In between trips

Just got back from a week of teacher training in Frankfurt. In Erfurt today and then tomorrow I leave on a trip south. I'll be in Bamberg, Bavaria for one day to explore the city, see the famous cathedral and try some famous smoked beer. The beer has a smoky flavor, often tasting like smoked pork.

Then from Monday through Friday I'll be in Munich for my mid-year seminar with my program. Basically a reunion with the other participants and a time to explore more of Munich. After Munich Ill head down to my old stomping grounds of Salzburg for couple days there before heading back to Erfurt to continue my internship at the restaurant and begin teaching english.

Yeah, so that's what I'm up to.

Learning to teach English

Teacher training. Not quite as bad as it could be. I’d heard it was dry, but we’ve got a good group and it’s normally pretty lively. A wide variety of people learning how to teach a language. Four Americans, two English, one Scottish and one Australian, along with a Japanese, German and French person learning teaching techniques. It’s a little tricky for the non-native English speakers to follow along with everything, but they’re doing good. We all practice teaching and so I’ve gotten some free lessons in Japanese and French. And the German is a good review, such as with directions and such.

I’m at training from 10 until 5:30. Berlitz is putting me up at a nearby hotel. Or at least a hotel in the area, not really too close. A 20 minute walk each way. But it’s a good warm up to the morning, and it’s paid for. Tiny room in a hotel with free internet.

After training I’ve been going into Frankfurt to explore the city. Pretty cool place, with a good blend of modern with the skyscrapers to the old buildings. More of an American city with the amount of English spoken, and the high buildings. Lots of finance as well, with most banks having a building there.

I’ve attached a photo of the town hall square. While I was taking this photo, a police van was driving around with a megaphone informing people that a painting had been stolen from a local museum earlier that day. They described the suspect, a white male about 30, wearing dark clothes, with a dark bag, brown hair and speaking German without a foreign accent. Turns out I fit the description, from my clothes to my hair. Except for the accent part, but as I wasn’t speaking, I started to feel people start to look at me, as I definitely fit the bill. Kinda awkward, just trying to be a tourist at 6:30pm. I kept doing my thing, then went into a bakery and spoke in a horrible American accent. Think it did the trick as I was never confronted.

Another day in Germany

I got tricked by the German language again today. I saw a sign for a shop advertising restaurant antiques, so I decided to check it out. Turns out that the word restaurieren does not mean restaurants, but rather to restore. So I walked into a shop that restores antiques, not exactly my cup of tea.

Today at work I got to make 75 Rinderroulade, basically a long, wide piece of meat from a cow, with bacon, pickle slices and onions rolled up in it. Then we baked it for an hour adding homemade broth for the sauce and then we had our dish. had some of it, and it was mighty tasty.

Im heading off to Frankfurt on Monday to be trained by Berlitz Language Schools. Pretty soon Ill be a qualified, trained English teacher for Berlitz. The job pays well, the people there are fun, and it's very flexible. And apart from the 7 hours of training in Frankfurt, they pay for the hotel and transportation costs, meaning its like a free vacation. So Im pretty excited to be camping out in the transportation and finance hub of Germany for 5 days, with little cost

Feuerkugel

Life at the restaurant is going good. After 4 days, I have a good idea of what goes into most dishes and what I can do to help. Been sauteeing up a lot of stuff and helping with the plating. Was doing more prep work the first couple days, but now am doing more cooking which is good.

The kitchen has two parts, one for the meat, and one for sauteeing all the veggies and pasta dishes as well as the salads. There is always a chef on the meat side, someone who has been around a while, while the younger guys (where I fall in) work the other side, making salads, sides, baked dishes, potatoes and such.

A great perk to the job is getting to eat whatever I want. After seeing all the big plates of food go out, I get to choose whatever. So far I have been just choosing based on what looks good. Then I find out after what I eat. So far what tasted like turkey turned out to be a suckling pig and a Rostbrätel comes from a pigs neck. Interesting, but very tasty. Most of the dishes come served with Thüringer Klöse, local potato dumplings that are typical of the region. Very filling and delicious.

Apart from locking my keys in my clothes locker, squirting a pea puree all over my white chefs jacket and wall and having to peel a lot of vegetables it's been a successful, fun week. And still one more day left. Hope to finish with a somewhat white jacket tomorrow.

Schnurrbart und Feuerkugel

Here's a quick German lesson. The first word, Schnurrbart which looks funny, means moustache, something that I find funny. It is also something that I have on my face after shaving the lower part of my goatee. Haven't seen my chin in over a year, so I'm spending a lot of time looking into the mirror, laughing mostly.


Reasons for a moustache: 1)it's funny, 2) I wear a scarf that covers up my chin most of the time so people probably already think I have a moustache, 3) Tom Selleck is the main and needs some more moustache wearing people




The second word, Feuerkugel means Fireball. It also happens to be the name of the restaurant where I will start my internship Monday morning. I'll be working about 5 days a week in the kitchen, learning the ropes and getting a good inside look into German cuisine. Looking foward to the opportunities there.

If you want to check out the restaurant, here is their website: http://www.feuerkugel-erfurt.de/ All in German, but you might understand a few things.




If you click on the photos, you can see them larger in a new window

Prague

The cold family with a view of the Prague Castle

I was in Prague in the summer of 2003 before the Czech Republic was in the EU. Then I had to change trains at the border and show my passport, getting a couple of nice stamps. This time, we were on the same train with no hassles, much easier, although we still had to take out Czech currency. It was fun to see the city again and get to know it even better. Our apartment was in the downtown so we walkd to pretty much everything and explored for pretty much all of the time we were there, about 4 days.

Charles Bridge

One of the best things about Prague is the Charles Bridge (as noted by all the tourists). Amazing bridge with great views, statues along the way, artists all over and always happy people. On one side you have the small town and castle town, dominated by the large Prague Castle overlooking the city. The other has the Old Town Square and many other popular places with amazing architecture. Wherever you go from the Charles Bridge is bound to be good.

The Golden Lane at the castle


Picture of governmental officials being thrown out a window due to their bad work




Old Town Square



To do something different than normal, we went on a communist tour learning about the Czech Republic’s history. Interesting, but mostly the extreme cases were told. And to celebrate Christmas Eve in a new fashion, we toured the Jewish quarter of town, learning about their hardships. And to drink soymilk, my sister and I had to mix a powder with water.







Christmas was spent around the city followed by an amazing classical concert by the Czech Philarmonic at a concert hall. The next day we explored the castle, with the cathedral being the highlight there. Saw several museums with the best one being the Mucha museum, with lots of works by the Czech artist. I had no clue who he was before, but his pieces are famous worldwide and are a unique style.

Berlin

Brandenburg Gate and myself with the Christmas tree
Murdered Jews of Europe Memorial

Trinity and I near part of Berlin Wall on Potsdamer Platz

Me representing with the city's mascot, the Bear

Berlin can be a beautiful city when the sun shines. While I was there with my family for 3 days, the sun didn’t shine much, and it was cold, but it was a great time in the nation’s capital. It was my first time in Berlin so it was good to do all the touristy things and see the sights before going back in the future to explore more of the culture and behind the scenes of the city while visiting friends who live there.

Seeing the parts of the Berlin Wall all over the place was cool, along with the strip of bricks on the ground showing where the wall had been. Most of the main sights are in former East Germany as Stalin had looked at the map and chose the best side, giving the rest to the Americans, British and French.

We had a free tour of the city given by students working for tips. Interesting idea and actually a great tour. From Hitler’s bunker, to the Murdered Jews of Europe monument it was a great tour to get our bearings of the city. The Brandenburg Gate, which is very famous was huge, but not quite as powerful looking as I had heard. Still, I had to get a photo with the gate and the Christmas tree right next to it.

We climbed to the top of the Reichstag, their capital building, which has a glass dome on top. Unfortunately the dome is open air and it was a freezing walk to the top for a great view. Checkpoint Charlie was jam packed with information on people escaping into West Germany, but it wasn’t organized the best.

Highlights include the Christmas markets, with tasty snacks and mulled wine. We had dessert at a family friend’s house and were able to try Feuerzangebowle, a hot drink that is on fire with alcohol. They poured the flaming rum over a large sugar cube and melted the sugar into the drink. Amazing, but it packed a punch with the amount of alcohol.

Stuttgart New Years

I spent this New Years in Stuttgart with several friends. After traveling with the family for almost two weeks, I kept the travels going. It was a wild time. At a house party we all hiked up a big hill so we could see the entire city alight with fireworks. People were lighting them all over, behind us to the right, pretty darn close. The day after, the city was filthy with trash from the night before. Being good Germans, they waited until the 2nd to clean it up. They know how to party, and they know how to use a holiday, New years to not do any work, and then when it is a day of work, they do it right and clean it up.

The photo is dark, but you can see lots of light from the fireworks and see some trees if you squint. Sorry, but when it gets dark at 4:30pm, you have to expect midnight to be very dark.

Prague Christmas

In Prague right now with my family doing some Christmas travels.. Having a blast, seeing some new places and having a great time. Good to hang out with the family as well as travel, two things of which I have not done much of in the past few months while attending cooking school in Erfurt.

We were in Berlin for a few days, my first time there. Saw most of the main sights, several museums and went to a couple Christmas markets. Erfurt is still my favorite Christmas market, and serves the best spiced wine, Gluhwein.

Off to Czesky Krumlov, a cool historic small town in the south of the Czech Republic tomorrow. Let the adventure continue.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy Kwanza.

Cheers.

Leipzig

Thomaskirche and Bach statue

Reggie and I with half meter long Bratwursts

Battle of the Nations Monument


This weekend I went to Leipzig, checking another city off my list. The city is huge and feels like an Eastern German city with the huge block houses and buildings built to symbolize strength, meaning that they are ugly as hell and big concrete blobs.




Highlights of the city include the awesome Baroque Nikolaikirche where peace prayers in the late 1980s helped join the two countries together again. The Contemorary History Museum, which is free and huge, shows the history of the last century, focusing on life in East Germany. Turns out the city of Chemnitz was called Karl Marx City during this time period.



Outside of the Thomaskirche, was a huge statue of Bach, who had played numerous time as the church organist there. The best part of the statue is that his pockets were turned out as he always claimed to never have money, having 20 kids with two women.



The Battle of Nations Monument, outside of the city, remembers the 100,000 soliders who died in the decisive 1813 battle victory over Napoleon’s army. The monument is 91 meters high, and very impressive with a large lake in front of it. To compare it to the Washington Monument in DC, something similar in a huge monument with water nearby, this monemnt was much more impressive. Gigantic and with amazing carvings on the stone when you get up close.



At the Christmas market, I got to try my first mug of grog, which tasted horrible, basically just hot alcohol. I also had a half meter long bratwurst which was awesome. The Christmas Market is huge and sprawling, taking over most of the city streets, and was packed with people the entire weekend.




Another interesting thing about Leipzig is that when you rent an apartment, it is often just the walls, with no kitchen and such. People have to put in their own oven etc. as well as the counters and sometimes even the floor. The buildings would often just have concrete floors and it would be up to the people to fill them in. its changed a bit now which the flooring having been put and left in, but I was in two places where the people had to put in their own kitchens.

Christmas at Fischmarkt in Erfurt

Nürnberg Christmas Market

After the pig slaughter on Saturday, I went to Nürnberg on Sunday through Monday morning to visit a friend from college and to see the famous Christmas Market there. The city is a lot bigger than Erfurt and was packed with people at the market. Shannon and I did all the toursity things from seeing the controversial marriage statue (first love till death do us part), the main churches, the tortue chambers under the town hall and a couple small bridges. The castle on the hill is amazing with a great view of the city and all the rooftops.

One of the best parts about the city is the city wall which is still intact and surrounding the downtown part. Lots of stands selling everything from the local sausages, to local giingerbread cookies, to everything. It was a great trip to a fun city, highly recommended, even for a short period of time.

The Slaughter of a Pig

I got to participate in my first pig slaughter on Saturday. A friend of mine’s parents slaughter a pig every December after buying it 13 months earlier. They just got a baby pig weighing 20 kilograms and the one that was slaughtered was 250 kilos, which multiply by 2.2 is a lot of pounds.

I arrived at 7am via a local train, having missed the killing of the pig by a half hour. The pig was lying on a raised stretcher and was being scrubbed clean when I got there. The blood had been drained (and saved for the Bloodwurst to be made later on) so when the pig was stood up and then cut open, it wasn’t as blody as the last couple of weeks in cooking school seminars on wild game and meat.

After having the local Veteranarian come to make sure the meat was healthy, the local butcher started cutting up the pig into different parts. The bones, head and legs were boiled, making a stock, while the meat was separted into different parts, for bacon, schnitzels, cutlets, and the rest for sausages. We made Leberwurst from the liver, Blutwurst from the lungs and miscilanous meat and then bratwursts from the good meat. Used the intestines and bladder to stuff the sausages, making 115 bratwursts which was a hell of a lot.

The whole day we ate fresh meat off and on, both cooked and uncooked. Being with people from a small town who do this every year, they made sure I tried everything. To offset the amount of meat, we drank schnapps on and off the whole day, part of the slaughtering tradition. At one point when mixing the Hackfleisch (ground pork with spices that can be eaten raw) myself and Marcus, a cousin of my friend, had to take several shots of schnapps after each time of mixing the meat from one side to another. Got to love the traditions.

We finished off the day eating fresh liver, Hackfleisch and other types of meat such as wild boar and deer that they also had, along with more schnapps. Quite an adventure from very early on until late. And I got to take home some stock, sausages and ground pork, not too shabby eh?

Hobbys

So with the days getting darker and colder, I figured it was time to start up some new hobbies. Yesterday I got the supplies for two of them. The first, a melodica, the classic kids toy. Basically a small piano flute, quite entertaining to me, and perhaps a little annoying to others. The second is a paint set, which I got a the Euro shop. A canvas, 6 acrylic paints and brushes all for 3 Euros.

I bought the melodica at a large flea market where they were selling everything from bier steins to DVDs to old Nazi paraphernalia. For 35 Euros I could’ve bought an ashtray with a swastika and Hitler’s face on it. The swastika had a sticker over it as it’s not a very popular symbol these days. There was also old clothes and weapons from WWII, such as a machine gun, things that normally wouldn’t be at a flea market in America.