Christmas Markets

The thing that I have come to the conclusion that I love most about Germany is Christmas markets or Weinachtsfests. They are probably the thing that definitely makes me love Germany more. They kind of remind me of the fairs back home but they are a million times better because it involves Christmas. So far I've been to the one in Mannheim, Stuttgart, Esslingen, Uberlingen, and Maastricht (even though it's in the Netherlands). 

There are shops that have everything imaginable from incense to wool socks to Christmas ornaments. In all honesty I’ve gotten the majority of my gifts for my friends and families from the Christmas festivels. They also have The BEST food. I’ve had bratwurst, crepes, mushrooms with garlic sauce and my favorite candied nuts. Instead of eggnog around the Christmas holidays German’s drink Gluhwein. This is a drink that is served warm and is basically wine but so much better as well as it warms you up. Translated it directly means glow wine which is what you will get when you drink it.

Another thing that takes place, at least in Stuttgart, is that people will perform music in all types of languages. In Stuttgart Jim and I saw a yodeler, Mexican carolers and little children playing instruments and gaining experience. I love this time of year and I really sad that my family doesn’t get to experience this because it makes me appreciate the holidays more.

Here are some pics that have been taken of me or taken by me at a number of Christmas fests.

This is from Mannheim

Maien and I eating amazing mushrooms

Stuttgart

Me at Stuttgart and all the snow!

Stuttgart's sign

If you look close enough you can see the girl playing a clarinet :)

here was the Yodelers in Stuttgart that we saw

Sorry for the Lack of Posts/ Food in Germany and Abroad

So I first need to start off by saying to my friends and family that wanted to follow me religiously that I'm sorry that I have been lacking in the blogging area....

Next I'm going to introduce the topic of food and how much it differs from the US and Germany/European Countries.

In the US food for me was a necessity and most of the time not very good for you. Not many of you know that at the beginning of the summer I started doing Weight Watchers because the Freshman 15 and the Sophomore 15 had caught up to me and I needed to do something about it. Well long story short since June I've lost 30 pounds.

While in Germany I've been trying to keep up with my diet and it has been hard to track everything while translating it but it's been good. The one major thing that I noticed was the fashion in which Europeans eat out in comparison to the American way.

First off in the US I feel as if when my family and I go out to eat it's mostly just to eat and so neither of my parents have to cook. We order our food and our drinks and we impatiently wait for the food. When we get the food, we quickly eat and have a few conversations about what has been happening in our lives but just skirting over the big things. Then when our waiter/waitress sees that we are all done they bring over the check, you look at the bill and pay quickly so that the waiter/waitress can turn over your table to the next people waiting.

In Germany it's completely different. here it seems that they take their time and eating is like visiting with friends time instead of trying to stuff as much food as possible in your mouth in a short amount of time. So throughout this time I've been guilty of taking pics of me eating. So here they are.

The Netherlands and a bit of Germany

This weekend we went to visit my sister in her university in Maastricht. Jim caught up to on the ICE to Liege in Belgium. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a problem with the tracks, and we had to take a route that was 25 minutes longer than normal.

As a result, we pulled up to Liege just in time to see our next train leaving the platform. The next train would come in an hour, so we used our unintentional layover to get some Belgian waffles. The little smattering of French that Jim could remember came in handy; "Nous voulons deux 'waffles.'" I think we were asked what type of waffle we wanted, but I wasn't really sure what to say; we ended up with a delicious, gooey, possibly honey laden treat.









Jim and his First Belgian Waffle





When it finally came, we hopped on the rickety old regional train and rode off through the thick fog towards Maastricht.

When we arrived, Maien was waiting for us, and even brought along her friend with a car so that we didn't have to trek 22 minutes through the dark fog to get back to her apartment.

We had a nice dinner consisting of home made burritos, and then skyped my parents. Maien turned in a paper that was due at midnight, and we all turned in for our trip the next day.




We met up with Meryl (Maien's friend) and Koen (Maien's boyfriend) at the Maastricht train station, and Jim had a little camera envy.

Meryl had one of these:








Which makes Jim want one of these:






Since it was such a long trip to Amsterdam we got out and stretched our legs for a bit, we decided to hop off in Utrecht. Glad we did too, as the weather in Amsterdam was no where near as nice as here. Turns out a little storm system was rolling through in the afternoon, making Amsterdam wet and cold.









Enormous wheels of cheese in the open market.










An awesome street organ. Sadly, it's partially covered for fear of rain.












Amsterdam ended up being up cold with the precipitation switching between rain, snow and small hail all afternoon.

Jim didn't take a lot of pictures, for fear of getting the camera wet and we took refuge from the storm by heading into a photography exhibit at FOAM.

By the time we came out of the Museum, we were tired, and it was dark, wet and cold. We decided to call it a night.

Here's a few pictures to actually prove I was there though:



















On Sunday, we headed out to Maastricht on bicycle. It's a cute town, I think I would like it better than Amsterdam if only because it was a little bit smaller and less crowded. Their Christmas market was in full swing. More German than anything though; as a snack we had "Champignons mit Knoblauchsauce," and Gluhwein stands were everywhere.
























A windmill? In the Netherlands?!










I decided that I wanted this bike because it looked soo cool :)















I've already covered Dachau in an earlier post, but I do have some new pictures of the grounds covered in snow

















We also went to the city of Augsburg, which has a very opulent "Golden Hall" in it's town hall.






The Augsburg Christmas Market was also in full swing.



It seems crazy that my time is ending here but I wouldn't trade it for all the world.




For now Laters

Porsche museum

Today Jim met with my grandparents and I at the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. We caught the S-bahn out to the Porsche Museum.









There were, of course, lots of Porches, of every era.




The bit that Jim really liked was the car that they cut apart right down its length.


Porsche was pretty thorough with this specimen, going as far as cutting the band-aids in emergency kit in the trunk (at the front of the car) in half, along with the user's manual, and a keyboard they had installed onto the glove box for testing purposes.




I also came across an '87 944, which Jim's sister might find interesting (More likely: Appalling) since she currently owns this model of car.



























The V-Rod engine was developed with Porsche













Loading a new car into the display.





Overall this little trip was mostly for my grandpa because he's always dreamed of owning a Porsche and in a small way he was able to visit this place and see them where they were made.








The dealership just across the street.

Berlin

I'll start first with the trip Northeast to Berlin with Jim and my Grandparents. We met up with Richard (my exchange sister's father), who kindly let us stay in his apartment. That night, we got to go out to dinner to a Turkish Restaurant called Hasir with Maien, and got to see the famous mall KaDeWe. I think together, had we pooled all our money, we might have been able to purchase a pair of socks. It made the Champs-Elysee look downright affordable. We didn't have much time to stroll around; it was nearly closing time.

After dinner, Maien, Jim and I stole off to a birthday party for one of Maien's friends, where we met a bunch of Australians and New Zealanders. As the party drew to a close, we had to run between patches of yellow glow emanating from the lights lining the streets of nighttime Berlin so that we might make it to the next subway train in time. We caught the subway with a few minutes to spare, and surfaced later at Alexanderplatz, devoid of all the commotion it's normally filled with during the day.

We waited for a tram, only to come to the conclusion that it was delayed indefinitely. Waiting at the corner of the square was a taxi, which we proceeded to place into our employ; the middle finger earmuffs of the driver not seeming to impede conversation. The driver of the silver Mercedes stowed her ultrabook in its case as we climbed into the plush leather seats, and with a push of the button, our fare began to roll up in the rear view mirror. The car weaved through the maze of streets to the beat of what I can only assume to be Juno Reactor, bringing us ever closer to our destination. The awesome music combined with the propensity of the driver to stop no longer than absolutely necessary made it feel like a chase scene from an action movie.

After we left the taxi, it speed backwards down the street for half a block before peeling off for a place to collect its next fare.


In the morning, we were treated to a big breakfast by Richard and Andrea. The next day we boarded the Hop-on, Hop-off tour bus to at Alexanderplatz to grab a whirlwind trip through Berlin.









The Weltuhr and Fernseherturm at Alexanderplatz (Alex to the Berliners).







.










The Rotes Rathaus (Red Town Hall)










"More Walls to Tear Down" just past checkpoint Charlie.










(Blurry) Curry at the Wall










The Boxers










An Obligatory Picture of the Brandenburg Gate


I would have liked to make a more thorough investigation of the city, but Jim and I have class schedules that really only allow for weekend trips, and when it came time to leave, we hopped off at the enormous Berlin Hauptbahnhof and boarded our ICE for the 6 hour return trip.

Neuschwanstein

We went to Neuschwanstein today. It took four hours to get to Fussen, because it's a little town in the middle of nowhere. In fact, most of the trains I have ridden in Germany are powered by overhead power lines, but the train to Fussen had a diesel locomotive (or at least a diesel generator to make electricity).

We arrived and got in line to get tickets, when we were told that the Neuschwanstein tour was sold out. I guess that they had a lot of unexpected demand that day. I think it was because the weather warmed up a bit, and it ended up being a pretty nice weekend. In a twin set of tragedies, the castle was also under repair, and so the whole west wall was covered in scaffolding.

While we were in Hohenschwangau (the little village below the castles) we had a Bavarian Bratwurst and a pretzel. The bratwurst tasted like an oversize hotdog to me, but I guess that is what you get in a tourist town.
We took an overfilled Mercedes bus up the mountain to Marienbrucke, where there was an awesome view of the castle.












Even though we weren't able to get a tour of the interior, the courtyard was wide open for pictures.









We did see the Hohenschwangau Castle, but didn't make the hike over to walk around it.