Day 7b: The Day that Was Completely Different by Hera

HERA'S BLOG

Hera

Day 7b: The Day that Was Completely Different
Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Had to cut this in half, since it was so long.

Stephen was suffering at this point from the "this is your last night in Germany, so we have to do something special" disease, so we got on the subway to visit the neighborhood in Frankfurt where he grew up, Bornheim. We walked around a bit, then settled at a sidewalk pub called Totties so I could try a couple of different beers. So far on the trip I'd mainly drank apfelwein when we were out, and Binding beer at home or the boat house, so I settled in for some serious sampling. The pilsner was good, since I like hoppy beers, but the wheat beer I tried was too malty, but of course I drank it anyway. Britta met up with us at this point, so we entertained ourselves thinking up all the phrases and bon motts we'd come up with over the course of the week, and I wrote them on the back of a postcard, promising to send them to them via email once I got back home. We moved on to find another bar that would serve Jever, which S insisted was the hoppiest beer in Germany. We asked around a couple of places as we walked, but it was looking grim. Bornheim reminded me of Austin, as there were tons of young trendy people walking around, going into fancy looking bars full of more young trendy people. Stephen said that Bornheim was a more exciting place to live, and I observed that it was probably more expensive, and he agreed. Niederrad seemed to have more immigrant families and older folks living in it, which I kind of preferred, but I didn't tell Stephen that. I was just visiting, how would I know what it was really like to live there?

We stopped at a bar that I swear looked like an Irish pub, but it turned out to be a jazz club. We sat on wooden benches outside, and S proudly brought out two Jevers, so I got to taste it after all. It was really good, good and sharp. And as is typical in Germany, I made my way through this dingy, smoky, crowded wee bar to the bathroom in the back, which I swear you could have eaten off the floor it was so clean. The ladies was built into a corner with a tiny door, and every square inch of the interior was covered in gleaming tile. Sigh. I love this country.

Stephen had just hit his stride and could have kept us out all night, but B was yawning, so I kept things moving in the homewardly direction. We took a cab for some reason that was not explained to me, and our driver was from Cologne, with an accent so marked even I could hear it. Think of Spanish as it is spoken in Spain, then listen to Portuguese. That's what his accent sounded like, German with a softer, more muffled schwa thing happening. B and S had a blast talking to him, as he was giving them history lessons.

Finally home, S and B told me to close my eyes, and when I opened them, sitting on the chair in front of me was my very own custom-made Bembel, and two gariptes (sp?). A bembel is the ceramic pitcher that apfelwein is served from, and gariptes are the glasses with the cross-hatch pattern cut into them that apfelwein is drunk from. On the bembel was the phrase "Herzliche Grüße aus Frankfurt am Main" (Sincere Greetings from Frankfurt) and a wee line drawing of Speckie, Britta's cat-head pillow. Seems there's a place in town where you can have custom stuff glazed into the pottery. I was so pleased! What a sweet thing to do. Of course I immediately started worrying about how I was going to get these fragile things home, especially since S insisted that I take a bottle of apfelwein home with me too. So, we scrambled around for a while with newspaper and rolling things up in tshirts. Once happy that they were somewhat protected, we said our goodnights rather sadly, and S set the alarm for 7 (ouch!), since S & B had offered to take me by train to the airport to make sure I would make my flight OK.

Sigh. Leaving tomorrow. How did the time go so fast!?

-Hera

COMMENTS

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:53 AM

MSG

Hera- we have so loved taking this trip with you...do go on vacation again and again so we can all go along:)

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