Andrea Abroad: Nuremberg

After only 2 weeks of classes, we had our very fist four day weekend here in Regensburg. Since Regensburg, and most of Baveria for that matter, is Catholic, their version of Mardi Gras is a huge deal. It is called Fashing [pictures one, two and three] and basically involves (in different degrees depending on the towns) a lot of Germans getting totally wasted and running around the streets while wearing goofy costumes, traditional masks, or facepaint.

My first experience with Fashing was while waiting for a bus on Thursday. Across the street ran a bunch of teenage boys in long dark coats, wigs and painted faces (like american indians). They stopped across the street from me, pulled towels out of their backpacks, unwrapped large butcher knives from these towels, and continued to run down the street. My next experience was later that night-- this specific night I should note is called Weibefashing and is the night that woman can confirm their dominance over men by cutting off ties and getting into bars easily-- while bar hopping with friends we found a woman in fishnet tights peeing in a dark ally. As we looked away, her friends jumped out in front of us, both female, and began kissing. As we walked away, they chanted unrecognizable songs in german after us. All of this was, of course, harmless, but terrifying when in a foreign country.

Needless to say, with the long weekend ahead, I decided to get out of town. A group was going to Prague, which I definitely intend to do later this trip (it is very close to Regensburg), but I didn't feel ready yet to spend that amount of money without more preparation. I decided instead to visit the town of Nuremberg (Nürmberg auf Deutsch) with two of my good friends here, Rory and Jeremy.

Traveling with Rory was something I was actually rather anxious about. Rory, while we have been friends since that terrible genetics class freshman year and have collaborated on many a radio show, is a very intense person whose eloquence at times leaves me so intellectually intimidated that I have difficulty speaking. Half of our friendship I have been convinced he dislikes me, and I am one of his closer friends at Wesleyan. So, two straight days of discourse with him was a challenge I wasn't going to pass up.

Jeremy on the other hand was a fresh friend for both of us. He studies at Wheaton College in MA, former aspiring law student, current German and Econ major, Woody Allen fan, calls his girlfriend twice a day, smiles often but can tell a joke with a straight face. One of the best moments of the trip was when he asked Rory, deadpan, if he was a member of a fraternity at Wesleyan. Before Rory, who was beginning to inhale for his elloquent reply, could respond, Jeremy started laughing and admitted his jest.

So, the three of us worked well. At no moment did I feel like "the girl," and at no moment did I feel unwelcome. It was just right.

So, we embarked on our journey through Germany. We arrived in Nürmberg Saturday afternoon with reservations to stay in the local youth hostile that night. Nürmberg is the home of this, this, and this, but also this. (Translation: Nuremberg is where Nazi rallies took place, where the Nuremberg trials of Nazis took place, where the home of Albrecht Dürer who carved _the four horses of the apocalypse_ is, but also where they make the best gingerbread (Lebekuchen) in the entire world.

On our train ride there, a ton of soccer fans were drinking excessively to prepare for some game later that night. They were rowdy, singing, drinking in the middle of the train station, and required German security officers to stand guard in the station when we arrived.

At first, we just walked around and looked at the thee main beautiful churches in the city and the small river that goes through it. Most of them (about 70% of every major structure in the city) were destroyed during the WWII bombings. Using money from the Marshall plan and a lot of manual labor, almost everything was rebuilt completely by the citizens of Nuremberg.

A lot of the old beautiful sights were intermixes with a portable carnival in the middle of the city. The contrast was so lovely.

We then hiked up to the castle. It sits on a hill overlooking the entire city.

Did I mention that the castle is where we were sleeping that night? The youth hostile is located in the stables of the castle and was amazingly clean and friendly. We had a 4 person room to ourselves complete with bunk beds!

We went to the Speilzeug museum (toy museum) and saw an amazing collection of toys. This blurry figure is a Napoleon nut cracker from the 1870s!

Then we went four stories down into this former brewery turned air raid shelter. There was just a sign next to a lot of stairs to indicate that this was the entrance at which you should wait at these certain times for a tour. At the time of our tour, an old German woman with a flashlight in her hand comes down the street. She was very knowledgeable and paused politely to make sure we understood what she was saying in German. I now know more about beer than I ever thought I would.

Then we found the smallest nicest German restaurant ever, inexpensive and famous for, I am assuming, the best potato pancakes in the entire world. They were The Best. After some Guinness and politics at the local irish pub, and after the boys wrote postcards to their girlfriends at home, I fell asleep, at last, in my castle on the hill. (Okay, it was the former stables, same idea.)

An outdoor carnival candy stand at night.

The view from my castle window in the morning. That is the moat behind the car.

The next day, we ate crepes with nutella while walking though the shut down carnival, went for a tour of Albrecht Dürer's house with a woman in costume who pretended to be his wife, and then we took a train to Ansbach were everything was quieter but just as beautiful. We went to the Kaspar Hauser museum there and sleepily maneuvered the trains back to lovely Regensburg. And for the first time since we got here, Regensburg felt like home.