This is the third time I have hiked some or all of this part of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. So there haven't been a whole lot of surprises. That being said, the town of Helen Georgia was one of them.
It's a recreation of a Bavarian village right in the heart of the north Georgia mountains. German immigrants are an important part of the ethnic mix here and Oktoberfest is a popular festival in many parts of the south so it's not an entirely false creation. It's also not so overdone as to come off as disney-fied. The T-shirts and old-time photo booths are designed to appeal to local sensibilities. One thing that made it even more colorful was the appearance of a German film crew making a documentary about the Appalachian Trail. One of the local waitresses was more than a little excited to have been interviewed by them in her native German telling them all about the area and the trail. My only contact with them was having to wait while one of them tried to film a rather ordinary yellow butterfly.
Always something new and different.