You’d think a person like me would me chomping at the bit to attend a “streetfood fiesta” coupled with music.  I am a food lover, and it shows.  And I also both love and create music.  This should have seemed like an event of my dreams.

Well, I’ll be honest.  I wasn’t that excited about it.  It was in my Facebook alerts and, because Bill is my husband, he noticed it on my Facebook feed.  He asked me if I wanted to go.  To be truthful, I was kind of thinking I might like to stay in and enjoy the day.  Yes, it’s been hot in Unterjettingen lately, but the forecast was calling for rain.  I don’t like getting caught in the rain.

The Afrika Fest was also going on in Böblingen and will also be tomorrow.  We went to it last year and enjoyed ourselves.  I was thinking it would be good to see the Sindelfingen Streetfood Fiesta, if only because it would be different.  This event, by the way, will also be happening tomorrow in  downtown Sindelfingen.  You can enjoy food from food trucks, lots of craft beers, and plenty of live music.  To be honest, as much as I enjoyed last year’s Afrika Fest in Böblingen, given a choice between the two events, I’d pick Sindelfingen’s event.  But then, I really like food, beer, and music.  I also know that there will be an Afrika Fest in Tübingen.  We attended in 2016 and had a great time.  Pretty soon, the 2018 fest will be on, affording us to enjoy African cuisine and buy African products.

So we went to Sindelfingen, parked at the Stern Center, and started walking into the familiar downtown area.  The first thing I noticed was a lovely German lady singing a song I translated to “Dance with Me” in German.  I was pretty proud of that, not that it was that hard.  She had a great voice and I kind of wanted to get a table at a restaurant and listen to her and her acoustic guitar playing friend some more.  But we kept walking and eventually ended up at a craft beer tent where there were a couple of Americans.

We heard the telltale accents and it wasn’t long before the wife and I were realizing we have a whole lot in common, even though I am way older than she is.  She’s 30 and I’m 46, but we both lived in Northern Virginia for awhile.  We were born in the same Hampton, Virginia hospital.  She went to William & Mary for grad school and my sister got her undergrad there.  I also did a lot of temp work there after I finished my degree at Longwood.  And our husbands both work on Kelley Barracks…  As we talked longer, we learned that we had even more in common.  It was freaky!

Bill enjoys a new craft beer.

Then, I noticed she and her husband were updating their beers on Untappd, an app Bill and I both use.  In fact, Bill had his Untappd baseball hat with him and was able to show it off.  This was a beer loving couple, which Bill and I both are.  I showed them some of our more interesting beer vacations and we had another round.  We kept chatting and eventually moved on to a food truck…

These guys make some great craft beers.

More craft beers.

Bill got me a “crunchy box”, which included a couple of dumplings and what appeared to be homemade potato chips.

He was very pleased with himself.

But there was actually a lot to choose from.  There were burgers, Polish goodies, Korean goodies, and barbecue interspersed with different musicians stationed throughout the route.  Sadly, we didn’t get to see the whole thing… or maybe it’s not so sad, since we truly did make new friends.

There was even a truck that used a Camden, New Jersey schoolbus for dispensing its burgers.

This guy met us when we were tasting craft beers.  He followed us and was very keen to share the moment, German style.

 

The whole time we were enjoying beers and food, we were getting acquainted with new people in our community.  And, besides meeting new people, we also got to pee for free.  This event has a public restroom truck that doesn’t cost anything to use and is surprisingly clean.

Homemade potato chips!

And craft beer…

And if you hit the Sindelfingen fest, you should hit this truck.  There are good eats there.

Our drunk German friend again, who was very nice and harmless, although we didn’t understand everything he said.  I did do some nonverbal bonding with the craft beer sales people, who were enjoying watching us communicate with him.  He wasn’t a bad dancer, either.

See?

They have stuff for kids to do, too.  Even a “bull” for those who think they can hack it.

I probably should have been more conscientious about recording the scenes, but we were having too much fun getting to know our new acquaintances and soaking up the atmosphere.

I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow, but I wouldn’t be averse to visiting this fiesta again… or maybe hitting the Afrika Fest.  Having been to both, I can say that both are worth the stop, depending on what you want to do with your time.  The lovely thing about Germany in the summer is that you are spoiled for choices when it comes to things to do.  Someone is always having a fest if you haven’t already planned to see a park or another attraction.

If you didn’t get out today, I highly recommend making the attempt tomorrow.  You never know.  You might make new friends, too!