Altstadtfest - Kaiserslautern

This holiday weekend, Kaiserslautern was hosting an Altstadfest (Old Town Fest) from July 3-5. Emilee and I went downtown the night of the 3rd because we could hear all the music. I asked her if it was like the Christmas Fests and she said it was much bigger. BUT she said the music was not the type of music that was playing now, it was much slower and calmer. Also, she said it wasn't as crowded. That's a good thing, because I don't think I would like Christmasfests if they were like this Altstadfest!


Basically, what I saw was just quite a few different venues for music, tents everywhere selling delicious German food, and even more tents selling alcoholic drinks. Besides the beer and wine, they were selling fruity mixtures with wine. It did taste quite good. Emilee bought some with strawberries in it.

Food:

I had a beer and told Emilee that I thought the beer in Germany must be stronger than in the States because I had a buzz off of just one. I found out that the beer in Germany can be twice the alcoholic content of ours. What amazed me too, at this fest, was the number of kids I saw drinking alcohol. They are allowed to drink beer at 16, (yea, Olivia, you were close to being "of age" last summer), but you have to be 18 to drink hard alcohol. That did not stop the under 18 year olds from buying liquor, that I could see. They'd walk right up and order it and they weren't even carded. So you can just imagine what the Altstadtfest was like with that many young/odd people who were intoxicated! I truly didn't see anyone being obnoxious....but the night was young. The really good news is that kids can't drive here until they are 18, so at least those 16 year olds weren't drinking and driving. The other good news is that they have great public transportation here, so there's a built-in "designated driver".

The most interesting thing that I saw at the festival was in a section by the old church. It was set up to look like medieval times and there was a guy "breathing fire". Other than that, it was nothing to write home to Mom about....but I am writing about it in my blog. Does that count? :-)