Za Schutenfest = Zer Good

Europe » Germany
September 2nd 2007

Published: September 4th 2007

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LPW

The Boys are Back!

Back in business baby!!!

My great friend Christian had been telling me about this "Schutzenfest marching/drinking" weekend for a while, I think he might have even mentioned it a couple of times when we were studying in the states together. He had tried to explain this Schutzenfest thing to me many times but I could not quite grasp it other than the whole marching and drinking part. So being only a hop and a skip away from London I jumped on a German Wings flight from Stansted to Koln/Bonn to find out what all the HOOPLA was about.
Before I could say "Prost!" I was at Carlos' house with a cold beer in my hand and talking shiser in German.
From that BBQ on the whole weekend was very much a whirlwind blur of well drinking and marching (with some singing). Who would have thought!!
It's the biggest in Germany with the town of Neuss growing by 3 times its normal size and up to around 6000 schutze.

What a weekend it was. Honestly one of the most enjoyable and memorable weekends in a long time. Just incredible.
The thing that made it the most enjoyable were Christians mates in his Sook, Ert Bevart.

Bumper Cars

Always fun when you re drunk. I could not make the bloody thing go forward though.

(butchering the spelling!) Basically his fraternity brothers. Such awesome guys, they really are. There are so many characters, always laughing and messing about and always have a beer on hand for a friend in need.
The first evening we dressed up in our suits and went marching through the street carrying lanterns. My first time marching ever. Really cool actually.
We had many more marches and it was quite a feeling all marching together with people ram packed on the sides cheering and the women running out of the crowd beaming with joy to give their significant others some flowers. It sort of reminded me of those war movies you see of the young men marching off to war and women throwing flowers everywhere and the soldiers with broad smiles on their faces. It was an amazing feeling to get a small taste of that.
We had dances and balls every night which always involved a good dance at the end. The Germans might not be very good at football, making cars or making beer but boy can they party. When Germans party, they party hard. I remember this well from my first trip there to Berlin in 2000. Zose

Ert Bevart!!

That's more or less how you spell it.

crazy Germans!! Love it.
I was also quite blown away by the number of gorgeous German women, it was astounding!!

There are too many great stories for a mere blog, so many good memories. A massive thank you too all the guys and girls who made me feel so welcome. You were amazing and I consider you all as a friend of mine. You have a house in London to call your own.

Will I be at the Schutzenfest 2008 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ert Bevart??
I've already bought my flight!

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