En realidad no hablo español, solamente me gusta la comida

I arrived back in Germany after my weekend in Belgium prepared to chill for a couple of weeks.  Carnival was coming up, to be followed by the Fulbright Winterball in Munich, the Fulbright Berlin Conference in March, meeting up with a couple of my friends from college in France, and then the extravaganza that will be Spring Break (I’m so excited bout it, y’all!).  All these things would require not only energy, but also money, so I was ready to save up.  But then my friend Susanna (y’all know all about her by now and her last minute trip-enabling schemes) was like, my cousin is in a choir and they’re performing in Malaga this weekend, WANNA GO?!? Like an idiot, I agonized over this decision for about 12 hours (honestly all the time I had, because we had to book flights and stuff for like, four days from then.  Ultimately, I ended up going, and trust me it was not a mistake.

The view from my kitchen the day we left for Spain. You can imagine how awesome my decision to go to the Mediterranean looked after waking up to this.

We arrived in Malaga and immediately I felt like the warm, dry air was sweeping cobwebs out of my brain.  Absolutely amazing.  Susanna and I set out for some grub and ate our first tapas of the trip.  After snacking, we explored the old town a bit and went down to the beach before meeting up with her cousin and the choir.

One of my favorites. The Med at sunset.

We went on a little tour of the old town with the choir, and then we headed to eat!  Rachel, a friend from college, studied abroad in Malaga and recommended we try El Pimpi, which is probably the most famous restaurant in all of Malaga and moderately priced.  Usually, we stick to a backpacker’s budget, but this splurge wasn’t even that much (4 people split a bottle of wine, 1 salad, and 3 large tapas and it was about 20 euro per person).  SO GOOD Y’ALL.

El Pimpi Tapas: the Pimpi Platter (Pepper, cured ham & fried egg, chorizo, croquettes, Iberian pork), fried Rosada pieces, and oxtail with pepper and creamed potatoes. WE DON’T MESS AROUND.

After that we grabbed a couple more bottles of Malaga wine and headed down to the beach.  We spent the rest of the night sitting on the beach, watching the waves, and chatting.

Beachin’. Is this January or July? I don’t know.

We began the next day at the Picasso Museum.  Picasso was born in Malaga, and they are super proud of him (although he left when he was like 19 and never went back).  The museum is small and doesn’t have any big works, but I thought it was very well done for what they had and well worth the trip.  We grabbed some hot tea at a place near the cathedral (if you’re in this area of Spain definitely try their tea – it has Arabian influences from the Caliphate that ruled there in the Middle Ages and it’s absolutely amazing).  Afterwards, we luckily stumbled upon El Piyayo and ordered plates of paella for only 6 euro!  and it was muy delicioso!  So delicioso that Susanna at lunch there again on Sunday after mass at the cathedral.  On Saturday we also tried it with a weird soup that S’s cousin and friends said they’d had everywhere they went in Spain.  It was cold, made of tomatoes, bread, and some more stuff that I couldn’t identify.  It was very strange.

Yummy paella and weird cold tomato bread soup.

After we were filled with seafood and carbs, we climbed up the hill to spend the afternoon climbing around two Arab fortresses, Castillo de Gibralfaro and Alcazaba.  With student IDs, entrance was only 60 cents each.  Talk about a bargain!

Malaga’s cathedral peeking out over the castle walls.

Costa del Sol.

After roaming around the castles, we went to the choir concert at the Church of the Martyrs, which was just around the corner from the hostel.  Dinner, drinks, and then I went to bed early so Susanna could catch up some more with her cousin.  She and the choir were flying out of Malaga Sunday morning, so the next day Susanna and I had all to ourselves.

We started it off with mass in the cathedral, which made use of the HUGE organ.  It was quite beautiful.  As I said before, we went back to El Piyayo for more paella and then spent the afternoon on the beach.  It was a bit chilly, but I wasn’t complaining.  That much sun on my face did me a whole lot of good!

Our last cultural excursion was to Carmen Thyssen Museum, which focuses on Spanish art from the 17th-19th centuries.  Definitely things I had never seen before, and Susanna and I had probably way too much fun going through this museum.

Last stop was dinner, and as with all of our meals, it was unbelievably delicous.  A log of fried ham and cheese, more paella, and grilled sardines.  It was delicious!  And cheap!  You guys, Spanish food is wonderful.

Our food this night stared at us a lot.

The restaurant’s front window. Bonita, no?

Sardines. I was skeptical at first, but am now a believer.

 

Weekend in Belgium

January started off as a pretty low-key month.  Everyone got back from their Christmas adventures, and we spent a few evenings in Dortmund hanging out, as well as making little Ruhrpott day trips to places like Arnsberg.  I started getting a little restless, and lucky for me my friend Alex, who I worked and studied with at Korbel, moved to Brussels to start an internship with the European Parliament.  So, we arranged on Monday to do a little Belgium tour for the weekend (how lucky am I that I can seriously email someone saying “want to go to Bruges this weekend?  Like how is this real?).  Fun fact: if you’re under 26, you can go from the German border anywhere in Belgium for 7.80 euro.  And once you’re there, you can travel from city to city for 6 euro.  It’s a GoPass 1 and it is awesome.

So anyway, I met Alex on Friday afternoon by the Bourse, and we grabbed a waffle and meandered through Brussels and took in all the sights: Grand Place, Manneken Pis and Jeanneke Pis (statues of children peeing that are major tourist attractions – humans are strange, you guys), the Musical Instrument Museum (awesome), Parc du Cinquantenaire (Brussels’ version of the Arc de Triomphe; we climbed the top and there were pretty good views of the city despite the clouds).  From the arc, we meandered back to Alex’s apartment, naturally stopping along the way to pick up some Belgian beers and some frites from a stand outside his apartment.

The next day we stopped at the market outside Alex’s place before we got on the bus in order to make the train to Ghent! We actually ran into a slight hiccup here, when the bus driver unceremoniously kicked everyone off of the bus at a random stop, and then the bus following that one drove away without letting anybody on.  So that was fun and also horrible.  One thing that made us feel slightly better about ourselves was that all the Belgian people around us were yelling “pourquoi” and shaking their fists at the bus.  So we just walked the 20 minutes to the train station and had another problem with the kiosk taking our money without printing our tickets.  But eventually we had the tickets, ran to the train, and made it just in time.  It was quite the morning.

Pro of the cold, snowy walk: we caught this view of Brussels’ city center

 

Anyway, we made it to Ghent and the skies were sunny and the city was super cool.  We were only there for a couple of hours.  Long enough to see the big church with the Ghent altarpiece (pretty cool) and mosey around the old town for a bit.  There’s a castle and lots of churches. It was a quirky little town, and I’m glad we stopped through on our way to Bruges.

Ghent

 

Bruges was AWESOME! We spent the afternoon orienting ourselves by just walking around the city, going to the main churches, and walking along the canals.  We had an amazing dinner at Bocca, which is a takeaway pasta place that was perfect and full of carbs and delicious. After dinner we kept walking around, seeing the pretty sights lit up at night.  We stopped at Le Trappiste just off the main square before heading back to our hostel for their happy hour!  The bar was actually quite hoppin with locals as well as poor backpackers trying to get wifi reception.

A view of the bridge in front of The Begijnhof, or the convent in Bruges. We learned for a tour guide that we just happened to overhear that it wasn’t really a convent, it’s just where a lot of unmarried/widowed women who didn’t have anywhere else to go. People accused them of being witches.

 

We started bright and early Sunday morning with breakfast at the hostel and then set off into the town.  We went to the Grote Markt and climbed up to the top of the Belfry to get some awesome views of the city.

Grote Markt

Artsy Belfry Views

After that we bought some waffles and fries and then went on a tour of the Halve Maan, which is the only brewery that’s still operating within the old town.  The tour was great, and after it was over we got a free fresh glass to enjoy the restaurant, where the food smelled amazing (however, we just stuck to the drinks).  We did some shopping, and made sure to stop by The Chocolate Line to get some snacks for the train ride home.  Noms.

Fresh from the tap

 

 

Dark chocolate with mixed berries. Y’ALL.

Christmas in Germany

So, I didn’t actually spend Christmas in Germany.  I spent most of Christmas break back with my family in Arkansas – eating lots of yummy food, watching sports at normal hours, and spending lots of time with family and friends.  It was awesome and perfect — I had a great time but was also really excited to come back to Germany to continue my adventures!

I did, however, spend a lot of the Christmas season in Germany, and that meant CHRISTMAS MARKETS!  I love Christmas markets and I don’t understand why they’re not everywhere.  The atmosphere is super festive, you can find all sorts of gifts for people, but most importantly there is tons of quick, cheap, and delicious street food everywhere you turn (anyone surprised that that’s what I love about these things?!?  But honestly, it was super convenient when I needed food on the run).  Oh, and there’s gluhwein (mulled wine), which comes in cool, kitschy cups specific to each city, or sometimes the specific gluhwein stand.

I spent a lot of time at Christmas markets.  Luckily for me, I have a semester ticket and live in the Ruhrgebiet, so there are a ton of Christmas markets all around me that I could get to for free.  As an added bonus, my friend Elise came to visit one weekend, and we spent it travelling all up and down western Germany and visited a ton of markets. (also shoutout to Elise for letting me drag her across the country on trains. She’s awesome.)

So, for you all I have prepared a ranked list of the Christmas markets that I visited this season, ranked from worst to best (based exclusively on my own personal experiences).  If you’d like another perspective, my friend and fellow TA from Britain Jamie created this list of his top five Christmas markets.  Anyway, here’s my ranking of German Christmas markets!

14. Herne
Oh, Herne.  Sweet, sweet, baby Herne.  This was definitely the most disappointing of all Christmas markets.  There was a very sad tree and some stalls in the Stadtmitte (center of town), and that was really about it.  It was so depressing and sad, all Jess and I could do was laugh and then get on the metro to Bochum.  I got currywurst at a stand there one day for lunch and immediately regretted it. (Also, nothing at the castle?  Really, guys?)

13. Hattingen
Hattingen is a super cute town and I had much higher expectations for the Christmas market than what I actually got.  Granted, their streets are steep and winding, and there weren’t too many squares for big congregating, but there really wasn’t that much on offer at the stalls they did have.  There was a French section which looked to offer tasty treats, but when we were there not a lot was open.  Bummer.  There was also a sweet older lady who would sing a song and open a door to the advent calendar every day, but unfortunately they also missed that.  AND apparently there was no deposit on gluhwein mugs.  Obviously I did Hattingen all wrong.

12. Burg Satzvey
Christmas markets at castles are cool because castles.  However, this market was very small, but you had to pay just to enter, and that entrance fee didn’t include the castle.  So that sucked.  However, they did have a living nativity that involved some Old German and Latin, and their gluhwein did not mess around.

Burg Satzvey! Looking festive.

11. Heidelberg Castle
Ok, so it sucks that this made it so low on the list.  This was one of the stops on mine and Elise’s whirlwind Weihnachtsmarkt tour, so we didn’t have a lot of time in Heidelberg, and we got to the market before any of the stalls really opened up.  We got to poke around the castle a little bit, and it offered great views of the city, but the market itself was underwhelming, although the Hot Hugo cocktail was delicious and the food offerings were pretty good.  I wish we’d gotten to see more of the city and explore Heidelberg’s markets, but this unfortunately did not occur.

Heidelberg Castle

10. Karlsruhe
This one was an out-of-the-blue surprise.  I’ve mostly considered Karlsruhe a place where I make train connections, so my expectations were kind of low.  However, Karlsruhe had a decent size market and good gluhwein (and cute mugs).  Good job, Karlsruhe, you exceeded my expectations!

9. Dortmund
Dortmund had a huge Christmas market, and the self-proclaimed hugest Christmas tree in the whole world (it’s actually a bunch of Christmas trees stacked on top of each other).  My main beef with Dortmund was that much of the stands were the same. I had a amazing pork chop sandwich there. Also I watched a cover band perform corny German Christmas songs and the classic “Atemlos durch die Nacht” – an elderly couple fell down while dancing to this and it was mortifying to watch (they were fine so it’s fine to laugh about it now, right?). They also get props for their gluhwein mugs.

8. Essen
Essen is known as the “Einkaufstadt” (shopping city), and that was reflected in their market.  They also have an annual light festival that coincides with the market, so it was all lit up and quite lovely.  Their gluhwein was tasty, they had a giant ferris wheel, and when I went there on my birthday my awesome friends bought me a gingerbread heart.  Good memories, good market.

7. Strasbourg
What? Strasbourg the “Capital of Christmas” doesn’t even get in the top five?  Yeah, there’s a reason for that.  Strasbourg’s Christmas market is a bunch of themed Christmas markets spread throughout the city. All kinds of food, all kinds of stuff to buy, all kinds of PEOPLE.  That’s the curse of a great Christmas market, there were thousands of people everywhere.  I would much rather visit a smaller market with less people than push through the crowds (and wait a super long time on flammkuchen – although it was delicious!). Also, they didn’t even have mugs for their gluhwein, it came in plastic cups (who does that!?!?).  However, the light displays were ah-mazing, the city was beautiful, and I am happy that I went.  Also, it was a reunion with my friend Lisa, who I went to Lille with last October.

6. Munster
I think circumstances probably bias this one as well – getting to Munster our train was delayed by AN HOUR, which sucked, and the weather was truly terrible, which quite literally dampened our spirits.  However, the market was big and showed off their beautiful church.  Just as much as my frozen fingers and toes, however, I remember a seriously delicious champagne waffle.  Noms. Again, if I had gone there when it was drier and warmer, I think I would’ve loved this a lot more!

Champagne waffle, y’all

5. Bochum
Did you expect Bochum to be so high on the list?  Maybe it’s some hometown pride, maybe it’s the fact that I spent a lot of time there… But it was really good!  So much food!  So much currywurst! A medieval corner with honey! Very strange gluhwein mugs (they had coal on them, typical)!  Really, what more could you want?

4. Dusseldorf
It was like Strasbourg, but without all the people.  And gluhwein happy hours.  Need I say more?

3. Cologne
Absolutely beautiful market just beneath the Cologne cathedral. They had really good stollen, salami, and spaeztle. Also a ton of ornaments. Gluhwein was also tops.  I tried gluhbier (mulled beer) here!  It was so weird.  Gluhwein is better.  Don’t try gluhbier.

2. Mainz
Mainz blew me away!  It was on our way from Cologne to Heidelberg.  I texted my fellow Fulbright friend Laura, so she met Elise and I at the train station and showed us around.  It was huge, surrounding their beautiful cathedral.  Their food was amazing. If you’re going to do German Christmas markets, definitely put Mainz on your list.

1. Aachen
And the winner is… Aachen!  It was also surrounding their beautiful cathedral.  Their stands were unique and there were a ton of them.  Also the market had free wifi!  So you can Instagram it and easily google map your way back to the train station.  Thanks Aachen, for being so cool.

I also used my Aachen visit to tour the cathedral and see Charlemagne’s bones. The church is gorgeous!

Important to note – I had gluhwein at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and St. Pauli in Hamburg before their Christmas markets geared up. St. Pauli is… interesting… but their gluhwein was some of the best I had all season!