And it's not because they are meant to be broken. Consider me rule-breaker-number-one. David and I self-imposed a three gluehwein limit (see earlier post) in order to protect ourselves from ourselves. Boy did we blow it. Actually, we didn't just blow it. We shattered it. I blame a lot of it on our friend, Marta. Although, to be honest, David is also partly to blame. And maybe me a little bit, too.
We decided last week that it would be fun to go to the Weihnachtsmarkts on Friday and drink a few gluehweins, absorb the festive atmosphere, and smell whatever was roasting on the open grills. So, as scheduled we arrived at the first markt where feuerzangenbowle is available (see earlier post). The crowd around the feuerzangenbowle (boy, is that hard to spell) stand was obnoxious and it is hard to manage four cups of feuerzangenbowle without spilling or burning bystanders. But, we perservered and for our troubles, we were heartily rewarded. A few times.
David decided we should move to different pastures and give gluehwein mit schuss (with a shot) a try. Everyone agreed and so we did. A few times. At a few markts. The train ride home is pretty foggy and David tells me that the conversation was pretty entertaining. I'm not sure about that. I do know that Saturday thoroughly sucked, at least until 3pm when I got out of bed.
It seems like every few years I have to remind myself why I NEVER drink any quantity of hard liquor. Somehow in between I forget. Gluehwein and feuerzangenbowle brought it all back in vivid, painful technicolor. Bleh. I should be good for a few years, anyway.
And now, modest readership, I am going to take a short winter break. The blog will be offline for two weeks. I know. I know. The horror. What will you do with yourself? I imagine you'll manage and I'll try to stay away from the gluehwein.
In the new year, we'll have tales of family visits, trips to the east of Germany and others. So stay tuned.
Of course, I still love Hamburg. But seven gluehweins mit schuss, I definitely do not love.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Damn Handy
Each night when I get home from work, I take Stella out to a little park right next to our house so she can do her business and snarf around. Depending on whether Inge has taken her on their 3-times weekly 2-hour afternoon walk, Stella's eagerness to get outdoors can vary substantially. Yesterday she had obviously been out on the town with her new best friend and was sort of leisurely making her way to the park (leisurely is a relative term with this dog, but anyway). As I followed Stella onto the sidewalk I noticed something shiny and bent down to retrieve a lost cell phone. It was a little bit wet since it is December and it is Hamburg and it has been raining on and off for the past two weeks (hint, hint Christmas visitors - bring a rain jacket). I tucked it in my pocket and headed to the park so Stella could be accosted by a giant, unwieldy, yellow lab. Not that I was sending her to be accosted, that's just how it went last night. This dog (the lab, not Stella) is a behemoth. I would guess he's well over 100 lbs and he drags his walker where ever it is he wants to go, which happened to be on or near Stella and her pee spot.
After the lab meet and greet, we headed back to make dinner and wait for the phone to ring. I sort of wondered what I would say or even how I would know if it was the owner. Or, what if the phone owner's spouse calls and some strange lady (me) answers the phone and "pretends" not to speak GErman so as to avoid an undesireable line of questioning regarding how it is that the strange lady (me) came to be answering the spouse's private line. I wasn't too worried since anyone calling didn't know who or where they were calling. I clearly had the upper hand in the matter, sucky language skills and all.
Within the hour the phone rang. I tried my best German "Hallo." The caller said a few words and I replied cheerily "Ich spreche kein Deutsch aber ich habe dein Handy." More words on his end, some I understood, others not. I managed to convey that I found his phone, I live in Eimsbuttel, work in City Nord and a few other, possibly unecessary pieces of information. I think he told me that he too lived in Eimsbuttel, worked at the Flughafen (airport) and asked where I found the phone. As I gave him my last name and address, I realized what a perfect scam it would be to drop cheapy cell phones around town and then wait for kindly folks to pick them up. The unscrupulous criminal could then arrange a quiet place to meet and WHAMO! I imagined a threw a wrench in his plans by not speaking the language.
I think I managed to arrange for him to call again tomorrow when I could pass the phone to one of my German co-workers and to arrange a time to make the exchange. God, my German is bad.
Today he called and I passed the phone and a German colleague arranged a time to make the exchange. The phone owner's sister called tonight and said "you have my brother's handy." I agreed. I think that might have been all the English she knew and since my German was no better we spent a few more minutes working out the details. When the phone rang again a few minutes later I walked out to give the phone to him half ready to bust out some sweet Thai boxing moves, if necessary. As I handed him the phone, he handed me a little box of chocolate and thanked me, visibly relieved. I imagine when your phone goes missing, you don't ever really expect to get it back. Anyway, I scored some chocolate. I think it has nuts.
What else? About 10 days until the family arrives for the holidays. I'm not really sure why I am telling you this since most of my modest readership will be here for the holidays. Or at least I hope they are among my modest readership.
Also, we are signed up for round two of Deutsch course starting in January. This time a teacher is coming to our office once a week for two hours to impart German skills. Very nice. I feel pretty ready and David is really trying at work to learn some phrases - "Wie var dein Wochenende?" I hope it helps - I am really getting tired of saying "Ich spreche kein Deutsche."
Of course, I still love Hamburg and I love free chocolate, too!
After the lab meet and greet, we headed back to make dinner and wait for the phone to ring. I sort of wondered what I would say or even how I would know if it was the owner. Or, what if the phone owner's spouse calls and some strange lady (me) answers the phone and "pretends" not to speak GErman so as to avoid an undesireable line of questioning regarding how it is that the strange lady (me) came to be answering the spouse's private line. I wasn't too worried since anyone calling didn't know who or where they were calling. I clearly had the upper hand in the matter, sucky language skills and all.
Within the hour the phone rang. I tried my best German "Hallo." The caller said a few words and I replied cheerily "Ich spreche kein Deutsch aber ich habe dein Handy." More words on his end, some I understood, others not. I managed to convey that I found his phone, I live in Eimsbuttel, work in City Nord and a few other, possibly unecessary pieces of information. I think he told me that he too lived in Eimsbuttel, worked at the Flughafen (airport) and asked where I found the phone. As I gave him my last name and address, I realized what a perfect scam it would be to drop cheapy cell phones around town and then wait for kindly folks to pick them up. The unscrupulous criminal could then arrange a quiet place to meet and WHAMO! I imagined a threw a wrench in his plans by not speaking the language.
I think I managed to arrange for him to call again tomorrow when I could pass the phone to one of my German co-workers and to arrange a time to make the exchange. God, my German is bad.
Today he called and I passed the phone and a German colleague arranged a time to make the exchange. The phone owner's sister called tonight and said "you have my brother's handy." I agreed. I think that might have been all the English she knew and since my German was no better we spent a few more minutes working out the details. When the phone rang again a few minutes later I walked out to give the phone to him half ready to bust out some sweet Thai boxing moves, if necessary. As I handed him the phone, he handed me a little box of chocolate and thanked me, visibly relieved. I imagine when your phone goes missing, you don't ever really expect to get it back. Anyway, I scored some chocolate. I think it has nuts.
What else? About 10 days until the family arrives for the holidays. I'm not really sure why I am telling you this since most of my modest readership will be here for the holidays. Or at least I hope they are among my modest readership.
Also, we are signed up for round two of Deutsch course starting in January. This time a teacher is coming to our office once a week for two hours to impart German skills. Very nice. I feel pretty ready and David is really trying at work to learn some phrases - "Wie var dein Wochenende?" I hope it helps - I am really getting tired of saying "Ich spreche kein Deutsche."
Of course, I still love Hamburg and I love free chocolate, too!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Why not Weihnachts
It has become something of a pass time for David and I to attend the Weihnachtsmarkts in and around Hamburg. Some have been very cool, particularly those downtown. And some have been awfully lame (Alsterdorfer Adventsmarkt). But in all cases, this country has pretty much cornered the market on Christmas. You could just about bottle the atmosphere here. While there is a similar (although I think not as crazy) tendency to shop till you drop for Christmas in Germany, there is an old-fashioned traditional feeling that I've never seen in the U.S. I suppose all the Gluehwein is helping with the holiday cheer, but never mind that. The air smells like sugary treats, wood smoke and pine trees. In the few days since the markets opened, we've been to a total of seven. The big ones have really special baked goods, candy, mustard, nuts, etc and lots of handi-crafts for gifts and decorating. I feel like a total sap, but I love it.
As I mentioned, Gluehwein is the drink of choice at these Weihnachtsmarkts and boy does it flow liberally. You can always find the Gluehwein stand - it's usually surrounded 4 people deep and smells like spiced wine. It is spiced wine, so go figure. Actually, Gluehwein is cheap red wine mixed with this stuff called Kinder Punch and a bunch of spices and then heated up. You can also get your Gluewein mit schuss (a shot of rum) or ohne schuss (without the shot). The schuss takes it to a whole new level and is worth a try and also worth implementing a self-imposed limit. We've decided that unchecked quantities of cheap red wine, lot's of sugar and rum just can't be a good combination. Our limit is three. So far, so good.
There is also a drink called feuerzangbowle that I am positively mad about. The word, feuerzangbowle, literally translates to "fire tongs punch." While I believe the base of the drink is the same as Gluehwein (cheap red mixed with cheaper punch), an extra step in the process makes the drink pretty damn special. A huge cone of sugar is placed in large tongs over a giant copper pot of simmering wine. The cone is then dowsed with high-alcohol rum and lit on fire. A ladel is used to continue adding rum to the sugar cone until the cone is made very small. The resulting firey, sugary mess drips into the wein and makes an ultra-sweet, highly intoxicating hot drink. So dangerously delicious. We tried a cup (or was it two?) on Friday. On Saturday my hands still smelled like carmelized sugar.
The other treat we tried was from a stand making fresh candy canes. The candy makers rolled out a huge, warm glob of striped candy, yelling all the while like carnival barkers. Then with some sort of quick hand magic, one guy lopped off a chunk of the candy, made into perfectly uniform pillow-looking squares and passed a bowl filled with the candy through the crowd. Wow, fresh, warm candy cane. I have no words.
We have two more Weihnachtsmarkts on the agenda this weekend - an ecological market and the big market in Bremen (about 110km from Hamburg). In the spirit of the season, I also bought an Advents Kalendar. I got one as a kid every year from a family friend and it has been really fun & nostalgic to pop open each day and pull out a little bit of chocolate during the countdown to Christmas.
That's pretty much it. David is encouraging me to focus a blog entry on German ways. I think I've been here long enough that I have stopped noticing! I have to pay attention again, because I know there is lot's of good sociological stuff going on. I just haven't been tuned into the transmissions lately.
Of course, I still love Hamburg and I really love feuerzangbowle, fresh candy and Weihnachts!!!
As I mentioned, Gluehwein is the drink of choice at these Weihnachtsmarkts and boy does it flow liberally. You can always find the Gluehwein stand - it's usually surrounded 4 people deep and smells like spiced wine. It is spiced wine, so go figure. Actually, Gluehwein is cheap red wine mixed with this stuff called Kinder Punch and a bunch of spices and then heated up. You can also get your Gluewein mit schuss (a shot of rum) or ohne schuss (without the shot). The schuss takes it to a whole new level and is worth a try and also worth implementing a self-imposed limit. We've decided that unchecked quantities of cheap red wine, lot's of sugar and rum just can't be a good combination. Our limit is three. So far, so good.
There is also a drink called feuerzangbowle that I am positively mad about. The word, feuerzangbowle, literally translates to "fire tongs punch." While I believe the base of the drink is the same as Gluehwein (cheap red mixed with cheaper punch), an extra step in the process makes the drink pretty damn special. A huge cone of sugar is placed in large tongs over a giant copper pot of simmering wine. The cone is then dowsed with high-alcohol rum and lit on fire. A ladel is used to continue adding rum to the sugar cone until the cone is made very small. The resulting firey, sugary mess drips into the wein and makes an ultra-sweet, highly intoxicating hot drink. So dangerously delicious. We tried a cup (or was it two?) on Friday. On Saturday my hands still smelled like carmelized sugar.
The other treat we tried was from a stand making fresh candy canes. The candy makers rolled out a huge, warm glob of striped candy, yelling all the while like carnival barkers. Then with some sort of quick hand magic, one guy lopped off a chunk of the candy, made into perfectly uniform pillow-looking squares and passed a bowl filled with the candy through the crowd. Wow, fresh, warm candy cane. I have no words.
We have two more Weihnachtsmarkts on the agenda this weekend - an ecological market and the big market in Bremen (about 110km from Hamburg). In the spirit of the season, I also bought an Advents Kalendar. I got one as a kid every year from a family friend and it has been really fun & nostalgic to pop open each day and pull out a little bit of chocolate during the countdown to Christmas.
That's pretty much it. David is encouraging me to focus a blog entry on German ways. I think I've been here long enough that I have stopped noticing! I have to pay attention again, because I know there is lot's of good sociological stuff going on. I just haven't been tuned into the transmissions lately.
Of course, I still love Hamburg and I really love feuerzangbowle, fresh candy and Weihnachts!!!
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