Thursday, March 15, 2007

German Christmas Spirit at Christkindlesmarkt



Christmas spirit arises in December, and with it I revive my memories from my trips to Germany.

Before I visited Germany for the first time, I thought it was a grey and cold place where people spoke a harsh sounding language. However, these erroneous concepts collapsed once I arrived at Germanic lands.

As I imagined, when I got to Dresden it was raining. But since everything was adorned with Christmas decorations, even Prager Strasse, Dresden’s ugliest area built during Stalin’s rule, look pretty and joyful.

I got to the city center following the Christmas decorations. There, locals had set up the Christkindlesmarkt’s (Christmas market’s) stores. Each person sold different things from: Lebkuchen (ginger cookies), hot dogs with various types of sausages, sauerkraut (fermented cabbage), lamb hamburgers and other non-edible products such as aromatic candles, wooden decorations, and handmade toys, among other things.

Despite the large variety of stores, there is no doubt my favorite was the one that sold Gluhwein (sweet spiced wine) and Feuerzangenbowle (spiced warm rum-based beverage). Mmmm! I can still feel the smell that emerged from the hot pots where the cooks mixed the wines and the spices. A small sip was enough to appease the strong German cold.

Even though this year around this time I will be in Argentina and I won’t need a hot beverage to keep me warn, I hope I will be able to enjoy a similar spirit that exists in German Christkindlesmarkts.

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