I spent this Christmas Eve in Nurnberg at the Kriskringelmarkt in the main square. If anyone on Earth can have a good time during the holiday season, it's Bavarians.
I went on my yule-tide trip with a new group of friends. I barely knew one of them, and met the other three as we left the Abrams. My travel buddies were Meghan, Ashlinn, Kacey, and Laura. We all became fast friends.
We took the train to Nurnberg using a Bayern Pass. This is a group train ticket that allows up to five people travel together for around 30 euro. The pass is good all day but only allows travel in Bavaria. Bavaria is pretty big though. The Bayern Pass is a godsend to someone like myself that just wants to see a bit of the surrounding countryside.
We arrived at the Hofbahnhof in Munchen just after 10:00. The main train station in Munich is pretty big, but we found or connection easily enough. We had a few minutes to waste before we boarded, so we bought a few beers and I bought a salami sandwich for 1 euro for breakfast. That was one of the best decisions I made all day. I was starving.
After a short while, we boarded our train to Nurnberg. The trip took approximately three and a half hours from Garmisch, which was far faster than we had been quoted online by DeutschBahn. We were happy at being there early though. That just meant more time in the center of Christmasdom on Earth.
Once we arrived at the Christmas Market, sadly our first stop was to McDonalds. I would like to say that I didn't buy anything there, but one of the girls bought some fries so we could use the facilities. I appreciated this because, as you may recall, I had purchased a few beers in Munich, and they weren't around anymore.
As we exited the Micky-Ds, we had a pretty good view of the Cathedral in the square. Meghan saw this as a good opportunity for some pictures so we all lined up. A nice man saw us taking the picture, and offered to take it for us (so we could all be in it). After cheese and smiles, we talked for a few minutes with him. He is an Iraqi that has been in Germany for over ten years. He left to live with his brother and to escape the obviously poor situation in his native country. He told us that he missed his home and would like to return, but not when it is so dangerous. He was a very jovial and nice man. Kacey even got to impress him, and the rest of us, when she broke out her Arabic. They exchanged a few words, as the rest of us exchanged stairs and tried to pick up our jaws.
After that we wandered around the Market for a little while. We bought some Gluhwein, which is a traditional warm drink they have in Germany around Christmas. It is sort of like a wine based sugary drink, and often they will put a shot of Amaretto or Whiskey in it. After a little while, someone mentioned (I don't recall who) that we should get some more beers. You can't buy beer at any of the stands in the Christmas Market. I asked the closest stand where we could buy some beers in my best German. She pointed us to a small (normal) Market just around the corner. If you're not sitting right now, please have yourself a chair: this is where it gets a little great.
In the Market, we passed a group of Germans, that one of whom looked like he was on something. We sort of chuckled to ourselves and continued through the store towards the beer. I'll remind you now, to help set up the next series of events, that I am in a strange city with four girls that I barely know attempting to buy some beer and there are some Germans acting very strangely off in the corner. This was all ok, until the Germans decided they liked the girls, and were no longer "off in the corner".
Andi, as I later learned his name is, came up to us as we were getting into the beer cooler, and struck up a conversation in what I suppose is the best way he thought possible: he started hitting on.... yes you guessed it right my friends, me. I couldn't contain myself. He is the one that we thought was high, and now he is asking me "At where are you sleeping tonight?" as he embraces me in a big side-hug. After keeping this up for a moment, he assured the girls that he wasn't gay. I moved towards the register. Everyone followed including our new Nurnberger friends.
The next few hours were spent right outside of the small Market where we purchased our beer. The three Germans that originally approached us were a part of a larger group of students that lived just outside of Nurnberg. They are all studying civil engineering when they aren't hitting on cute American men. Despite the somewhat odd circumstances of how the encounter began, I would be lying if I said that I didn't truly enjoy myself just standing in the cold and talking with a group of German Uni kids.
After several hours of very entertaining conversation, it was time for us to get back to the BahnHof to catch our train back South. Our new friends not only walked us back to the train station, but one of them, a Turkish born German named Sadik, also helped me print out an itinerary that we desperately needed to find our way back to Garmisch.
It had been a long and fun day, but by the time we switched trains again in Munich, we were all pretty pooped. Despite what we may have wanted to do the rest of the night, we all crashed pretty hard when we got back to the Abrams. This worked out ok for me though, because I had to work the next morning. For any of you that are paying attention, that is Christmas Morning. I didn't really mind working today though, because I don't really know what I would have done today anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment