peddle cheap beer (they can drink while doing this, mind you), and they can keep whatever they make, and don't spend on the other carnie games. It's always the other carnie-types that are playing those games anyway. You know who you are.

It's win-win for the government. There's so much beer here that it costs them to store it. This way, they keep the lower, lowerclass in good shape through the winter, and save on beer-storage fees. So your typical festival goes like this. It's set-up like the little carnivals that roll into American towns. Standard carnie games, some new ones that are quite unique, and rides. But, and this is the important part, the beer. As one friend once mentioned to me, "Oh my God, the BEER!"

No Miller Lite, no Bud, just quality beer. Served chilled (yes, I said chilled) in a glass (yes, I said glass) mug. True, you usually have to give them 2 Euro or so to borrow the glass, but when you're done with it, you give it back, and they hand that 2 Euro right back. Yep, payment for responsibility. And get this, no one breaks the mug over their friends' head, throws it into the river, urinates in it**, or runs off with it. They all return it. Not that they care if you do, they've got your 2 Euro.

** unless absolutely necessary. Say, hypothetically, you have only 3 Euro with which to purchase one more beer, and you really have to pee. It is likely the toilette costs 0.50 Euro. After some quick mental math, and a scan of the lack of shrubbery, one has to make a choice. I'm just sayin....

Needless to say, we've been to a few fests. We'll talk more about specific fests in upcoming posts. I will take this time to post the first of my photos involving me, Wiesel, and the smiling wurst. It is a trashcan. A very jolly little trashcan. I want one. But, pictures of one will have to do. This one comes from the first fest we went to. That fine specimen between me and the wurst-can is our dog, Barley. He's a fan of Germany.