Weinachtsmänner & Weinachtsbaum

Yesterday I met a friend at the Potsdamer Platz Christmas Market. Man, I cannot WAIT to try tubing down the fake snowhill there!
It was raining, so we took a quick spin through the market, then took shelter at a nearby coffee shop for a while. The rain, however, just got worse, until it was sleeting, and then suddenly--snow. It was snowing!
I had forgotten an umbrella and wasn't wearing a hat and dear God it was freezing cold, but I was somewhat protected in the bus shelter and just tried to enjoy the pretty swirling whiteness.
But the bus was taking for-freakin-ever and my toesies were starting to freeze even in my sturdy Scottish hiking boots! I was just starting to get grumpy when the presumed reason for the delay rounded the corner: a police motorcycle, lights flashing, leading a motorcade.
"Great," I thought, "some politician needs to come through this way and I get to freeze because my bus is delayed."
But then I heard what sounded like a marching band. And instead of the usual black cars, there was a big ole truck behind the police cars. And what was inside it? An orchestra, all the members wearing santa hats and playing Christmas songs. I grinned big. Totally worth the wait!
But I didn't even know the half of it...
Behind the truck came an army of motorcycles, each being driven by someone in a Santa suit! Some had angels or polar bears behind them or in sidecars, and all were decorated with flashing lights and Christmas paraphernalia. They were grinning and waving despite the cold and all of us huddled under the bus shelter grinned and waved back. It was so awesome!
I took some pictures and a video:



See how dark it is? Yeah, four o'clock in the afternoon. Sigh. I think I have S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder).
So "Santa Claus" auf Deutsch is "der Weinachtsman." At least I think so. To be honest, I'm not really 100% clear on the difference between the Weinachtsman and St. Nikolaus. St. Nikolaus Day is December 6th and that's when people (kids mostly I guess) put their shoes out to get gifts in them overnight. Bad kids get rocks. Really bad kids get a wooden switch to get beaten with. If you're not good, St. Nikolaus will go totally Grimm Brothers on yo ass.
I bought a small Christmas tree for the apartment yesterday because it is absolutely ripping my soul in two not to be going home for Christmas and I wanted something festive and homey. Maybe it was a waste of money, but I sure like having it in the room.
Carrying it home on the U-Bahn was fun.
Here's how it looks:

I picked up the Santa glasses at a party last night...I can't decide if they're super awesome on the tree or super creepy. Thoughts?
Here's how it looks in the dark, with the Rathaus tower illuminated in the background:

Check out Jim Gaffigan's take on the tradition of Christmas trees:

He cracks me up...one of my favorite comedians. I was listening to him on the U-Bahn today and had to stifle my laughter.
Bis bald,
D.

Weinachtsmärkte

Around this time of year in Germany, every available plaza is turned into a winter wonderland. Small little huts are erected, artificial ponds iced over, and fun carnival rides set up. These are Christmas markets (Weinachtsmärkte), and there are supposedly 60 in Berlin alone!
Many of the Weinachtsmärkte traditions are centered around food and drink (my kinda traditions), including:
-Glühwein
-Lebkuchen (gingerbread)
-Stollen (fruit cake-esque breadstuffs)
-Schaumküssen (little marshmallow domes covered in flavored chocolate)
-Quarkbällchen (deep-fried balls of quark, a kind of white cheese which German people tend to eat in a dessert-y context)
-Berliner (jelly doughnuts)
-Every kind of sausage (wurst) under the sun
-Several variations of potato (Kartoffel) products (drool)
-Gulash mit Nudeln
-Mushrooms (Champignon) and cauliflower (Blumenkohl) in sauce
-chocolate (Schokolade) covered apples (Äpfel) and bananas (Bananen) and candy apples
-Roasted nuts (Nüssen) of every type, including hazelnuts (Mandeln) with multiple flavors, including spicy chili!
And much, much, more (not all of it traditional...there's an "Asia-Imbiß" (Asian snack stand) at one market).
Tonight I went to Berliner Weinachtszeit, the market by the Rote Rathaus, for dinner. I stopped by a stand with a freestanding stone oven next to it. They were pulling out pan after pan of fresh-baked bread. It smelled amazing. They then proceeded to stuff it with cheese and ham and slap some sour cream and herbs on top. You bets believe I got me some o that.
I continued to wander, picked up some Christmas gifts, and eventually also sampled a fresh apple-stuffed pastry. Mmm.
I also picked up some roasted peanuts to take home. Glorious.
I visited that market and the main Alexanderplatz one on Sunday afternoon and took some pictures.
These gingerbread hearts with love messages written on them in frosting were a fixture at Oktoberfest and it turns out they are at Christmas markets too:

My friend and I were thrilled with one elaborate ornament shop with an entire section devoted to food ornaments. Trust the Germans to make Christmas ornaments devoted to booze:

And they had CHEESE ones as well:

There was also a marine mammals section...I ask you, who wouldn't want a little Christmas walrus to brighten up their day?

We were joking about having a living room full of themed Christmas trees. If I win the lottery...
In the Rathaus market, there's a big ferris wheel:

MEAT:

And, charmingly, the guy who smooths the ice rink wears a polar bear suit as he rides the Zamboni:

I also checked out the smaller market at the Kulturbrauerei and took this picture of the whirling swing ride:

Tonight as I ate my cheese-stuffed bread thing, I wandered over to the ice rink. Perfect timing, because as soon as I found a spot, special music started playing and everyone looked up to see...Santa (der Weinachtsman) in his sleigh soaring over us! Suspended beneath him on a fake cloud was the Christkind (a blond teenage girl dressed as an angel of some sort). The sleigh stopped halfway and as she waved, Santa gestured while a prerecorded message of Christmas good cheer rang out from the speakers. He said he wished he could stay in Berlin, and listed several landmarks visible from his sleigh, but had to press on. Then fireworks went off at the back of the sleigh and off he went...to the end of the wire. Then the sleigh came backwards again to its starting point.
It was super awesome!
Up next: a much delayed post on KDW.
Bis bald,
D.

Wieder in Berlin

I'm back!
And it is bloody freezing cold here. Yesterday when I left the office, it was 1 degrees Celsius. 1 degrees! That's only one above freezing!!!
The upside is that everything is looking very festive for the holiday season. Riding the tram through Alexanderplatz I was almost pressed up against the glass trying to take in all the stalls in the Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas market), and today I biked past the humongous one behind Alexa (a mall near Alex), which now has a full-size ferris wheel!!!
I am so excited to start exploring the markets this weekend. Stay tuned!
Bis bald,
D.

Urlaub

As I writing this I am sitting at home in Brooklyn, NY!
When I walked off the plane I was thirsty and was thrilled to turn a corner and discover...a water fountain!!!
Ah, to be back in the land of free water. Mmm refreshing.
It was pretty surreal driving home on a route I knew so well and walking into my family house.
As I left the flat in Berlin this morning, I felt very glad knowing I would be coming back in ten days. I guess for all my homesickness I'm getting comfy in Berlin :)
I think I'm going to catch myself saying "hallo" and "tschüssi" and "schuldigung" while I'm back! I'm in the habit now.
Anyhoo the blog will be on hiatus for a week or so while I go on vacation with the fam!
Bis bald,
D.

Lohengrin

On Sunday I had the good luck to be taken to a production of Wagner's Lohengrin at the Staatsoper in Berlin. In a German literature class my freshman year, I studied this opera and found it very moving. One line in particular stuck with me. I guess it is different in different translations; I have it written down from the one we used in the class as "We can both escape the restless world,/and every thought that’s not of love forget," but a translation I recently found online says, "Now ev'ry pent-up thought our hearts may own/No rash intruder this sweet hour shall fret." The German original is, according to this online text, "Nun sollen wir der Welt entronnen sein,/Kein Laoscher darf des Herzens Griissen nah'n." I translate this roughly as "Now we should be escaped from the world/No eavesdropper may approach the heart's [? I can't find a translation for 'Griissen,' though das Grinsen is a grin or smirk]." At any rate, it reminded me immediately of a lyric from the song 'When the Angels Play Their Drum Machines' by Hefner: Please draw the curtains, unplug the phone/Let's mess the sheets, and give our hearts a home/We are both adults, our eyes are open wide/Let's push away, the world outside.
Nice, no? If there's one thing I learned in my three weeks of "Rock, Sex, and Rebellion" music class, it's that music is just as repetitive as art and literature.
All of this is totally unrelated to Sunday's experience, haha. It was a very interesting production. I was actually laughing a lot, which I wasn't really expecting to do during five hours of Wagner, especially an opera which is ultimately so sad. But the first few scenes were really quite hilarious. Everyone started in street clothes, carrying puppets in more elaborate and cliche costumes. When Lohengrin arrived, emerging from an interesting circular curtain thing that played a key part in many scenes, he was wearing a laughably elaborate silver costume with chainmail-esque shiny leggings and a helmet with swan feathers. In lieu of an actual giant swan (which he is supposed to arrive on) he carried a single large white feather.
As the opera progressed the characters slowly changed into streotypically elaborate and dated costumes until everyone looked like something out of a high school play. During the climactic bedroom scene, however, when Elsa asked the fatal question, she and Lohengrin were immediately physically separated, the stage split in two as they reached for each other, Elsa choking back sobs, and the chorus slowly appeared, back in their street clothes.
For the final scene everyone involved was once again dressed normally, except for Lohengrin and the insane Ortrud.
It was really very well done. I enjoyed it immensely, and plan to take advantage of the operas here in Berlin again in the future!
Bis bald,
D.

Mauerfall 2009

One week ago, on November 9th, 2009, was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall (Mauerfall; Mauer=wall). Obviously it is a date that means a great deal to the city of Berlin and to Germany in general, and there were huge celebrations last Monday night at Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg Gate).
It was freezing and raining, but since I missed die Riesen celebrating der Tag der Deutchen Einheit, I knew I would seriously regret not going to this.
I stationed myself right near the line of dominoes across from the Holocaust Memorial with a view of a large TV screen showing the various happenings, such as speeches from world leaders like Sarkozy and Hillary Clinton and of course Merkel (Angie, the locals around me called her, haha) and performances from the Berlin philharmonic, Placido Domingo, and Bon Jovi (wtf?). As I mentioned in a previous post, I had planned to participate in the Mauer Mob, but I had a good spot by the dominoes and I reeeally wanted to see them fall. I thought I would be able to do both, but the domino-knocking was so delayed that I ended up being there long after the Mauer Mob was over and done with.
I'd like to say it was worth it but honestly I think all the hoopla seriously distracted from the real meaning of the events it was supposed to be celebrating. I mean, Bon Jovi? Was that really necessary?
As I headed home, however, soaked and cold and somewhat grumpy, I saw the final section of dominoes being knocked over on a giant TV screen--and then the Brandenburg Gate exploded in fireworks. Suddenly, a huge fireworks show shot out of the Tiergarten right in front of me. It was all I could do to stop and stare in gleeful awe.
I described in a previous post the magic of falling snow--well to me a good fireworks display inspires the same reaction :)
After all was said and done, I'm glad I was there to celebrate.



Bis bald,
D.

Ikono TV Blog

The blog for the company I work for is actually pretty tite. Check it out!