Day 3: LATE START AND WEIHNACHTSMARKT
At 4:00 am, my internal alarm went off and I couldn't fall asleep. I was thinking about different things. Foreign words in French and German were flying around my head. I finally got up and blogged a bit. Against my better judgment, I did not listen to music, so I lay in bed for another hour before falling into a deep sleep.

I slept past the school children playing outside.

I woke up and I asked myself how many hours I had slept. 3 hours? So, it must have been 8:00 am or so...

(Buzz) Wrong answer!

It was 12:34 in the afternoon! (Or 6:34 am in Cincinnati.)

The watch can't be right! I checked another clock. It was.

I gave Julia a quick call to tell her that I was back in the land of the living. I was a bit embarrassed to sleep so late, as I was hoping to spend a bit of time with her.

"It doesn't matter," Julia said lightly. Indeed, I had realized that I am on vacation and I am really not on any time schedules. (Well, I'm in Germany, so I have to be punctual for certain things, but meeting with her was one thing that did not have an expected time associated with it.)

So, I got a quick breakfast and drank some coffee.

Although it was the first meal of the morning, it WAS, however, after 1:00, so I felt it appropriate to have a Härke Bier. Härke is a local privately owned beer company, which has been one of my favorites since the first time I tried it, at the early age of 15. I took it upstairs to accompany me in my "morning" bath.

Upon returning to my room, I realized I had brought the wrong plastic adapter for electronic stuff, such as my cell phone and battery charger. My phone promptly died. So long for me bragging about having a cell phone in Europe.

Obviously, I did not forget the special plug for my Powerbook. If I had, I would have either hopped on a train to find the nearest Apple store or even considered shortening my trip and flying back home.

@ JULIA'S

I walked over to Julia's house, which is a "short" 15 minute walk. (Most Americans would be bitter at the thought of such a rigorous use of one's legs.)

Although it was daytime, I made a point to avoid Rape Alley, more due to the fact that I knew the main route better and didn't want to get lost.

Ilsede is so quiet and pleasant:



I met Julia and Mats upstairs where we read books, played puzzles and practiced how to jump like a frog. But then Mats got jealous and wanted to play, too.

Between activities, Julia and I had the time to do some serious adult talking, which was really nice.

PEINE'S WEIHNACHTSMARKT

Marita picked us up and we went to Peine for the Weihnachtsmarkt, the Christmas market in the largest nearby town of Peine. The streets were very full.

Before going to the market, we did some light shopping. Julia and I had both had the same idea for Mats for Christmas. I got some Duplo Lego blocks with the Bob the builder theme. I bought a couple of other small items. At C&A Kids, Julia asked me to watch Mats for a minute. I put down my stuff beside some seats. I realized shortly later that I had left the smaller my packages in the store. Luckily, the cashier had the package. I feel so dumb when I lose things! Vergeßlich!



The Christmas market had some of the normal vendors, which sold everything from roasted nuts to beer to cookies, to Bratwurst. We found a standing table near a vendor that sold 30 or so different mildly alcoholic drinks. With a bit of imagination, you could almost get a buzz off the 1/32 of an ounce of alcohol laden in each drink.

I got the first round and was soon drinking a Glühwein. We sat and people watched while Mats, much to his delight, went on the carousel once and on the nearby mini train several times.



Although it was cold, it was gemütlich, or pleasant in a friendly way.

Julia got the next round of warm drinks. I wanted to try something different. She was joking to me about the Warmer Bruder drink which means something like "nelly brother" (note the mild gay reference.) OK. I took the bait and had to try one (although more funny would have been me ordering it with a "straight" face.)



AFTER HOURS

Marita, Peter and I came home and ate Abendsbrot, which consisted of bread with cheese and basic lunchmeat. I indulged in a couple of Härke beers. We talked about Poland and watched a bit of Fußball before going to bed by 11:00.
- posted by Matt @ 4:13 AM