Saturday, May 4, 2013

The rest of Saturday: Renaissance Festival at the Gartenschau

After taking my colleague to the airport this morning, I came home for a really long nap today (which might have been related to the wine that a friend and I drank last night). I needed to get up and move around a bit so I decided to mosey down to the Gartenschau, which is an outdoor garden and dinosaur sculpture park in Kaiserslautern (I'm not quite sure how the dinosaurs ended up there, but kids love them).

This weekend, there is a Renaissance Festival being held there. Plenty of people in Renaissance garb were milling around their canvas tents. I've found that Renaissance Festivals tend to be mostly the same, no matter where they are. People walk around, drinking expensive beer (though at this festival some were drinking beer out of animal horns, which was new to me) and eating chunks of meat. There is expensive soap, wine, jewelry, and leather goods for sale. Once in a while one stumbles upon a Medieval lass with a mohawk. I get it, you're a medieval punk...or something.

I did notice a few differences in the festival from the US festivals I've attended. They mostly were in the garb; I saw people wearing animal furs a lot more here. I don't think I've seen it so much in the US. I'm not sure; maybe they're rather expensive. Also, the clothes were a bit more colorful and seemed better made in some cases.

On my way home, I saw a contrasting sight: there was a cute elderly gentleman strolling along, wearing lederhosen, matching socks, and his little alpine hat. In his rucksack, nordic walking poles stuck out jauntily. In case anyone has a romantic, but inaccurate view of Germany, let me be clear: people don't just wear this stuff around. Granted, I'm not in Bavaria, but I am in a forest region. People are more likely to be wearing skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors. I've never seen anyone in lederhosen here before.

I wonder if the guy was returning from a Volksmarch (hike)? Even then, I've never seen anyone wear lederhosen to those, either (though to be fair I've only been to one). I wonder if they would be comfortable to wear for hiking....something makes me think that leather trousers might not be the best.

It's kind of like Where's Waldo, but it's more like Where's the Lederhosen Dude?


There he is! Isn't he adorable?

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