Octoberfest

This weekend I decided to let some stress off and take an adventuer. A friend of mine, Joseph from New Zealand, invited me to go to Villa General Belgrano, pretty much a German colony here, for Octoberfest. He told me Friday morning and we had to leave Friday afternoon on a bus, so it was short notice. But my host parents thought it would be a great experience and literally 5 minutes after I asked them about it I was heading into town to meet him. Elisabeth from Texas came too, and we all took a bus to the city. About 2 and a half hours.
When we got there, things were crazy. It was a beautiful European style town with awesome shops and stuff (see pics on facebook). We wandered around, then decided that even though it was a little bit expensive, we were going to buy Octoberfest Beeer Mugs, authentic. I bought a nice sized black one with gold and silver emblems on it that say Octobefest 2008, Villa General Belgrano Argentina and Germany. We then entered the festival. These people really like there beer. There were more types being displayed than I knew existed by far. Even though the festival was to celebrate beer, it was interesting in other aspects. First, they had performances from some really random countries. Arabic dancing, and even a Ukranian troupe haha. Also, it was a large tourist attraction so we got to see other people from other countries walking around. The atmosphere was very relaxed and festive. Even though I wasn´t drinking out of my mug, carrying it around with my little mug strap (thats right, they come with shoulder straps so you can just sling it around your back haha) made me feel a part of the festival, and it was fun to raise your mug to other tavelers, even if you didn`t have anything in it.
Later that night we took a bus back towards home. I was invited to spend the weekend in Alta Gracia with Josephs family, so Joseph and I got off in Alta Gracia and Elisabeth went back to Còrdoba. The rest of the weekend was relaxing. I got to play ping pong for the first time in forever at a club on Saturday, and tried a game called Paddle. Paddle is played with tennis balls on a court roughly half the size of a tennis court, with a tennis net...but the paddles are short and fat and solid. There are back walls to that you can bounce the ball off. It was different, but fun. That night we went to a friends birthday party, which was nice. Sunday was also relaxing, and Elisabeth came to Alta Gracia to hang out with us. Monday morning Elisabeth and I took a bus back to Còrdoba. A very fun and unforgettable weekend in Argentina.