One of the famous events that Germany is known for is Oktoberfest. Seeing how it is not yet October we have not been able to experience the festival. So what is the next best thing? Why its Frühlingsfest, which is basically a Spring festival that happens the first couple of weeks of Spring. It just so happens that the second largest spring fest was only a short train ride away from Reutlingen University.

We took the train in to Stuttgart in the morning and we met up with a few of the German students that will be studying at Valpo next year. They first showed us the amusement park that is a huge strip of different rides complete with roller coaster and a Ferris wheel. For the most part it was similar to the rides we have at our amusement parks back home, minus all the safety requirements. So after having witness all these ride and wandered through the different shopping stands, we headed over to the beer tents.

Though most of the stereotypes of Germans I haven’t found true during this semester, Frühlingsfest definitely explained where those stereotypes came from. The tent which was probably the size of football field was packed filled with lederhosen and dirndls. They served liters of beer that servers would bring five in one hand. There was traditional German songs playing and people standing on the benches dancing, hugging and singing with the liters of beers. Other people were eating traditional German food and talking about “football” or how we Americans say it, “soccer.” This whole excursion was definitely one of my favorite cultural events since being in Germany because it was just fun to watch and see that some of the stereotypes are true about Germans which definitely is not a bad thing!