what i did over the weekend

on saturday i went shopping down the hauptstrasse and to the christmas market again with alexis and his spanish friend carmello. this was the second time i've been there and the magic of it still has me enthralled. it just looks so quaint and like a postcard that you can't resist walking around and feeling all christmas-clucky. and this is from someone who had never gotten into the christmas spirit. ever. for those that don't know the christmas market is in the three different squares down the hauptstrasse and includes stalls that have everything from children's wooden toys to candy and gingerbread, clothes such has hats, gloves, beanies, general market stalls and food and wine. the food is very traditional fare, mainly with meat like wurst and steak on offer. there is a stall that has half metre long sausages in a roll. quite tasty and helps to line the stomach when you start to consume all the gluhwein you can to stay warm. the wine, which i am very partial to, is called gluhwein and it tastes like apple and cinnamon. i am in love with this wine and have already brought a bottle to bring home. it's served hot like sake and really helps to warm you up when the temperature is about 3 degrees. the best part is that when you get it it comes in a mug that you get to keep, or if you have enough mugs at home you can hand it back and get some of your money back.

after the market alexis and i went out with some other friends, matthias and paula, to a spanish restaurant for tapas. i've had tapas before in mannheim and i was a little wary of this, as last time, if you have been reading this you'll remember, i ate unknowingly tongue. ech. this time however i was prepared and asked about everything i ate before i ate it. somehow i just don't trust the spanish anymore when it comes to food.

on sunday alexis and i went hiking in the heidelberg hills, which was fantastic. a friend of mine i met through facebook took us on the trek and showed us some fantastic sights, including an old ruined monastery from centuries BC and an old nazi auditorium. which i am told is still used for things that it shouldn't be used for, but also on mayday the local students have a party up there - getting drunk of their arses etc.

that night we went out to mannheim to watch a choir and small orchestra perform one of johann sebastian bach's christmas cannons. i didn't understand a word of it and only caught on what it was about near the end. something about mary and the three wise men. i turned to alexis and said, 'i know what this is about! the christmas story!' he just looked at me like i was stupid and pointed to the front of the program i was holding to a picture of the three wise men giving the baby jesus gifts and shook his head. i giggled at being stupid. the odd thing about this performance was that you don't clap until the whole thing is over. i found it weird that you don't clap at the end of each of the three sections and the first time i went to do it i was lucky i stopped before i started. alexis must have thought i was one of those uncultured westerners. i however just laughed and kept harassing him with a, 'can i clap now?' whenever there was silence.

after this performance we went out for dinner with my friend from facebook and a few of his friends at a french restaurant i can't quite remember the name of. the food was amazing, but alexis ordered some australian wine with his meal, and i'm sorry to say it was awful. maybe we keep the best wine for ourselves or something, cause i've had way better wine at home. some of which i'm sure is still sitting at mum's house, unless her and pop have drunk it all. in which case i will not be happy. damn drunks! lol.

so that's what i did this weekend gone. pretty exciting stuff, but i haven't gone into much detail on here, mainly because i want to spend a little more time detainling everything and eash one would take up heaps of room. i still have to talk about the heidelberg schloss and strasbourg france, but that will all have to wait as i'm going back to the christmas market very soon ans i don't have the time, but luckily it means more half metre wurst und gluhwein ahoy!

tchuss

random musings 2

as a couple of people have said that my last post was a little negative, or that i simply had a bad day, i'm going to take this opportunity to say some of the things i like about germany just so you know that i like it here. (i've also included the pronunciation of numbers so that i can help remember how to say them and to show people back home the difference between the numbers and how to say them)

number eins (i-nz) - the beer is fantastic and cheap. i picked up a six-pack of half litre beers for 1.99euro. that's right, 3 litres of beer for something like $3.50! and even the crap beer tastes good. it's nothing like at home where you pay way too much for beer that tastes like crap. unless of course you're willing to pay for something that's either imported or classed as a luxury fancy beer. and of course you can't go wrong with 3 litres of beer. 3 LITRES!?!

number swei (zvy) - the architecture is amazing. it's like walking around fairy tale village. (see my previous posts for examples of this)

number drei (dry) - the baked goods and fruit are something to really get excited over. i haven't had fruit this good since i lived in queensland. the bakery food is exquisite. they have these things called berliners which are basically a jam donut, but instead of having sugar or cinnamon over them they have this really fine version of icing sugar, that coupled with the great fruit, which lends itself to delicious jam, cannot be beat. unless of course you go to france and eat a proper eclair. i had a chocolate one in strasbourg and it was unbelievably tasty. i went halves with alexis, but i really didn't want to give him any, i just wanted to inhale the damn thing! (all this being said is wonderful, but as an australian, some of the food does scare me slightly - be wary of the dark wursts. i nearly ate something that was made of pig's blood. ech!?!)

number fur (fear) - the staring thing. even though i mention this in my last post, i think it's funny therefore good. i've learnt to stare back and it makes for great amusement on public transport. the only problem is i start smiling and laughing, which means i have to look away first and makes me lose the staring contest half the time.

number funf - the shopping. as most of you who know me in real life know, i love shopping when it's good shopping. i'm talking about clothes here, not grocery shopping (which i'll get to next). some of the clothes here are fantastic, some not so much, but most of it is wonderful. cecilia (one of my dearest friends) would die to buy some of these fashions. unfortunately mannheim has better shops than heidelberg, but there are still some shops here that are fantastic. as you can guess, strasbourg france has better clothes, but they are slightly more expensive, so i put forward that the shopping is better in germany. by the way, who knew that espirit had a fully-stocked male's section? at home it's all girly clothes, here they have wonderful guy's clothes. i even bought the jacket i love so dearly there. and it's fairly inexpensive. espirit also just clothed the european MTV awards, so you know they have cool funky stuff. i'll fully go into clothes shopping in another post. i have some pet peeves and some wonderful things to say about it. but again, anyone who knows me, knows that i have opinions about everything so this wont come as a shock.

number sechts (zex) - grocery shopping. i love grocery shopping here for the pure fact that i have no idea what i'm buying half the time. the other half, i've either taken my dictionary with me, or i've guessed by the picture on the box. the main reason i love it, is because it always feels like an adventure and things are very cheap to buy here, which means i can get a giggle and some food at a very low cost to my wallet and my self-esteem.

number sieben (zee-bin) - i know i've mentioned architecture, but this is different. THE CASTLE!!! i freakin' love the castle. i could look at it all day long and never tire of it. i know i still haven't posted about it, or strasbourg for that matter, but i have the weekend to myself (alexis went to nice to visit a friend) and i plan on blogging up a storm, so be patient damn you!

number acht (oct) - the language and language education. as far as i can remember i have liked three languages more than the others, russian, japanese and german. granted german isn't a hot language, but the sounds made while talking it intrigue me. you should hear little kids speak, they sound so cute. here people know several languages, as is the case throughout western europe i assume, it makes you think that we should be taught more in school in australia. i know of some little kids about 5-6 who can speak german, a little french, a little spanish and a little english, which is way more than i can. so pull your finger out australia and don't follow the path of america and england, where you think that english is the only thing worth learning because you're too bloody arrogant to look outside your own country and it's immediate neighbours.

that's all for now, there's heaps more, but i'll leave that for another post.
tschuss