Dec. 2nd-8th

A Visit from Mom and Dad 

On Sunday, my parents came to visit me in Dortmund. They had been in Germany for a week, on a river cruise down the Danube and came up to see me before going home. They arrived later in the evening, so we took it easy the first night and checked in to the hotel.

Monday, I got to show them around the city. It was bitterly cold, so we had to bundle up. At least it wasn't snowing. I took them around the Christmas Market and showed them the giant Christmas tree. There was, of course, a trip made to TKmaxx. Daddy even documented the occasion:  

We then went to get something to eat. At the Christmas market, there is a lot of food to choose from, but we migrated toward the desserts. My friend Krisztina had told me about a "Germknödel" one day at lunch. It basically looks like a dough ball covered with some sort of sauce. It's actually a type of dumpling and is usually filled with different types of fruit and then covered in a vanilla sauce. We tried the cherry flavor and it was delicious. Here's what one usually looks like: 

Odd-looking... but delicious!

For dinner, I took them to the Indian restaurant that Uschi had showed us. I was not very adventurous, and ordered what I got before, the lamb. It was still just as good. Mom and Dad seemed to like it as well. After dinner, we had tickets for a musical quartet. It was a very tiny venue, maybe half the size of a regular high school auditorium. However, this put us closer to the performers and the acoustics were really good. The ensemble consisted of two violins, a viola, and two cellos. My favorite performer was one of the violinists. He really got into his performance (Brahms, by the way) and his facial expressions were priceless. He also had a habit of shifting his feet and bouncing around in his chair. At one point, we thought he was going to just stand up and continue playing. All of the musicians were very talented, and it was an enjoyable night out.

On Tuesday, we took a day trip to Cologne. It seems that we picked the wrong day to go, because all of the trains were delayed 30 minutes. Once we finally got to Cologne, the weather was really crappy. It was windy and rainy as well. We sought shelter in the cathedral, which mom and dad had not seen. It was very peaceful and a nice respite from the rain. Right next to the cathedral is Cologne's Christmas market, which is a little more traditional than Dortmund's. There were a lot of nutcrackers and handicrafts. Mom and I found a booth that sold Christmas pyramid's and a lot of other hand-carved wooden stuff. She even bought me one for a Christmas present. Here's a video of it in action: 

The tiny candles are real too! 

After perusing the shops, we found a place to warm up and laugh at the people outside struggling with their umbrellas. I saw at least 3 umbrellas snapped because of the wind.  We made our way home and had dinner at Carl's apartment. He and Ann-Kathrin were sweet enough to invite us over and my parents really wanted to meet them, so it was a fun night. We got donür from the Turkish restaurant down the street from Carl's apartment. It was delicious as usual.  I'm glad that everyone got to meet, and I think a good time was had by all. 

My parents left on Wednesday, it was a short but sweet visit, and I was happy to see them before Christmas. 

On Friday, I got to sit in on a meeting for the Hans Breder exhibtion in February. It was really interesting and another behind-the-scenes look at what goes on at a museum. I'm grateful to have the internship and an awesome boss that lets me in on these meetings.

Saturday,  Krisztina was nice enough to invite me to go to Münster with some of her friends. I don't think I've ever eaten so much in one day. It began with breakfast at a Currywurst stand in Bochum. According to Krisztina, this stand is the one that invented Currywurst. It was very good, but honestly, I like anything with sausage and french fries. I also got to meet Krisztina's friend Steph, who was visting from Australia. Then we met up with even more friends, Joana and Markus. We would be driving to Münster together. It was fun to finally meet another Joanna, but even though her name only had one "n," I kept responding whenever someone would say her name. Krisztina suggested they call me Jo-Jo, a nickname I haven't heard since preschool. I didn't mind, and it was a fun car-trip. I had been complaining about the lack of Christmas music.

 In America, they blast it constantly, beginning the day after Thanksgiving. You hear it everywhere- malls, restaurants, sports events, basically anyplace with speakers. I usually get sick of it by the second week of December. But in Germany, it's the opposite. I traded too many Christmasy songs  for none at all! However, Markus and Joana had three CDs full of classic Christmas songs. I was so happy and sang under my breath to my favorites. My quota of Christmas music has now been filled. 

Once we got to Münster, we met up with a couple more friends. Münster has 5 major Christmas markets spread throughout the city. We managed to get to two of them and both were really nice. On top of the Currywurst, I crammed in Reibekuchen (basically a hashbrown that you eat with applesauce), a Krakauer (type of sausage served with mustard on a roll), and a cup of Glühwein and hot chocolate. This was all at the 2 Christmas markets. We then walked to downtown Münster, which was really pretty. There was even a live musical performance along the main road.

As I was to find out, the day was just starting! After we finished looking through the city, we drove to the nearby town of Telgte. We would be attending a Christmas market combined with a type of renaissance  fair. It's called "mittelalterlicher" which basically means medieval. Joana told me that it's a year-round thing, and it travels throughout Germany. I had never been to a renaissance fair, so I guess Germany was as good a place as any to try it out. There was so much to take in. This thing was held in the middle of some woods. No joke. There were torches everywhere lighting the path and a lot of vendors throughout the area. 

There was even a stage for bands to perform. People were also dressed up in traditional renaissance clothing. It reminded me of Game of Thrones. While there, we managed to find even more to eat. I tried a dönur type thing with bits of shredded beef and what tasted exactly like ranch dressing. I asked the Germans and they said they didn't know the name of the sauce, but I swear the lady making these things had a bottle of Hidden Valley stashed away somewhere. We toured some of the stalls, which were a lot different from the city vendors. There was a blacksmith and tanner, and a place that sold bow and arrows! We listened to some of the bands perform (a lot of bagpipes... I don't think I've ever heard bagpipes outside of a funeral, but here, they were used in rousing anthems that had a lot of shouting and foot stomping), and found a big bonfire to sit around and warm up. Then it was time for more food.  Joana recommended an almond hut, where you could get them coated in all sorts of stuff: coconut, butter toffee, and my favorite, Nutella. Then we tried a cheese pretzel. It was the freshest you could get, straight out of the oven and delicious. I stood and watched the man make them for a while as well. Really interesting!   On the way out, I saw some wooden horses that were clearly meant for children to play on. However, I got Steph to take a picture of me riding on one: 

They may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEEEEDOM!

The cherry on top was the fire-breathing dragon head near the exit. I couldn't get a picture of it in action, but it was still cool nonetheless. It was a long but really fun day, and I was happy to meet some new friends!

Schüss!

German Word of the Week: Bauchschmerzen- "stomachache" If you want to sample all of the food at a Christmas market, you will probably have a Bauchschmerzen by the end of the day.