With the Christmas season comes... Soccer Hooligans?

Last weekend I visited Hamburg for the last time before mission Homeward Bound.  My friend Chris drove me from here to Hamburg, which should have been normally a five hour, problem-free drive.  However, as usual with all ideal "problem-free" situtations, this was not the case.  When we went to leave Marburg at 10 am, it was snowing like crazy.  Ok, well, enough to give us a nice 4 inch layer of snow over everything (and yes.. Germany really does look like those snow covered postcards- everywhere...).  Now, back home, this is basically nothing to some of our snowfalls.  I mean, they shut down the entire state school systems last year for our 16 inches of snow.  However, Germans (although used to snow in some areas) are just not equipped with the amount of salt, large snow plows, and frequent exit ramps off their highways as we are.  Consider us lucky, Wisconsin people.  Also, don't forget the cars and type of driving they're used to- definitely no Ford 150 four wheel drives here...  It's just basically chaos after 4 inches of snow.  Literal chaos. 

After getting on the autobahn with our quaint little rental car (chris crashed his the week before.. so we had to compromise) everything seemed in order; yes it was snowing, but people could still go about at a decent pace, and the lanes seemed to be at least decently plowed.  However, after about 2 hours into our drive (and after extreme issues with our windshield fluid which I won't get into..) everything just became crazy, snow filled, and maximum of 25 mph.  On the autobahn.  That's right.  The fastest highway in the world.  Yep.  Ok now please allow me to rant.

The autobahn, is truly, quite awesome, provided there is quite awesome weather.  And no construction.  But as far as construction goes, I'm pretty sure that's crappy everywhere you go.  But anyways.  When there is unfortunate weather conditions, the autobahn seems quite unethical to me.  At home, our highways come with an exit ramp at least every 5 miles, if not less, especially in cities.  Here, one can go miles and miles and miles and a few more kilimeters, and then maybe another mile.. pass a truck stop.. and then another mile and WHOA you can MAYBE join onto another autobahn.. aka traffic sits. and sits. and sits.  With no where to go.  At. All.  People here can be stuck in traffic for hours upon hours, especially if they shut down a lane on the highway because some stupid truck driver was going too fast for conditions and spun out, resulting in him crossing the median and closing down the entire highway for jack forking his truck, facing the wrong direction in the opposing lane.  Not to say I've experienced that.. (sarcasm..).  Luckily I was in the lane he started off in, resulting in far less (but yet still existing) traffic.  The other lane, however, was at a standstill.  For the next about 50 kilometers, or however many miles.  It was literally crazy.  And then the other highways trying to merge to that highway were bogged up, which bogged up other highways, and well, can anyone say domino effect?  So, dear Germany, please invest in exit ramps.  and more salt.  That is all :) Not that it generally effects me, since I'm only in a car once a month or so, if I'm lucky.

I didn't get a picture of the traffic jams.. but they generally look like this..


Ok.  Enough about the roads. 

On friday I sat around finishing a paper for my politics class here, and then went to a soccer game with my host sister Sarah Fuchs,  her boyfriend and her boyfriend's friend.  It was SO incredibly cold.  I believe the temperature was -9, but, in honor of the frozen tundra which I must represent everywhere I go, I stood outside for the full 2 hours of playing, half time, and pre-game warm ups.  We were freezing despite our many layers, but we were better than most German fans who were lacking appropriate winter feet wear.  Soccer fans are crazy dedicated here.  Many of them drove all day from Southern Germany to Hamburg (Northern Germany) just to watch this game, and then were going to turn around and go back home.  Gas is even more expensive here than at home, and after my little rant over the autobahn during crappy winter weather, it is yet another base for my theory that soccer fans are crazy.  The stadiums are set up so that all the fans for one team sit in one section, and the fans for the other team sit in the other.  Basically, so they don't end up killing each other.  This isn't an exaggeration either.  I personally witnessed a 70 year old man in the row infront of me punch a 30 year old in the face TWICE because of spilling a few drops of beer on his jacket.  And also, the 70 year old's best friend proceeded to get in a verbal fight with another younger fan which resulted in the breaking of a stadium chair and the younger guy practically pummeling his girlfriend to try and strangle the 70 year old.  It was crazy.  If a fan from the other team would have made the mistake of coming into our section, they would legit have beaten the crap out of them.  It was extreme.  Yet amazing.  Don't think that you can't just go to a game and not care who wins, you can totally do that.  It's just the soccer clubs that have the crazy dedicated fans, and if they find out you're a tourist and have no idea whats going on, they usually teach you the team songs and provide an awesome experience for you.  The soccer club of Sarah's boyfriend was around us and now I know the songs from Kaisers Lautern, and witnessed them illegally setting off a firework smoke bomb thing in the stadium at the beginning of the game.. it was pretty rockin.  Unfortunately we lost.  But hey.  Great experience.

 

Saturday we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Fuch's house.  It was soooo good.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes with bacon and cheese, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy and apple pie.  My host mom and Sarah made the turkey the day before and cooked it in a Dutch Oven thing starting before I got there, which was awesome because I was honestly terrified of the damn thing.  So yay.  I may have improved my cooking skills, but let's be real here.  Thanksgiving turkey?  yeah.. ha.  anyways.  Sarah and I made the potatoes and green bean casserole, our friend Christina brought the pie, Tania brought the gluehwein (a hot wine served at christmas time here..) and it was quite the fest.  Although they were all super skeptical of the stuffing.  I swear they thought it was made of vomit or something.  Oh well.  More for me :)

 

 

 

 

Weren't they cute :)

After dinner we went to the Christmas market downtown, which was gorgeous.  The snow even added to the effectt and gave the whole market a cute, warm Christmas feeling.  I love going to Christmas markets here at night; they're in every town and basically are places where you can buy little knick-knacks like ornaments, christmas stars, cookies with your name written on them, candies, sugar covered nuts, lots of food, and gluehwein.  Gluehwein is HUGE here with the christmas markets.  Each city has their own cups for the Gluehwein, which are like little collectable coffee mugs.  I have about 5 now from this year alone. 

 

 

 

It was quite the fun weekend.  Definitely recommend Christmas markets to anyone who is travelling to Europe during the Christmas season.  They're in basically every large city across Europe, and in all cities in Germany.  Definitely a great experience, especially if you're under the influence of Gluehwein :)

Well folks.  Tomorrow I'm off to Budapest until Tuesday.  I'm pretty stoked- we're going to the baths in the city center which are suuuper warm all year long, and are basically spas for the entire day sunday.  I'm not that thrilled that coming back our train doesn't leave the airport until 10:30 and isn't getting to Marburg until 6 am wed. morning, but sometimes you just gotta go with the flow.  Just another adventure to add to the list; maybe one of those stories I can tell my kids in the future to convince them their mother was once easy-going and not a stickler or something.  That is if I stop hating kids anytime soon. 

Ils manget un Baguette (they eat a baguette)... and other French adventures

So I know I'm quite lacking in the update department, but my life has been rather hectic since I returned from my AMAZING trip to Paris on the 22nd.  The school semester is coming to a close, so I have a final paper and finance exam to study for, which are clouding up most of my possible blog time.  I know it is nothing compared to the work load I would usually have at home, but, trust me people, Finance is confusing in English; I dare you to try it in a foreign country.  But everything is coming together nicely; well, for the most part.  Also a friend of mine was in a car accident this past Tuesday and broke his sternum, so I've been preoccupied with helping him out on the road to recovery.  But back to the main focus of this post..

Paris!

I must admit, before this year I had close to no interest in going to Paris what-so-ever.  I always assumed it to be just talked-up, that the glitz and glamour would potentially choke me and that it would have a strange smell (i believe I heard somewhere that every street in Paris has been peed on, so give me a break on that thought..).  However, I was pleasantly surpised to find that Paris is all it's cracked up to be, and only smells mildly while standing over road grates.

I went to Paris with my friend Carissa from the program, and we stayed with a highschool friend of her's in his apartment.  The apartment was pretty central to paris; right next to a metro station.  We took the fast train from Frankfurt to Paris (and rode the entire way there next to a cat...yeah...) and met him at the trainstation around 9 pm Thursday night.  We obviously did nothing real great on Thursday; just sat around and talked in the extremely small yet extremely expensive apartment where he lived.  I mean seriously, his entire apartment fits in like mine in and my parents bedrooms.  The place was small.  But SO CUTE!  His one bathroom only fit a toilet.. it was like a little nook in the wall where someone decided to hide the toilet.  The sink is in a different room, which was always confusing at 3 in the morning.  However, the apartment was adorable and decorated accurately so the space was played up to it's fullest potential.  Housing in Paris is ridiculously expensive.  Tom (the guy we stayed with) was telilng us that in one section of paris, the property goes for 250,000 euros per square meter.  In case you didn't catch that, it was per SQUARE METER.. dear god.  I guess when it comes to buying property in Europe, as your personal realator, i advise you to go for somewhere like Croatia or the boonies in Hungary and avoid Paris like the plague :) Or at least the inner city part.

On our first full day in Paris we managed to find our way to a really huge shopping mall with all the super expensive name brands and things with price tags that made me want to run 6 meters in the opposite direction.  I found myself hoping there was no "you breathe on it, you buy it" policy.  But they hadawesome christmas tree display in the middle of the store..

 I was pretty darn excited about that tree.  It actually reminded me of the tree in Chicago at the Macy's or whatever.. so yay warm thoughts of home.  Ok anyways, after the tree we went to the Louvre art museum.  This was probably the number one "want-to-see" on my list for this trip, and I was slightly disappointed.  however, the disappointment was largely my own fault.  The museum itself is gorgeous; huge windows, grandeur architecture, beautiful lawns, tall pillars, soaring cielings and beautiful crafted floors everywhere.  Outside we saw the glass pyramid entrance into the Louvre which was surrounded by fountains, also gorgeous. 

Yes the building itself didn't disappoint me, and neither did the majority of the art we saw (althought I'm not real partial to the kinds and queens and jesus paintings; they just don't do it for me apparently), and I found myself surprised at how many paintings I saw which I had to memorize for my prior AP European history class back in highschool.  It was like taking a walk down memory lane, only I was minorly twigging out like a kid in a FAO Schwarz store.  "Oh my god it's that one painting from the renaissance! Oh my god it's the painting with the huge nose that I got wrong on that one test! Oh my god ITS THE MONA LISA!!!"  Yes, I'm aware of my nerd status.  And I'm proud.  But yes.  Art is cool.  Accept it.

Those were just a few of the favorites.  The disappointment actually stemmed from my inability to find the impressionism paintings.  You know, Monet and such.  I'm a big fan of the impressionism era, and I epically failed at finding it.  I actually had my main intention of seeing those paintings alone, but I guess sometimse life sends you curve balls.  I still enjoyed the museum, especially the fact we got in free pretending to be German citizens, and I totally recommend people to take at least a few hours if you ever find yourself in Paris to check out the art of the ages.

We ended up spending basically all of Friday in the art museum, so we went out to dinner afterwards at an authentic French restaurant.  I had some type of French mushroom mac and cheese.. it was decent.  I'm not entirely sure how I felt about the meal in honesty, but i ate it.  Tom had rabbit (delicious surprisingly) and his girlfriend had salmon.  French food is delicious, but let me tell you.  Don't just assume that since you're in France everything on the menu must be simply deletible and amazing.  Enough said.

The next day we spent basically just wandering around the city and seeing all the major sites; the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, the river walk along the Seine river and the tunnel where Princess Diana crashed.  FYI, the Eiffel Tower is seriously huge in person.  And brown.  I previously thought it was black, but, eh.  Those French sure are tricky tricky.

  

We ended up at the Arc de Triomphe last, around 9:30 pm, and decided to climb to the top since it was free for EU student citizens (ha..) and see the city of lights from above.  It was probably the best decision we made the entire trip; the view was amazing.  I managed to get a few good photos..

On Sunday the weather was rather gloomy and rainy, so we decided to take the 30 minute train ride to Versailles (right outside of Paris) and see the palace.  I love love loved it.  Of course i'm a total history nerd and was soaking up all the atmosphere; picturing Marie Antionette running around the palace the entire time, and the storming of the gates by angry French citizens during the French Revolution.  But don't worry, the palace was really beautiful and interesting for non-history nerds as well.  It was a pity that we went in November and not in the summer, because although the palace is huge, the gardens are like 10 times as large and gorgeous.  Oh well.  Maybe another time in life.  But anyways, the palace was awesome and adorned in gold, mirrors and huuuuge paintings of the monarchies over the ages.  I especially loved the hall of mirrors.  There were huge chandelliers every couple feet, and mirrors lining the walls the entire length of the hall.  It felt so bright and alive with light within the hall, and I couldn't help but just stand in awe for a few moments, realizing the history that once danced its way across the very same mirrors.  It was a sentimental moment, alright?

 

 

I added a picture from the macaroon shop in there... we had some macaroons thanks to Tom, and oh my god they were SO good.  Basically, they have a hard outer shell, kind of like the consistancy of an egg shell, only not THAT hard, but then a super soft and creamy inside with sweet flavors such as berries, apple, vanilla, almond, etc.  They're so good, but so expensive.  I believe they cost something like 25 euros for 15 macaroons. 

Actually, i think it might just be this store which is so expensive, but they are famous for having the best macaroons in Paris :)

I know this post is getting super long, but bear with me!

After Versailles we found a cute little french restaurant, again, and I ate beef bourguignon.  For any of you who are familiar with the movie Julie & Julia, you may be just as excited about this as I was.  Especially you, mother.  It was sooo good! 

My last exciting tour in Paris was of the Notre Dame Cathedral.  We went around 6 pm on Sunday night, right in the time of mass.  I found myself in awe of the beauty of the mass (it was all in french, so the songs and whatever they were saying just sounded like beauty rolling off their tounges) and of the cathedral.  It's really quite huge with tall cielings and a few (i can't remember the english word..) colorful glass window things.  I lit a candle for my grandparents and a friend, which was also a cool experience.  Here are some photos from within the church, during mass (yeah, I  know, crazy that they let us still take pictures.. again, crazy frenchmen..)

So yep.  That was basically the entirety of my trip to Paris.  Oh wait.  I ate a baguette..

Ok well I'm off to dinner at a friends house.  I leave Thursday for Thanksgiving in Hamburg, and then I'm back for my exam and then... Budapest!  It seems so strange; it's been months since I planned that trip but yet now it's here, and it feels like close to no time has passed... crazy how life works.  See you all in 16 days!