Germany

So we covered four cities in Germany, and each have been very different from each other, minus the fact that each of them are buried under two or three feet of snow.
We started off in Nurnberg. We had heard that Germany was extremely well known for their Christmas markets in each city, but Nurnberg was where the biggest one was.  This market definitely lived up to our expectations. The market is held in the old part of the city, where everything was built in like the 1500s. First you have to walk through this huge stone castle to cross into the old city, and then walk down a super steep, super snowy and slippery cobble stone hill into the heart of the town. What we didn't know about the christmas markets in Germany is that its the weeks leading up to Christmas that they are in full swing, and they close at two on Christmas eve and thats the end of them. So on the twenty third we woke up early, and went out to enjoy the christmas spirit,  The first vendors we started to pass were packed with people drinking "special" apple cider, and chowing down on sausage sandwiches. Graeme's head started to spin from one brotwurst vendor to another sausage vendor.  I feel like i cant bring justice to the supposed greatness of the German sausage, but according to graeme they were some of the best sausage sandwiches he's ever tasted. Of course nothing compared to the half a meter long smoked hotdog piled with mustard and onions he ate for dinner one night. These half meter hotdogs were a common occurrence to run into or dodge and avoid in the crowds.
The rest of the two hundred vendors were filled with handmade wooden ornaments that reminded us both of the old claymation of Rudolph, gingerbread (not nearly as good as yours mom and brad), little porcelain houses that are lit up inside just like the ones both moms bring out at christmas time, hand painted tree ornaments, and graeme's favorite puzzles and toys. Even though a number of vendors were all selling the same thing, the difference was in how the the vendor was decorated. If any of you have seen a christmas story, it was like being ralphie staring at the super cool christmas display in the window.  The vendors would have their ornaments or toys hanging from the ceiling of their little shop, hanging up both sides, and displayed on levels up the whole front of it just so that there was a a little window the seller could peek through.  It was incredible.  We also went into the infamous Christmas store Kathe Wohlfart (yes go on and laugh, we laughed too) and found a small fake christmas tree, and a beautiful woven star to set up in our hotel room. In the evening we listened to a choir sing Christmas carols infront of the old church that was built in 1509, and then headed back to the hotel.
On Christmas eve we went back to the market to see it one last time, and then it was so so so cold outside we ran into star bucks to enjoy hot caramel machiattos, which i may be slightly addicted to now.  It started to snow while we were inside, and it kept snowing right through till the end of the next day.  Our Christmas eve evening consisted of indulging into the mini bar food, eating mandarine oranges, and glasses of white wine while playing rook. We ended the evening with watching Trading Places, a classic.
Christmas morning Graeme let me sleep in till twelve, and then we watched the grinch, a favorite of mine.  Later that day we ventured out to see if there was anything open for us to go eat at, but found that literally everything closes on christmas day, evereything nearby us anyway. We walked back to the hotel and got more mini bar food to eat until we walked to the train station where we knew there were restaurants of a fast food nature.  When we got back to the hotel, we were looking out our window and had an idea... The flat roof of the hotel was right outside our window, just a hop over our balcony railing.  There was about two feet of fresh snow on that roof, unspoiled and not being enjoyed. So we took part in an epic snowball fight together until we were too wet and too cold to keep going.  We came inside and skipped our parents wishing them merry Christmas, and then headed out to the train station to catch the tram to a little theater that showed English movies. Our christmas dinner consisted of some delicious burger king, and then we were off to see Little Fockers, which was better than the second one, but nowhere nearly as good as the first Meet the Parents.  All in all our Christmas was pretty simple and sweet.
On boxing day we left for Munich. Side note, in germany dec.26 is actually called "second Christmas", a wonderful part of Christmas that i think should be brought back home.  Anyway, Munich is a very small city.  The main sight to see was this big gothic clock tower building, and it's right there as soon as you step out of the tram.  That was the main historical sight to see, but what Munich is especially known for is its beer halls, which makes sense because it's considered "the beer capital of the world".  So we of course had to check this main attraction out.  Both nights we went to a beer hall called Hofbrauhaus, where a glass of beer is a liter.  This beer hall was huge.  You walk through these huge wooden doors into a huge open room housing a few hundred people all sitting together at large wooden tables, on long wooden benches with a liter of beer in their hands, and listening to traditional German music played by a band dressed up in laderhosen.  For our first night we squished onto a bench, each enjoying a beer, but deciding it still didn't compare to Belgian beer.  Our second night however, we apparently came on an especially rowdy night.  We sat down at a table, ordered one beer for us to share, Graeme ordering a sausage meal of some sort, then the band began to play a song.  Instantly, everyone raised their huge glasses into the air and started swaying them and singing along to the song. Once the song was done, the table beside us lead everyone in this loud cheer or chant. They had the biggest voices, so loud. This scenario happened around six times in the span of the two hours we were there.  At some point in the evening the loud cheering table turned to us and asked us where we were from, and got super stoked that we were from Canada.  We're not sure how the next event came around, but it was super entertaining. One of the guys at the table (a tank of a guy), Felix was his name,  wanted to bet us a beer that he could down a liter glass in 15 seconds.  We said make it 10 and he's got a deal. So we paid for the beer, and if we won he'd giver us our money back.  He hopped over the benches, came to sit with us, with his friends cheering him on.  One of the girls came over to time him, and it was on.  The rowdy table was cheering, we were cheering, so were the random French and italian guys beside us.  Like i said, this guy was a tank, the big friendly giant.  He downed that beer in 8 seconds flat. Everyone cheered some more. And with that he shook our hands, got up, and ended with "now I must go to the toilet".  We hung out with that group for a little while, sang some more chants, and then we called it a night.  Munich was a very fun and exciting little city.
Our next stop was Dresden, which wasn't a veery entertaining city.  We went and saw the "Church of Our Lady";  cathedral that got bombed and completely obliterated in world war 2, but rebuilt in the original architecture 100 years ago.  It was very beautiful, but very strange to see a building of such old design looking so bright and new. The colors were so vibrant and the carvings to clean and sharp or curved.  After seeing the church we wandered around in the cold successfully finding a star bucks to warm up in.  This is pretty much where we spent the rest of our afternoon... We were in a very lazy mood and just felt like cozying up with some tea and coffee. 
We left the next day for Hamburg, a small overnight pitstop on the way to meet up with our friends Jonas and Kristina on new years eve.  On new years eve we trained over to their tiny town and got picked up at the station and brought back to Jonas' parents house. It was so wonderful to see familiar faces again!  A bunch of people were there, a couple friends from church we hadn't seen in a few years, and lots of German friends of jonas and kristinas. We all hung out inside talking and playing guitar or listening to music until it was time for dinner; Kristina had bern cooking two huge pots of chili for us to eat.  We all headed out to the barn where two long wooden tables were set up in the small room, and the wood burning stove was going keeping the room relatively warm.  We all sat down, squishing together on benches, ready to eat our big bowls of chili and huge hunks of focaccia bread with a glass of beer. It was such a warm atmosphere bring with everyone for a celebratory meal.  We learned of german new years traditions.  The first one was that people, young and old, dress up in costumes and go door to door singing a traditional German song in exchange for a traditional German sweet and/or a shot of hard alcohol.  The second tradition our friend Ian told me about just because he thought it was hilarious, and had no idea he was saving me from a potential allergic reaction.  The germans make custard cream and jellied filled donuts for everyone to eat, but one of them is filled with mustard, and whoever gets that one will have a bad year. Of all ingredients! We had a great laugh over that.  When midnight came around we all had champagne outside by the blazing fire pit and the guys lit off fireworks. It was beautiful. We all ended up staying up until about 4am telling traveling stories and explaining our cultures to one another. It was a wonderful night.  
The next morning we all had breakfast downstairs together; boiled eggs, cold cuts, buns, cheeses, jams, tea and coffee.  After breakfast everyone took off and it was just the 6 of us left; Graeme and me, Jonas and Kristina, and Ian and Danielle.  We all hopped in the car, on the way to the Baltic Sea.  On the way there we got to experience driving on the autobahn.  There's a sign that indicates there are literally no rules when driving on that stretch of road. It was insane! So fast.  We made it to the sea, and man oh man it was freezing up there. Like -5 with 30km/h winds.... My friends, that is very cold.  There were huge boulders of ice resting all across the shore line, it looked like a mini version of the Titanic scenario with all the snow along the water.  We hung out there for a very short time, all deciding we'd freeze over if we stayed any longer, and went to the town in search of hot drinks.  Later that night we all sat down again to another big meal downstairs with jonas' parents, and some relatives of his that came in that day. It was leftover chili and cheese fondue for dinner.  Grae and i had never had cheese fondue before, and discovered we love it! It was delicious. We've really enjoyed the big communal dinners weve been able to have with our friends and their family.  It feels like we really got to experience the culture of a German family.  
So that bring Germany to a close, a country i wasn't really sure about being stoked on before we left, but is now probably one of my favorite countries we've been to.  The next time you read our stories we'll have been to Prague, and to amsterdam. 

g&k