So, this is the first one and let's talk about Nürnberg, the Christmas Market, and Prague! These two trips took place within hours of each other so I feel that one post is needed to cover them. For the sake of showing how pretty these towns are, I am just going to post pictures and explain a little bit about each of them and what we were doing around these places.
First off, Nürnberg!
Alright this is the walk to the Nürnberger Kinderweihnachtsmarkt aka the Children's Christmas Market. This market is one of the best known in Europe, famous for its wooden toys, ornaments, and Christmas decorations, and also the most visited out of all the Christmas markets in Germany. That's saying alot since almost every town, and I mean every town, has a Christmas market. Heck, Marburg has two and it is a small town in the middle of nowhere.
People going into and leaving the main market. This place was packed! Even during the day it was almost impossible to get from booth to booth and move around the market. At night it was impossible! I was almost trampled once by a group of drunk twenty-something German men while I was drinking Gluhwein. But they were probably drinking Gluhwein also and that is what caused the trampling. After all, that stuff is strong. Anyway, it was still worth it to see all of the fun German Christmas goodies, like these!
Ok, so on to Prague! After arriving back in Marburg from Nürnberg, I finished up my final week of the semester, aka went to one final class and gave a LONG presentation in my British Film seminar. At the end of the week, there was a nice going away breakfast/brunch for all of the semester students who were leaving and then it was time to head to Prague! After a long long trip on a night train from Frankfurt to Prague, we arrived in the morning and immediately headed toward the apartment we rented for the duration of our visit. However, before we reached the apartment, I discovered a wonderful thing...
BUDWEISER FOLLOWS YOU EVERYWHERE! Yes, that is a Budweiser sign and it does look exactly like the ones that are all over St. Louis. However, this is for the Czech Budweiser not the oh so beloved St. Louis brew. After gawking at the Budweiser signs and the various sights nearby, we finally reached the apartment and relaxed for a bit before heading to the main square and the Prague Christmas market (can you see a Christmas market theme here?).
These are pictures from the main square in Prague. This was the square where the Christmas market was set up and it was packed both during the day and at night! At the center of the square is the Church of Our Lady before Týn or Týn Church. It is absolutely beautiful! Gothic and imposing, the church can be seen long before you reach the square and at night it is lit up to the point where it looks like a castle out of a classic fairytale. And to make it even better Tycho Brahe is buried inside and really what is better than a beautiful church with a noseless astronomer in it?
Right near by is the Prague Astronomical Clock or Prague Orloj, a astronomical clock that is located on the Old Town Hall. At every hour, the clock strikes and figures of the Apostles and other sculptures move about in the "Walk of the Apostles". While sort of cheesy and very touristy, the clock is impressive and is also magnificent at night. The gold gilding and enamel colors reflect the lights from the square and make the clock and the figures look strikingly beautiful.
But really, being in Prague during December, the best part of the city is the Christmas market, toys, crafts, and food! In the middle of the market there were two live trees that were lit by strings of light that the lights moved up and down on. This meant that the tree constantly looked as if snowing was falling on it. Impossible to really describe but one of the most beautiful Christmas trees I have ever seen and possibly will ever see. Nearby, the next most impressive thing was the food! Kebabs, ham roasted over a coal fire, sweet dough rolls cooked over coals, mulled wine, etc. All of it was good and so cheap! A giant chicken kebab for about $1.50 US and a 150 g hunk of ham (cut off of a giant ham being spun over an open fire) for about $3.00 US. Oh so good and so cheap.
The next day we decided to head to the other side of the river, explore the castle, and visit the Kafka Museum and House. The Kafka locations were very ... um.... interesting. In the front of the museum there was a statue (see above) of two men facing each other and peeing into a pool shaped like the Czech Republic. To make it even better, the men's hips swiveled side to side along with certain other appendages that moved up and down. Yep a peeing statue that moved. And inside the museum was even better. The entire place was designed like a Kafka novel, meaning that it was confusing (on purpose), abstract, and a bit sparse. However, it was very interesting and informative about Kafka's life and his works. Also there was a ton of stuff written in German which was a nice change from Czech. I never thought I would say it but seeing German was so nice since I could at least read some of it versus Czech in which I only know two words (beer and check).
Finally, this is picture of the advertisment for one of the restaurants we ate at in Prague and one of my travel companions, Ben from Idaho. Checkout the excitement in Ben's face at seeing that there was a real theme restaurant only a block from our apartment. Yep, we managed to find ourselves a primeval themed restaurant where everything was named cutesy names about dinosaurs, like Fruitosaurous (a fruit drink), Donaldosaurus (a duck dish), and, my favorite, the Barbarian's Feast. The Barbarian's Feast was a giant meal for two people that involved steak, chicken, shrimp, salad, soup, sides, and other small things. It was gigantic and to make it better, the two smallest people on the trip managed to order it and even finish the entire thing.
