Village culture

Some serious cultural happenings are occurring in the village of Walberberg this weekend, which conveniently happens to be the village I am living in. As we live on the main street, not much effort is required to actually observe the culture, other than peering out of the window, as you can see from the photo. The housemates and I are reluctant to get any more involved than this in the goings on, but this does seem sufficient to draw suspicious stares from those actually taking part. I stood outside the house for a brief moment of time to observe the passing parade of people dressed up, flag bearers, band members and so on, but the looks I was given did not indicate that I was welcome to be doing so. Traditional German culture and half naked beach bum sporting camera do not perhaps mix too well.

Still, it was interesting to watch. There is some reason for the parade, involving some weekend long festival occurring in the village, but we have not ventured further into understanding beyond that. It is sufficiently warm to just laze around feeling happily tickled by sun beams and ponder the delights of an afternoon swim in the lake, the culture is a nice bit of icing on a perfect cake, one doesn’t need to lick it to know that it tastes good. I have no idea where I was trying to go with that metaphor. If in doubt, change the subject.

We watched Germany trounce Argentina yesterday, a result which was somewhat unexpected, certainly with any of the German folk I know over here. Hopes are however starting to tentatively increase, the feeling is that Germany appearing in the final is no longer a distant dream. England being knocked out of the cup by the champions would somehow make that defeat feel slightly less tangy. Perhaps. Now that I am supporting Germany however they are doomed to failure. Ah well. We watched the game in the outside area whilst a tremendous lightning storm raged overhead, with accompanying torrential rain. Perfect BBQ weather you will no doubt agree. We then had a BBQ in the covered area, which resulted in a lot of smoke inhalation. So a classic BBQ all around, if lacking in sausage.

Finally, for now, I am popping over to London later this week to meet up with a whole swathe of people I have not seen in sometime, which I am really looking forward to. I expect there will be some drinking, some eating, and some merriment. Hopefully I’ll see some of you then :)