Oktoberfest

Probably one of the most well-known (and most stereotyped) German activities is the infamous Oktoberfest. Since we are closer to northern Germany and Oktoberfest is primary celebrated in the south (No, not all Germans wear lederhosen all the time), I didn’t think we’d have a chance to experience it this year. However, one of Will’s colleagues organized an excursion to the Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart for some visiting Americans and invited us to go along. It was definitely a new experience and very interesting!

The first Oktoberfest was celebrated in 1810 in Munich for the wedding of King Ludwig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest). It has since become a favorite fall tradition in southern Germany with many towns hosting smaller events than the original in Munich.

The train ride to Stuttgart took about three hours and went down the castle-dotted Rhine. Once in Stuttgart, we navigated to a huge carnival in the middle of town. Our ticket got us admission to the Stuttgarter Hofbräuzelt for their lunch/afternoon seating. There was a band, music, dancing, singing, and, of course, a lot of beer. What impressed me the most was the huge amount of attendees. Again per Wikipedia, the capacity of this restaurant is 5,000! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannstatter_Volksfest).  The dining area was enormous and it was packed to the brim with people. We sat shoulder-to-shoulder on picnic table benches and bumped into our neighbors every time we moved. Nearly everyone was wearing the traditional lederhosen and dirndls as well. More information on the Hofbräuzelt can be found here: http://grandls-hofbraeuzelt.de/de/

All in all, it was a very fun day and hopefully we’ll be able to go back in future years. Maybe one day we’ll make it to Munich for the real Oktoberfest!

Stuttgarter Hofbräuzelt

Roast Chicken

Prost!

Hamburg

October 3 was a federal holiday (commemorating the unification of Germany in 1990) and we were able get away from Cologne and take a mini-trip to Hamburg. Hamburg is normally about a four-hour drive away from Cologne, but with all of the holiday traffic, it took us almost seven hours and included detours through farmlands! The city is located in the north of Germany and is major port with access to the North Sea via the Elbe River.

We met up with some friends from Cologne who were visiting Hamburg at the same time and we also suspect that Lady Gaga was staying at our hotel! One of the main attractions in Hamburg is the Minatur Wunderland, which is a museum of miniature trains and model towns. We spent several hours wandering through the exhibits. Most of the rest of our time was spent wandering through the well-maintained streets and window-shopping in the expensive shopping districts.

Hamburg by night (after our 7 hour journey)

Miniature Wonderland

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

"Alles Liebe und Gute zum Geburtstag!" is a German birthday wish and one that I heard many times today. 

It is tradition that the Geburtstagkind (One is called a "Birthday 'Kid'" regardless of age.) takes treats to work or school so yesterday I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies to take to German class. They were very well-received! After many well-wishes in German, all of my classmates sang the version of "Happy Birthday" from their home countries. By the end, I think we had heard: Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, French, Kurdish, Hindi, Italian, and Portuguese. 

After class, Will, a friend of his, and I went to an Irish pub for dinner and Trivia Night. Our team, Currywurst und Pommes, scored 24/80 points and came in next-to-last place. At least we didn't lose!

All in all, it was a very fun birthday and I'm looking forward to the next year to come!

Cologne Marathon

Things have stayed pretty busy around here as we gotten further into fall. I’ve now been in German class for six weeks and it’s still going well. The course goes at a pretty fast pace and there are a lot of new things taught each day. I think I’m making progress and have come a long way from the simple “Ich heiße Krista. Ich komme aus den USA.” that we learned on the first few days. At least I hope I have!

Two weekends ago was the Cologne Marathon and we got to watch it for a little bit while we were in the city. Maybe next year I’ll sign up for the half marathon since I had several years to practice in Pittsburgh.  

Cologne Marathon

Running through Hohe Straße

Pittsburgh Marathon 2013

Next weekend we are going on a mini-trip to Hamburg. October 3 is a national holiday commemorating the reunification of Germany in 1990. I don’t have school, Will doesn’t have work, and we’re going to meet up with some friends there as well. Definitely something to look forward to!

Here are a few more photos from around town:

"Love Locks" on the Hohenzollern Bridge

Some German creativity from the barista

Neighborhood of my German school

Streets in the Altstadt

Fall is in the Air

The time has certainly gotten away from me and I can’t believe that it’s almost been a month since I’ve posted anything. We have been keeping really busy for the past month—Will with work, me with school, and trying to catch up with friends.

My German class has been going very well and I really like it a lot. I obviously still have a long way to go, but just a few weeks have made a huge difference. German doesn’t sound as “foreign” anymore and now I know some basic phrases that are important for getting around. The one other English speaker from Ghana switched to a different class, so now I am the only one! We just finished up our first month and have five more to go.

After our busy summer of traveling, we have been catching up with some of our friends during the past few weeks. We finally had time to have some people over for our first dinner here last weekend. 

Getting ready in the green kitchen

The next day, some friends took us to the Kölner Bierbörse (translated to “Cologne Beer Exchange"), which was a festival with different types of beer from Germany and around Europe. Interestingly, they didn’t have any Kolsch from Cologne, so we tried something from Munich.

Kölner Bierbörse

Prost!

Media Park

Later in the week, two of Will’s coworkers took us to a restaurant that had live jazz music—very cool! It made us feel right at home…if our home was New Orleans. We can pretend, right? One of the most interesting things about this restaurant was that it was built over Roman ruins.  Right inside the entrance, there was a glass window in the floor that looked down to some ancient artwork.  

Papa Joe's Jazzlokal

Roman Artwork

The band

I think the next two weeks will be pretty quiet and our next trip is to Hamburg over a long holiday weekend at the beginning of October. No Oktoberfest trip this year! ;)

Because you can never have too many pictures of the Dom.